Chicago Police were responding to 911 calls from an ICE worker, the Department of Homeland Security and a CPD internal monitoring unit when they arrived at a federal raid on a South Loop immigration office in early June, top brass testified before the City Council on Tuesday.
“There were federal agents that needed assistance” with “crowd control,” Chenetra Washington, a police communications operator, said at a hearing on allegations that CPD assisted ICE in enforcement actions last month.
Glen Brooks, the director of CPD’s Community Policing office, contended officers weren’t aware that a civil immigration raid was taking place when they arrived at the scene and entered the federal immigration office.
Once it “was determined that this was a civil immigration [action], we then moved outside of the facility and provided public safety traffic control to ensure” public safety amid protests, Brooks said.
Police testified at a meeting called by immigration committee chair Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) after at least 10 people were arrested by federal agents upon arrival to routine immigration check-ins on June 4. Community members also gathered to protest the detainments that day, and CPD patrolled the area, presenting a potential violation of the city’s sanctuary policies that prevent CPD from helping with immigration enforcement.
Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg also testified Tuesday, and confirmed that her office will conduct an independent investigation of the incident if no other Chicago oversight agencies do so.
No investigation has taken place a month after the incident, with alderpersons blaming internal disagreements over whose jurisdiction the probe should fall under.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves,” said Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th), admonishing officials for playing hot potato with what she sees as an urgent investigation.
Brooks did not share how many officers entered the immigration office building on June 4, or how many officers responded to the scene. Numerous supervisors were called to respond as well, including Chief of Patrol Jon Hein and Brooks himself.
Allegations arose at the time that CPD’s presence helped clear the way for ICE agents to make arrests by blocking streets, “standing guard” of ICE vehicles and escorting ICE agents to their destinations, making it easier for them to “abduct” people, as alders put it Tuesday.
Carson Wang, with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, testified during the public comment section. He went to the June 4 protest in response to a call for help from Organized Communities Against Deportations to “show support for our community members” who were being detained.
“We were not there to block ICE and we were not there to break the law,” he said. “CPD officers refused to give any information, including whose call they were responding to. … I saw CPD officers chatting with an ICE agent … escorting and clearing the way for him.”
“They’re not serving the public when they allow ICE to block 23rd Street,” Wang said. “Where is the accountability to enforce [the Welcoming City Ordinance]?”
Brooks was adamant that CPD did not detain or transport anyone on behalf of ICE, nor did it make any arrests. But he said protesters were “filling into very busy arterial streets” and “CPD remained on scene to ensure the safety of everyone in the area.”
The meeting was called primarily to figure out which of Chicago’s investigating or police
accountability bodies should conduct an independent investigation of the incident.
The main question is whether the Civilian Office of Police Accountability or the Inspector General’s Office should take on an independent review. The Welcoming City Ordinance spells out that the IG’s office should oversee investigations regarding non-CPD employee violations of the WCO, whereas COPA should take up complaints against officers.
But COPA testified that it referred the case to the IG’s office because it doesn’t investigate broader complaints over police policy. COPA testified that there was a conflict of interest given the agency’s relationship with top police leadership, which develops police policy. It argued that it is tasked with investigating individual complaints against rank-and-file officers.
Witzburg said Tuesday that there is a web of Chicago oversight agencies paid for by taxpayers and navigated by police and “that very crowded landscape only works if we all play our positions.”
But saying officials “ought to have a very low tolerance of buck passing,” Witzburg said her office will take over the investigation if COPA or the police department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs fail to do so.
“If neither of the city’s two purpose-built agencies … see their way clear to investigate this incident, we will do it ourselves,” Witzburg said.
Absent an investigation, the Committee approved an order Tuesday that calls for the Chicago Police Department, Office of Emergency Management and Communications and the Mayor’s Office to hand over all “reporting data” and communications for CPD presence at the protest and detainments on June 4.
Police brass were also grilled about why the department has routinely provided personal information of arrestees when requested by ICE and other federal immigration enforcement agencies, as the Sun-Times reported.
Department officials repeated previous comments that they were complying with Freedom of Information Act requests by federal agencies.
Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance dictates that police are only supposed to share information with ICE when “required to do so by statute, federal regulation, court order, or a lawfully issued judicial warrant.”
Absent that, officers are not supposed to “expend their time responding to ICE inquiries or communicating with ICE regarding a person’s custody status, release date or contact information.”