Chicago Immigration Rally Has Message for Trump: We're Here to Stay
People from a dozen organizations and communities gathered to rally for immigrant and refugee rights Jan. 14, 2017, at Chicago Teachers Union headquarters on Chicago's Near West Side. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Sam Roe Contact Reporter
Chicago Tribune
Student Cindy Agustin fears her parents will be deported and she'll never see them again.
Nareman Taha worries the government will create a Muslim registry to track people of her faith.
Teacher Jaime Serrano is concerned about his second-grade students, some of whom are anxious they will be separated from their families.
"It's heartbreaking," he said. "They are really scared."
Anxiety about the future — and resolve to change it — brought more than 1,000 people together Saturday for a Chicago rally against President-elect Donald Trump's hard-line immigration proposals.
Protesters chanted "no justice, no peace," waved signs reading "We Are Here to Stay," and cheered community, faith and labor leaders who called for unity and action.
The rally, held at the Chicago Teachers Union headquarters on the Near West Side, coincided with similar protests in dozens of other U.S. cities Saturday, six days before Trump is to be inaugurated.
During his campaign for the White House, Trump adopted strict positions on immigration, including building "a big, fat beautiful wall" at the U.S.-Mexican border. But he also sent mixed messages, and now many people wonder exactly what he will do as president.
"I mean, that's the issue with Trump, right? He's completely unpredictable," Chicago rally organizer Lawrence Benito said in an interview prior before the event. "He says one thing and then he walks it back. I don't know what to expect."
Immigration activists, Benito said, will watch Trump's first 100 days in office closely.
"We're going to be prepared — for what we can anticipate — for the fight to come," said Benito, head of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the rally's lead organization.
Agustin, a 27-year-old graduate student at the University of Chicago, said in an interview she is an immigrant from Mexico living in the U.S. without legal permission and worries that she won't be able to renew her work permit and find a job upon graduation.
Worse, she said, is the possibility her parents will be deported, leaving her with the agonizing decision between going to Mexico with them or staying in the U.S. and not seeing them again. "If I leave the country, I would not be able to come back."
Serrano, who teaches kindergarten through second grade in Chicago Public Schools, said many children of Mexican origin fear being separated from their parents.
"I had a little girl say she cried all night long after she heard Trump wanted to deport Mexican immigrants," he said.
Taha, co-founder of Arab American Family Services, said in some ways, Muslims are under more stress now than after 9/11, when many were viewed with suspicion.
Many young Muslims, she said, didn't experience 9/11, and for older Muslims, Trump's victory "is bringing back that trauma experience — that you are different, that you're not one of us."
"But we want to message him: We are here to stay," she said.
During the rally, organizers announced the details of a platform they are sending to local, state and federal lawmakers. It calls on officials to oppose, among other things, mass deportations, a Muslim registry and private immigrant detention centers.
The platform also accuses the incoming administration of having "already explicitly communicated its intent to commit violence upon undocumented immigrants, refugees, Muslims, LGBTQ individuals, low-income families, those who lack health care access, the elderly, and many more."
Erica Rangel, an organizer with Enlace Chicago, which aids residents of Little Village, said immigrants are willing to stay involved and take action.
"People are passionate about the issue," she said. "It's something that touches them very deeply, something they live with on a daily basis."
sroe@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @SamRoe
Sam Roe Contact Reporter
Chicago Tribune
Student Cindy Agustin fears her parents will be deported and she'll never see them again.
Nareman Taha worries the government will create a Muslim registry to track people of her faith.
Teacher Jaime Serrano is concerned about his second-grade students, some of whom are anxious they will be separated from their families.
"It's heartbreaking," he said. "They are really scared."
Anxiety about the future — and resolve to change it — brought more than 1,000 people together Saturday for a Chicago rally against President-elect Donald Trump's hard-line immigration proposals.
Protesters chanted "no justice, no peace," waved signs reading "We Are Here to Stay," and cheered community, faith and labor leaders who called for unity and action.
The rally, held at the Chicago Teachers Union headquarters on the Near West Side, coincided with similar protests in dozens of other U.S. cities Saturday, six days before Trump is to be inaugurated.
During his campaign for the White House, Trump adopted strict positions on immigration, including building "a big, fat beautiful wall" at the U.S.-Mexican border. But he also sent mixed messages, and now many people wonder exactly what he will do as president.
"I mean, that's the issue with Trump, right? He's completely unpredictable," Chicago rally organizer Lawrence Benito said in an interview prior before the event. "He says one thing and then he walks it back. I don't know what to expect."
Immigration activists, Benito said, will watch Trump's first 100 days in office closely.
"We're going to be prepared — for what we can anticipate — for the fight to come," said Benito, head of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the rally's lead organization.
Agustin, a 27-year-old graduate student at the University of Chicago, said in an interview she is an immigrant from Mexico living in the U.S. without legal permission and worries that she won't be able to renew her work permit and find a job upon graduation.
Worse, she said, is the possibility her parents will be deported, leaving her with the agonizing decision between going to Mexico with them or staying in the U.S. and not seeing them again. "If I leave the country, I would not be able to come back."
Serrano, who teaches kindergarten through second grade in Chicago Public Schools, said many children of Mexican origin fear being separated from their parents.
"I had a little girl say she cried all night long after she heard Trump wanted to deport Mexican immigrants," he said.
Taha, co-founder of Arab American Family Services, said in some ways, Muslims are under more stress now than after 9/11, when many were viewed with suspicion.
Many young Muslims, she said, didn't experience 9/11, and for older Muslims, Trump's victory "is bringing back that trauma experience — that you are different, that you're not one of us."
"But we want to message him: We are here to stay," she said.
During the rally, organizers announced the details of a platform they are sending to local, state and federal lawmakers. It calls on officials to oppose, among other things, mass deportations, a Muslim registry and private immigrant detention centers.
The platform also accuses the incoming administration of having "already explicitly communicated its intent to commit violence upon undocumented immigrants, refugees, Muslims, LGBTQ individuals, low-income families, those who lack health care access, the elderly, and many more."
Erica Rangel, an organizer with Enlace Chicago, which aids residents of Little Village, said immigrants are willing to stay involved and take action.
"People are passionate about the issue," she said. "It's something that touches them very deeply, something they live with on a daily basis."
sroe@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @SamRoe
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