More than 30 business and civic leaders gathered Friday to denounce the federal government’s aggressive deportation campaign in Chicago.
Recent tactics used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents harm the city’s residents, economy, workforce and communities, they said at a press conference at the University Club of Chicago.
ICE raids have “scared people away from restaurants, cultural events, retail corridors and our Downtown — the heart of Chicago’s economic engine,” said Jack Lavin, CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. “The economic repercussions of ICE’s continued onslaught, if left unchecked, will be significant.
“Workers and customers alike are afraid for their safety and [are] staying at home rather than risking arrest. Tourists are being deterred from visiting our city. The needless unpredictability discourages consumer activity, especially hurting small, neighborhood businesses that depend on steady foot traffic.”
Lavin added, “Businesses in Chicago are already dealing with so much pressure and economic uncertainty, between inflation, tariffs, fiscal issues, government shutdown and other rising costs. The last thing they need is another element of uncertainty to add to their challenges.”
Arne Duncan, former U.S. Secretary of Education and managing director of the violence prevention organization Chicago CRED, said ICE’s actions are “not about law enforcement. … The point is to shock and scare.”
Lou Sandoval, former CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, said the gross domestic product of Latinos in the U.S. is $4.1 trillion, and they comprise nearly 20% of Illinois’ population. “We are America, and we will not be erased,” said Sandoval, whose grandfather and father immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico.
In Illinois, the GDP of Latinos exceeds $100 billion, according to the University of California Los Angeles Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture. Their labor force participation in Illinois was 79% in 2022, the highest rate among all racial and ethnic groups, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“As a business leader and job creator, I can’t stay silent. As a son of immigrants, I won’t,” Sandoval said.
“We must fix our broken immigration system, yes. But first we must stop these actions that go against our values as Americans. No one — Republican, Democrat or Independent — voted for this. This isn’t the America my grandparents labored for nor the America my father showed me to love.”
Rebecca Shi, CEO of the American Business Immigration Coalition, said ICE actions are targeting “law-abiding and tax-paying immigrant workers” and driving up costs.
She noted that according to ICE’s own data, 70% of people arrested this year have no criminal convictions.
“When you remove productive workers [from] restaurants, farm workers, hotel staff … landscapers, construction crews, car washers, child care workers and senior care providers, you reduce the labor force and push up prices of food, housing, care for everyone,” Shi said.
She called for an immigration reform plan for “millions of immigrants who have lived, worked and paid taxes here for decades.” That includes a seven-year work permit for long-term immigrant workers and citizenship for Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, she said.