CHICAGO’S ‘ICE-FREE ZONE.’ One of the main themes of the second Trump administration has been the explosive collision between the president’s determination to enforce federal immigration law and many Democratic leaders’ determination not to enforce federal immigration law.
Conflicts have arisen across the country, ranging from peaceful protests to violent protests to obstruction of immigration authorities’ work to attempted murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The latest big fight is in Illinois, where the Democratic governor, who wants to be president, is fighting with President Donald Trump, and the Democratic mayor of Chicago has announced a new tactic to nullify federal law.
Chicago is already a sanctuary city, meaning that it prohibits, or severely limits, its law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal law enforcement. It goes as far toward defying federal law as is possible. Now, Mayor Brandon Johnson has issued an executive order declaring Chicago an “ICE-free zone.”
“Today we are signing an executive order aimed at reining in this out-of-control administration,” Johnson announced Monday. “The order establishes ICE-free zones. That means that city property and unwilling private businesses will no longer serve as staging grounds for [immigration] raids.”
Johnson said he acted after reports that federal agents used Chicago Public Schools parking lots, as well as another city-owned parking lot, as “staging sites for federal immigration enforcement operations.” This, Johnson said, violates Chicago’s “Welcoming City Ordinance.”
The Welcoming City law, passed in 2021, does three things, in the words of an explainer posted by a local official active in such matters, 40th Ward Alderman Andre Vasquez: “1) It prohibits any city employee from asking about or assisting in the investigation of the immigration status of anyone, unless ordered to do so by the court or federal law. 2) It prevents city services from being denied to anyone on the basis of their immigration status. 3) It prohibits the Chicago Police Department from participating in or cooperating with federal civil immigration enforcement, unless they are required to do so by a court or federal law.”
The message was clear: If you are in the United States illegally, you will be safe in Chicago. If federal agents seek to remove you based on the fact that you are in the U.S. illegally, they will receive no assistance from the city of Chicago and indeed will be kept in the dark about your whereabouts, even if federal officials have a valid reason to detain you.
Why do these Democrat-controlled cities invest such energy and passion in defending illegal immigration? It started before Trump became president but has escalated enormously since then. Some of it is just blind opposition to the current president. Some of it is politics and the hope that their side will be strengthened politically by the presence of illegal immigrants. Some of it is an apparent belief that enforcing federal immigration law is a racist act. And some of it is probably pure emotion.
Johnson is, of course, standing arm-in-arm with Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL). Pritzker, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, is suing Trump in a fight over the deployment of National Guard troops to enforce federal immigration law in Illinois, even as Johnson seeks to place obstacles in the way of such enforcement.
One striking element of this, especially for a politician like Pritzker with national ambitions, is that a majority of the public supports deporting people who are in the U.S. illegally, whether or not they have committed crimes beyond their obvious immigration violations. A new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, conducted by former Clinton pollster Mark Penn, asked two questions on the subject. The first was, “Do you support or oppose deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes?” The second was, “Do you support or oppose deporting all immigrants who are here illegally?”
The results were dramatic. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed supported deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes — 87% of Republicans, 77% of independents, and 69% of Democrats. Those are strong majorities. Then, 56% supported deporting all immigrants who are here illegally — 76% of Republicans, 54% of independents, and 36% of Democrats. In both cases, majorities supported deporting illegal immigrants, whether or not those immigrants have committed crimes beyond being in the U.S. unlawfully.
And this is not a fringe issue. When the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll asked what are the most important issues facing the country today, the top two, high prices and jobs, were economic, the third most important issue was healthcare, and the fourth most important issue was immigration.
It’s not clear how this will ultimately be resolved. The president has the clear authority to enforce federal immigration law. A majority of Americans support the enforcement of federal immigration law. Democrats hope they can slow Trump down by stoking opposition to the process of enforcement. But the fact is that when he enforces federal immigration law, Trump is doing what most people want.
