Chicago, IL – Over 600 community members and organizers gathered at the Little Village Arch in vigil and protest in solidarity with the immigrant rights movement in Minneapolis on Wednesday, January 7. Protesters demanded justice for all victims of ICE, ICE out of everywhere, and legalization for all immigrants living in the U.S. as a part of a national emergency call for action called by the Legalization for All Network in response to the murder of Renee Nicole Good.
As a historically Mexican and Chicano neighborhood, Little Village (La Villita) was one of the hardest hit areas of Chicago during Operation Midway Blitz.
Irma Morales, a community organizer from Mientras Haya Amor, Hay Esperanza, rallied the crowd with a rousing speech. “Hoy estamos aquí, para presionar a los departamentos que están a cargo de proteger y cuidar a los residentes de esta ciudad porque para eso se les está pagandom – para proteger y cuidar a los residentes pagadores de impuestos de la ciudad de Chicago, no para proteger a verdaderos criminales (Today we are here to pressure the departments that are charged with protecting and caring for the residents of this city, because that is what they are paid to do – to protect and care for the taxpaying residents of the city of Chicago, not to protect real criminals).”
Morales pointed out examples of ICE’s frequent traffic violations, use of force and violence against Black and brown communities, CPD-ICE collaboration, and the racist killings of innocent people.
“We have Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez back on September 12, who was just dropping his child off at school. And today, this morning, we have Renee Nicole Good, who was just observing and trying to take care of her neighbors,” said Ash Pantoja, co-chair of the Immigrant Rights Working Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (IRWC of CAARPR). They highlighted the contradictions in ICE’s excuses.
“They call this self-defense, but what is ICE really defending themselves from?” said Pantoja.
Johnnie Hayes of CAARPR’s Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST) held her grandchild as she spoke. “ICE needs to go. They need to go, and they need to be held accountable.” Hayes, whose husband Devon Showers is currently wrongfully incarcerated, drew patterns between corruption on Chicago’s police force, wrongful conviction, and ICE detentions. She called for solidarity between all movements. “We have to stand firm together in solidarity. We have to stand firm in solidarity. We have to stand strong, not just for ourselves, but our children need this. Our children need us to stand up for them.”
In the middle of the rally ,at 8 p.m., attendees joined protests and vigils nationwide in a minute-long whistle in honor of Renee Nicole Good. Throughout Trump’s escalation of raids and attacks on immigrants, whistles have become a symbol of resistance and solidarity in the movement as community members use them as an alert system for ICE presence.
Gio Araujo of the New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at the University of Illinois – Chicago, who grew up in Little Village, stated, “The gunshots that were fired in the Twin Cities were heard all across the country. Everyone heard those gunshots, from New York, to D.C., to Chicago! People are mobilizing, because we know what this means and what this is about. This is an upswing of repression against our movement for immigrant rights. They wanna come into our communities and kill our people.”
“We ain’t gonna let that shit happen, because as they bring the repression, so will we bring the defenses,” said Araujo.
As the Little Village Community Council led the crowd in prayer and vigil service, protesters also marched down 26th Street to the mural of La Virgen de Guadalupe, shouting “Say her name! Renee Nicole Good!” and “ICE is just a racist mob, get a real fucking job!” There, they held a moment of silence for all victims of ICE and reminded attendees to call the Family Support Network Hotline at (855) 465-7693 if they spot ICE in their neighborhoods.
#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #ICE #ReneeGood #L4A #CAARPR
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