The Conflict on the Streets of Chicago
There are many antagonisms between ICE agents and anti-ICE demonstrators. But it is difficult to conclude that the protesters’ resistance constitutes a rebellion or insurrection. For many Chicagoans, the warlike atmosphere is the result of the federal government’s growing aggressiveness. Worthington, among others, speculated that Trump was looking for a reason to put Chicago in an even tighter grip than it already is. “Sometimes I wonder if what the Trump administration is doing is looking for cities that they know are not going to just let themselves go,” he said. “Part of me wonders if they’re not testing, first, what they can do in different places and, second, how they can provoke and escalate the situation to the point where we find ourselves facing a serious national crisis.”
One day in Broadview, Worthington met Rachel Cohen, a Harvard-educated lawyer who last March left her job at the prestigious firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, just before its executives struck a deal with the Trump administration. Since March, Cohen has developed a significant following on social media for his posts combining organizing rhetoric with legal and political analysis. In her videos, she argues with passion and clarity, with occasional swearing. In an article about Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s lawsuit against Trump for blocking the National Guard deployment, she says, “This lawsuit is fucking unbelievable; let’s look into it.” In another article, she describes Trump’s legal strategy as follows: he “loves to do what he wants while things are in litigation.” Cohen agrees with Worthington that the Trump administration is looking for a pretext. “ICE came to Broadview and escalated very intentionally,” she told me. “I was hit directly with pepper pellets. Everyone I know who has been there regularly has had some truly dramatic form of brutality directed at them in ICE agents. »
Conservatives and liberals alike have criticized some tactics used by protesters — who in some cases taunted officers, tried to block federal vehicles from leaving the Broadview facility or chased federal officers in their own vehicles, honking their horns to warn them. ICE is present. In an interview on NewsNation, conservative anchor Leland Vittert asked Cohen, “Just from a political standpoint, do you really think that everyone wearing pink painter’s masks and trying to throw themselves at police cars and chant slogans is going to help your cause?” (Cohen countered that his question implied he agreed with federal agents gassing protesters.) An editorial in the Chicago Tribune criticized the demonstrators who physically prevented ICE officers to do their jobs, saying, “These militant activists are putting at risk a far greater number of peaceful protesters who are striving mightily to make their voices heard without breaking the law.” Cohen told me, “It seems like a lot of people are really committed to rejecting protest tactics that are disruptive, and I think that’s a real shame, because disruptive protest tactics and working within the system have to go hand in hand. I know that if you completely abandon working within the system, you guarantee that working within the system will fail.”
In the U.S. District Court in downtown Chicago, immigration lawyers like Jennifer Peyton and Khiabett Osuna of Kriezelman Burton & Associates work within the system to vigorously defend their clients’ rights. They both told me they are dedicating “a thousand percent” of their time these days to representing immigrants detained in the current operation. Peyton was, until recently, a Chicago immigration court judge; Bondi fired her in early July. The termination email Peyton received did not provide a reason for her firing, but she speculated that it might be because she was on a conservative watch list for her opposition to Trump’s agenda. After her termination, Peyton accepted a position as an associate at Kriezelman Burton. She has since sued Bondi and Noem for illegally initiating the firing of her clients. “Being able to name Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi as defendants is the best feeling in the world,” she told me.
Osuna is Peyton’s younger colleague and the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She said many migrants who call her don’t have cases, and it’s painful to tell them that. “Yes, of course, it’s about trying to get them legal relief,” she told me, but it’s also about telling them, “I’m sorry this is happening to you. You shouldn’t be treated this way. You may not get asylum, but you have the right to tell your story. I’m going to be with you every step of the way.” She can successfully intervene in some cases where her clients have been illegally detained, and she can help them stay in the Chicago area instead of being sent somewhere like Texas. She told me that these days she works to buy her clients time: time to be with their families, to sleep in their own bed and to gather their documents, and time for their life circumstances or U.S. immigration policy to change.
