Chicago, IL— Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Chicago’s freezing wind on Saturday, February 7 to honor one month since the murder of Renee Good at the hands of ICE and to demand justice for those killed by ICE. The protest was called by the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda in response to a national call for action from the Legalization for All Network.
In Chicago, the demand for justice and accountability is targeted at Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke, who has consistently stood on the side of corrupt and violent police officers and against the people’s movements.
A week ago, prompted by the growing public demand for ICE accountability, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order directing the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to watch for illegal activity by ICE agents and report felony charges to the State’s Attorney at the mayor’s direction. Burke opposed the order in an internal memo to her staff, calling it “inappropriate,” and claiming it would interfere with her office’s ability to prosecute federal agents.
Nick Sous, an organizer with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), called out Burke’s hypocrisy in his remarks at the protest, “The only thing in the way of Eileen Burke prosecuting killer cops or ICE agents is Eileen Burke.”
In her first week in office in December 2024, Burke dropped the charges against Oak Lawn Police officer Patrick O’Donnell, who had helped beat Arab youth Hadi Abuatelah within inches of his life, along with two other officers in 2022.
Johnnie Showers, a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and wife of wrongful conviction survivor Devon Showers, also spoke at the protest. Showers has seen the corruption of CPD and the state’s attorney’s office firsthand in her struggle to free her husband and called for solidarity in the fight to hold both ICE and CPD accountable.
Showers said that ICE and CPD are “working together against us, the working class, the ones that pay their bills,” Showers said. “They are kidnapping us and killing us in the jails. So we need to stand in solidarity and make sure we stop them. We need to fight back.”
Marien Casillas Pebellón, executive director of the West Suburban Action Project (PASO), addressed the crowd and raised the collective demand for accountability for the continued violence on the part of ICE agents and the entire Trump administration against our communities.
“We want ICE out of everywhere,” Pebellón said. “We want those in charge prosecuted. They accuse us of being criminals. The criminals are in the White House right now”
Angel Naranjos, a leader in the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, closed the rally with spirited remarks, “If the past few weeks have taught us anything, it’s that things must change and they must change fast.”
Naranjos continued, “Donald Trump and his corporate media love to say that we are domestic terrorists when we confront ICE—that we should protest peacefully. But we say it is right to rebel.”
After the program, the protesters took to the streets and marched north to Trump Tower, chanting a message for Trump and all his criminal ICE agents, “Lock them up! Lock them up!”
#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #ICE #CAARPR #ReneeGood #AlexPretti #L4A #AAAN
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