Chicago as Ground Zero for Mass Deportations

Lawful Assembly

Mr. Homan makes a false claim that nine out of ten people who claim asylum never get relief. (“Chicago to be ground zero for mass deportations, Trump border czar tells Illinois Republicans,” Tina Sfondeles, December 9, 2024, Chicago Sun Times:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/donald-trump/2024/12/09/border-czar-tom-homan-donald-trump-chicago-pritzker-brandon-johnson-immigration?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12102024%20Morning%20Edition&utm_content=12102024%20Morning%20Edition+CID_9e386f999f41eb3cc9b8411a2058045c&utm_source=cst_campaign_monitor&utm_term=Chicago%20will%20be%20ground%20zero%20for%20mass%20deportations%20Trump%20border%20czar%20tells%20Illinois%20Republicans&tpcc=cst_cm

First, it is unclear what asylum seekers he is discussing. Many who claim asylum at the border have their cases heard in immigration courts around the nation. The TRAC report on “Asylum Decision” which is calculated through October 2024 demonstrates that at many courts, those asylum seekers with representation obtain relief. If the case remains at the border, the number obtaining relief even with representation falls. This, however, proves the point that those seeking mass deportation seek to deny the bona fide asylum seekers a fair chance to present their cases when pressure to move cases through the system are expedited at the border. Compare, for example, Chicago immigration courts with the court in El Paso: TRAC: “Asylum Decisions” (through October 2024): https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/asylum/

TRAC also reveals the ongoing difficulties to obtain representation: “Too Few Immigration Attorneys: Average Representation Rates Fall from 65% To 30%,” https://trac.syr.edu/reports/736/

The National Immigrant Justice Center’s “Snapshot of ICE Detention: Inhumane Conditions and Alarming Expansion, IMMIGRATION DETENTION AT A GLANCE, September 2024” can be found at: https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/content-type/research-item/documents/2024-09/ICE-Detention-Snapshot_September-2024.pdf

Information on the numbers of undocumented workers in the national workforce can be found at: April Rubin, “The industries that could be hardest hit by Trump's immigration crackdown,”

https://www.axios.com/2024/11/19/undocumented-workers-immigration-deportation-trump

For a discussion of Harold Washington and his Executive Order and the Chicago history of rebutting the Fugitive Slave Act requirements, see, Craig B. Mousin, “A Clear View from the Prairie: Harold Washington and the People of Illinois Respond to Federal Encroachment of Human Rights”: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2997657

ACTION STEP

Join the 198 advocacy organizations that called on the Biden Administration to close immigration detention facilities and reduce detention. (See: Billal Rahman, November 19, 2024, “Biden Urged To Close Detention Centers Before Trump's Mass Deportations,”

https://www.newsweek.com/biden-detention-centers-trump-mass-deportation-1988212?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=7337d344-cc24-43c8-8239-5deddae494dd )

You can send an email to your elected members of Congress through the American Immigration Council’s Immigration Justice Campaign: https://immigrationjustice.quorum.us/campaign/biden-last-requests/

Please share this podcast and this link with others to join in this advocacy.