Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city ‘will not be bullied’ amid reports that federal immigration authorities will deploy specialized teams to sanctuary cities across the country to help boost immigration-related arrests,” WTTW-TV (amid others) reports.
“The New York Times reported last week that President Donald Trump will deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tactical units from the U.S.-Mexico border to nearly a dozen so-called sanctuary cities including Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.”
From the Times:
“The Trump administration is deploying law enforcement tactical units from the southern border as part of a supercharged arrest operation in sanctuary cities across the country, an escalation in the president’s battle against localities that refuse to participate in immigration enforcement.”
It’s almost as if the President of the United States is deploying his private security force of brownshirts in a low-key civil war.
But then, it’s not different in kind, only degree, than what his predecessor did.
From Sunday:


From the WBEZ article cited in the column excerpt:

Lots of people were at church the Sunday that immigration agents came and took Reynold Garcia.
“We came to the church early around 4 o’clock in the morning to do our prayers,” said Haggar Gutierrez, one of Garcia’s closest friends at the Christian Pentecostal Church in Schaumburg. That morning, the first one of the new year, she came to church prepared to console Garcia. Just a day before, immigration enforcement agents had gone to his house while he was away, and had taken his wife and two children.
“He told us, you know, if something happens — I don’t know why he says it, but he says, ‘If something happens to me, we’ll keep in touch by cells,'” Gutierrez recalled. Nobody imagined what would unfold at the church later that morning. Some now refer to it as “The Happening.”
“He came up to me and was like ‘Brother, I need to talk to you,'” said Benjamin Murillo, another of Garcia’s church friends. “And I was like, ‘What is it?’ And he was like, ‘Well, I received a message from Noel. He said that he hit somebody with the car.'”
Noel Coria, the cousin of Garcia’s wife, had been texting back and forth with Garcia all morning. Coria’s texts urged Garcia to leave the church, because Coria said he’d been in a car accident. Garcia told Murillo that he was worried about his cousin – but that something about the story also didn’t seem right.
Then, Garcia got a phone call. An officer confirmed that Coria had been in an accident. He told Garcia to sit tight at the church, and they would pick him up to take him to the Palatine Police Station. The officer said that Garcia would need to fill out some paperwork since he was part-owner of Coria’s car.
“So we went outside, looking for them,” Gutierrez said. “And suddenly we saw that man standing right on the corner. They asked him — the officer, you know, he asked him, ‘Are you Reynold Garcia?’ And he goes, ‘Yes.’ ‘Oh, can we talk to you?'”
The officers came in unmarked cars, and wore vests that said “Police.” But as Garcia, Gutierrez and Murillo spoke with them, unease crept in.
“Like, you know what? I don’t think this is just the regular police,” said Murillo. “That’s when I told them, ‘Can I go with him?’ ‘Nope. Unfortunately, we can’t take you with us.'”
“The very last moment, you know, is when we realized what was happening,” Gutierrez recalled. “I go, ‘No, no no . . . this is not police. This is ICE.’ But it was too late, because he was already inside the car.”

What Obama did doesn’t mitigate what Trump is doing. But it’s important to understand how we got here – particularly for Democrats out there thinking about who to support in the primary. There have been times when Democrats thought rousting immigrants was good politics. We should all know by now that Rahm Emanuel advised both Obama and Bill Clinton to become deporters-in-chief. (Says Ryan Grim in The Intercept: “When it comes to immigration, both the politics and the policy, perhaps no Democrat has been more destructive over the past 25 years than Rahm Emanuel.”)
Just so we’re clear.
–
Previously:
* Tent City For Migrant Kids Shrouded In Secrecy.
* Immigration Sins Of The Past And The Forced Separation Of Families.
* Law And Farce: The Forced Separation Of Families.
* Jennings v. Rodriguez And The Forced Separation Of Families.
* Forced Separation Of Families & Forced To-Term Pregnancies.
* Here’s A List Of Organizations That Are Mobilizing To Help Immigrant Children Separated From Their Families.
* Separated Migrant Children Are Headed Toward Shelters With A History Of Abuse And Neglect.
* The Shelter For Immigrant Children That Melania Trump Visited Has A History Of Violations.
* U.S. Turned Away Thousands Of Haitian Asylum-Seekers And Detained Hundreds More In Horrific Conditions In The ’90s.
* Brazilian Asylum Seeker Released After 11 Months In Detention; Grandson Had Been Held In Chicago.
* Immigrant Infants Too Young To Talk Called Into Court To Defend Themselves.
–
See also:
* ProPublica: A Defendant Shows Up in Immigration Court by Himself. He’s 6.
* The New York Times: The Price Tag Of Migrant Family Separation: $80 Million And Rising.
* 60 Minutes: The Chaos Behind Donald Trump’s Policy Of Family Separation At The Border.

* Trump Lying About The 60 Minutes Report.


* E-Mails Show Trump Administration Knew Migrant Children Would Suffer Mental Problems Once Separated From Their Families At The Border. Then They Ramped Up The Practice.
–
Plus:
* Immigration Raids Send Chill Through Little Village.
* This Is What A Deportation Raid Is Like.
* Illinois Immigrant, Labor, Legal Leaders Condemn ICE Raids.
* Chicago Activists Tell Undocumented Immigrants Not To Open Their Doors.
* A Shameful Round-Up Of Refugees.
* U.S. Government Deporting Central American Migrants To Their Deaths.
* Tell President Obama To Stop Deporting Refugees.
* Immigrants Arrested In U.S. Raids Say They Were Misled On Right To Counsel.
* Obama Planning Huge Deportation Sweep Of Immigrant Families.
* Immigrants Deported Under Obama Share Stories Of Terror And Rights Violations.
* Chicago Family Sues ICE & City Over Raid, Gang Database.
* Immigrants In Detention Centers Are Often Hundreds Of Miles From Legal Help.
* Chicago And The Deportation Machine.
–
NBA All-Star Game Musical Recap


Stick to sports, Zach.
*


–
Mea David Brown Culpa
Aargh, I shouldn’t have written on Friday that retired Dallas police chief David Brown, who is reportedly on the short list of candidates vying for the top job here, “sounds like just a guy.”
Brown actually led the Dallas department through a series of relatively progressive reforms – which also means, given a couple of the other names on the list, that Lori Lightfoot is going to arguably get a better set of names to choose from than the one she presented to her old boss, Rahm Emanuel, when he dumped the recommendations she and her police board sent him and instead elevated Eddie Johnson, who hadn’t even applied, to chief. Then again, maybe fewer good folk wanted to work for Rahm.
–
New on the Beachwood . . .
The Last 10 Songs I Shazamed
With accompanying video for your enjoyment.
(Or is it “Shazammed?” I went back and forth.)
*
When CNN Introduces Pundits Only as ‘Former,’ CNN Is Lying To You
Take former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina . . .
*
Manufacturing Doubt: The Corporate Manipulation Of Science
“Whether the issue is opioid addiction, climate change, or the health consequences of sugar, silica dust, diesel exhaust, or even America’s most-watched professional sport, vested interests are standing by with paid experts to direct the conversation away from known harms to focus instead on uncertainties, real or imagined.”
*
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #291: Derrick Rose Wishes He Was A Dentist & Other Strange Stories Of The Week
Rich basketball player jealous of teeth-pullers. Plus: Joe Maddon Is A Liar And Clever Things To Say About The Buffalo Sabres, The Houston Asterisks, John Henry, Charles Barkley, The Chicago Bulls, The Chicago Blackhawks, Adderall & eSports; Bobby Knight; Jason Kipnis, Spring Training, PECOTA, Kenny Williams and Illinois’ Basketball Nation.
*
SportsMonday: Blackhawks Barrel Jumping
They just can’t get over the hump.
*
Dress Codes & Race
“While wearing a respectable suit and tie, Donald Trump announced a policy that separated children from their parents coming across the border; he looked businesslike as he referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as ‘shithole’ countries; he was dressed formally as he signed the largest corporate tax cut in U.S. history into law; and he looked like an upstanding citizen when he likened torch-toting neo-Nazis and Confederate sympathizers to antiracist activists in the aftermath of the Charlottesville riots. Trump may have been appropriately dressed on all those occasions, but his actions betrayed the dignity of the White House.”
*
The Great Migration & Beloit’s African-American Heritage
“Beloit was situated in an ideal location on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin, so they could still . . . reach their family members that might be in Chicago.”
–
ChicagoReddit

1910 Chicago Automobile Show, Chicago Coliseum, the Hudson display from r/chicago


–
ChicagoGram

View this post on Instagram

Blue glazed. W 19th St. Pilsen.

A post shared by Brick of Chicago (@brickofchicago) on


–
ChicagoTube
Two local TV news reports about the Rolling Stones’ 1978 show at Soldier Field bookend this video. Oh, and a guy died!

–
BeachBook
Target’s Delivery App Creates Culture Of Fear And Retaliation.

*
3D Mural On Howard Street.

–
TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.
OK, but now they have to take to the streets.


*


*


*


*


*


–
The Beachwood Tip Line: No shirt, no service.

Permalink

Posted on February 17, 2020