On Tuesday, January 27th, The Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Committee on Police and Fire are holding a joint meeting to discuss legislation to clarify and strengthen the investigation process for violations of the Welcoming City Ordinance.
This meeting follows the CCPSA listening session earlier this month, at which hundreds of Chicagoans voiced their frustration and shared eyewitness accounts of Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers collaborating with federal enforcement agents, in violation of Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance.
“It’s pretty simple: we can’t call ourselves a Welcoming City if we have no process for investigating and holding accountable the people who violate our Welcoming City laws,” says Ald. Vasquez, Chair of the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “Chicagoans should be able to trust that our local law enforcement aren’t helping the federal agents that have terrorized our neighborhoods for the past year. And they can’t trust that if we don’t have a clear process for accountability.”
The gaps in the city’s current investigation process were uncovered during a hearing Chair Vasquez held last July to investigate CPD’s involvement in a mass detention incident on June 4th. At the time of the hearing, neither the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) nor the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) had initiated an investigation, due to a lack of clarity on which organization had jurisdiction over investigating CPD-specific violations. In response, Chair Vasquez and Alderperson Jessie Fuentes introduced legislation to clarify COPA’s jurisdiction over investigating CPD violations of the Welcoming City Ordinance, which will be discussed at the joint meeting on January 27th.
“President Donald Trump has turned white nationalism and cruelty into action with ICE and Border Patrol as its gestapo. As a Welcoming City, we must have the infrastructure and policy in place to ensure that if the Chicago Police Department violates our Welcoming City Ordinance, they are held accountable,” says Alderperson Jessie Fuentes, 26th Ward.
The meeting will take place on January 27th, 1pm, at City Hall (121 N LaSalle, 2nd Floor City Council Chambers). There will be a press conference on the 3rd Floor of City Hall in advance of the meeting at 9:15am, featuring Ald. Vasquez, Ald. Fuentes, CCPSA Commissioner Anthony Driver, and District Councilors.
In the meantime, Alds. Vasquez and Fuentes urge members of the community with eyewitness testimony of CPD involvement with ICE to report it to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, and the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights immigration enforcement violation report form at bit.ly/reportimmviolationschi. The form was created in response to the fact that COPA is not currently investigating WCO violations, and to address the gap in data and reporting on WCO violations. Chicagoans with eyewitness testimony of potential CPD collaboration with ICE/DHS should report it to the form, so Committee staff can follow up with the appropriate agency and report back on the outcome. Reports that have been submitted thus far to the form will be presented at the Joint Meeting, and will be available to the public on the Committee’s website.