Right now, in Chicago, privilege is walking your child to school hand in hand without looking over your shoulder. Privilege is sitting on a park bench watching golden oak tree leaves float down. Privilege is simply finding solace outdoors. But for many Brown families and others, that solace has been stolen.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents are targeting people who merely “look” like immigrants, specifically Brown people. Families are left peeking outside their doors, forced to stay inside. Some restaurants and grocery stores report a drop in foot traffic worse than during the pandemic. If families are avoiding businesses for survival, outdoor spaces are likely abandoned as well. This moment reflects a long history of white people having access to nature while people of color are denied it, not by accident, but by design.
Nature is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Nature offers powerful protective effects during trauma and supports recovery. Nature reduces stress, improves mood and encourages physical activity. In neighborhoods where ICE raids have left children afraid to step outside, nature must come indoors.
Trauma-informed care can include indoor spaces that mimic nature. Plants, tabletop water fountains and natural light can help reduce stress hormone levels and support emotional recovery. Even a view of greenery through a window has been shown to improve well-being.
Educators and caregivers can bring in natural materials such as leaves and sticks for art and exploration. Storytelling is a cornerstone of the strong literacy traditions in communities of color. Language, memory and culture are passed down through generations. Nature can be woven into stories that center outdoor experiences. Culturally relevant nature practices also bring nature indoors in meaningful ways. Many Latino, Black and Asian cultures use herbs and plants in ancestral practices. Making a cup of chamomile tea, an herb used widely in Latino culture, can be a small moment with big benefits to foster healing and reclaim peace.
Children impacted by ICE live in a state of hypervigilance. Nature, when made safe and accessible indoors, can interrupt cycles of trauma and offer moments of peace. These interventions are low-cost, scalable and can be led by community members, educators or therapists trained in trauma-informed care.
When the world outside feels unsafe, healing must begin within.
Jessica Fong, doctoral student and graduate assistant at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, McKinley Park
A poem for the times: ‘Invisible’
Have to keep a low profile these days. Not leaving, even if we look both ways.
“Chamacos, stay quiet, don’t make a sound!” Meld into the background. 7500 S. South Shore Dr., just trying to stay alive. But we’re terrified.
They disappeared the family just two doors down, About to have dinner, they had just sat down.
Explosives blew the front door to bits, Threw them on the ground; we heard dull hits.
Never seen again.
Chopper overhead was drumming in my head. Our kids’ friends upstairs were 8 and 10.
One was in the shower; the other was getting dried. Kicking and screaming, they dragged them outside, naked and zip-tied.
Outside the window we heard the drones, Our hallway sounded like a f——— war zone,
Hiding under the bed — were we left for dead?
Pepper spray in the air still burns. Will they return? When is it our turn?
For days our ears rang from the flash bangs, And I’m tired, scared and wired.
Haven’t slept a full hour since they went away, Sit staring at the door, night and day.
We keep the lights off with the shades low. Told the kids it’s hide and seek, But they know, their dull eyes show.
Food’s running out; they are staring at me. Enough for one more day — maybe.
The fire escape, corner store is open late. Are they waiting below?
A woman screams “He’s hurting me!” There’s no one to call — they might take us all.
Mama has a sore tooth, but she won’t complain, Give it another day, and hope it goes away.
The pain is deep; now she can’t sleep. Still refugees, in the land of the free. Rainbow Beach Park, we went every day. The jungle gym, our kids used to play,
Now they can’t go. Trauma is starting to show.
Our youngest boy just turned 5, Wet his bed in the middle of last night.
Oldest knows better than to give him hell. Can’t do laundry and it’s starting to smell.
We try to calm him; he’s not doing well.
He won’t stop crying; Their mama’s trying. Inside she’s dying,
And we’re waiting. Staying home again.
Just waiting for it all to end. No one outside will take a stand, And I’m not the only one with a trembling hand.
But they’re all acting
Like they can’t see a thing.
In one nation, under God, indivisible, We’re invisible.
Nathan Kempthorne, Petaluma, California
Film ICE activity
It is difficult to figure out the city’s role in controlling and disciplining federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents. Asking Chicago’s finest to stop or arrest federal agents when they witness violence or illegality by these agents is both legally complicated and physically risks battles between out-of-control federal cops and Chicago’s officers.
But there is a clearly allowed and useful thing for both Chicago police and other city workers to do. Have teams of officers follow ICE agents to their attack locations and film their actions. They can observe, film and report what they have seen and recorded. The video and officers’ observations can then be used both for publicly exposing ICE misconduct and as evidence in appropriate lawsuits.
Marc Stickgold, professor of law emeritus, Berkeley, California
Day care teacher’s detention is demoralizing
It is getting harder and harder to read newspapers — not that your writers and other journalists aren’t doing an excellent job! But I am feeling physically sick right now after learning that a day care center in my neighborhood was Wednesday’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement target. Those poor tiny tots watching their caretaker forcibly abducted. I can picture the little ones screaming, the other teachers and parents trying to comfort them. But what will they say? Where is the comfort?
I’m trying to imagine the effect these actions would have had on my son when he was a toddler, or on me or his kind teachers. Where are they taking that teacher? She took care of babies and is a mom herself. I am praying for her and her family — and I’m praying that our country does not continue to descend into the world of 1930s Germany, that we can somehow make amends for our sins before it’s too late.
Diane O’Neill, North Center
Hats off to Sun-Times staff
Bravo and heartfelt appreciation to the Sun-Times and its staff for uncovering and reporting the massive chaos and shocking criminal behavior of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Chicago area.
You are doing the important work of providing reliable facts and a sustained ethical perspective. Thank you!
Barbara Whitney, Glenview
Further empowering physician assistants
Across the country, I and nearly 190,000 other physician assistants are working to make a difference in patients’ lives every day. Our impact is felt in the Chicago area — in clinics, homes, urgent care centers and hospitals — where we work hard to deliver high-quality, accessible care.
To best support such professionals, Illinois has to modernize the physician assistant licensing process and reduce barriers to allow experienced physician assistants to practice. With those changes, physician assistants can help address major health care challenges and provider shortages facing our city and state.
Passage of Senate Bill 271 would mark a significant step forward in reducing outdated restrictions that physician assistants face. Medicine has evolved, and it’s critical that our state laws evolve too.
Having a physician assistant on a health care team can be the difference between a patient receiving timely care or waiting weeks — or even months— for an appointment. In many cases, physician assistants are the first provider a patient sees — a responsibility I take seriously.
As one of the fastest-growing health care roles, physician assistants are committed to making a difference. We are highly trained clinicians who practice medicine in every specialty and setting, grounded in our dedication to expanding access and delivering patient-centered care in team-based environments.
Nearly 60 years since its founding, the profession remains rooted in its original mission: to improve and expand access to care. I’m proud to be a physician assistant and to live out that mission every day.
Modernizing physician assistant practice laws would make it easier for me and our peers to carry out our goals.
Hazel Domingo, Irving Park
Robot response
The “jobpocalypse” is starting to take hold as companies are replacing white collar workers with artificial intelligence and blue collar workers with AI-controlled robots. I envision a time when my dental work will be performed by an AI-controlled robot.
How much thought has been given to what people will do in this heavily consumer-based economy when they have been replaced by technology and are no longer needed? There have been plenty of science fiction books and movies on the topic. “The Matrix” comes to mind, where people are merely the energy source, batteries if you will, for the AI world they unwittingly created.
I suppose with the arrests and deportation of immigrants and now cuts to annual allowed refugee numbers to the lowest in U.S. history and limited to Afrikaners, for the interim anyway, there will plenty of agricultural jobs during harvest season and car wash jobs.
George Recchia, Oak Park
Put speed cameras on expressways
It is time for the state to step up and install speed cameras on Chicago area expressways. Cars flying by at 90-100 mph is not unusual.
In the last few days, at least five people lost their lives on the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower expressways.
Let’s get it done!
Bob Johnson, 18th Police District Council
Keep Obama on call
If Donald Trump somehow finagles the Constitution to allow him to run for a third term, it seems like the Democrats have the opportunity to select their best possible opponent: Barack Obama.
If it’s going to be OK for one, then it has to be OK for the other. This seems like the potential election that the country has needed and wanted to see all along.
Jeff Zahrn, Dyer, Indiana
Trump’s health care plan
President Donald Trump supposedly has “a concept of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act. It involves having all hospitals and doctors operate under contract with the government — and then stiffing them.
Dan McGuire, Bensenville
Send health care help
It is shameful to take from the poor (health insurance and U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits) and give to the rich (tax breaks).
Can those in Washington, D.C., holding up progress please consider a slight increase in health insurance to help with the debt?
Janette Spitzer, Rogers Park
Fewer would need assistance with better pay
Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me that many fewer people would need the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits if the minimum wage was higher. It doesn’t solve the entire problem, but it would sure help.
Mary F. Warren, Wheaton
Too late to be bold
It seems the City Council has finally grown a spine under the last two mayors. It’s a shame alderpersons weren’t this courageous under Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel. We might not be in the shape we are in now.
Joe Urbancik, Morgan Park