The press has a sacred obligation cemented in the First Amendment: to report what is happening — not to succumb to censorship or indoctrination.
What we are witnessing is not “immigration enforcement” or an “immigration crackdown.” While these phrases might offer a palatable cover to, say, a white suburban mom, they’re gross misrepresentations of the constitutional crisis unfolding on our streets.
Immigration enforcement involves warrants, due process and judicial oversight. It follows the law.
That is not what appears to be happening. Instead, federal agents are racially profiling, yanking immigrants who have valid work permits, physically assaulting and handcuffing Americans in public spaces who call out the warrant-less predators whose meal tickets seem to come from feasting on the nearest Brown person. They’ve even gone so far as to chase down and detain a minor who is an American citizen.
The examples are endless, and if our government was operating with even a modicum of transparency, we’d know the statistics – how many total handcuffed, how many are U.S. citizens and how many have valid paperwork.
But that’s a lot to expect from people who join an unprofessional militia to live out their G.I. Joe fantasies, only to cower behind face masks and sunglasses — knowing full well that what they’re doing is not law enforcement but lawless enforcement.
When the government tramples on constitutional protections, when due process is excluded from the process, when citizenship isn’t a shield and when dissent leads to arrests, we have traveled far beyond immigration policies and are firmly in the territory of government overreach en route to war on our own people.
This is not a political issue — it is a civil rights and constitutional rights issue.
The government works for us, in theory. Government employees and elected officials are paid by us and work for us. Yet, the government has been weaponized against us. This is nothing new to Native, Black, Latino and Muslim Americans and other marginalized groups, but it’s new for the rest of the U.S.
The media’s role is not to parrot Project 2025’s glossary of terms.
Chicago’s reporters are on the front lines of a crisis the national media is failing to cover responsibly — or cover at all. You remain agile, ethical and resistant to propaganda. Don’t use the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s brand of messaging instead of the truth.
Keep showing the rest of the country what honest reporting looks like. Keep documenting reality.
Rebecca Evans, Pilsen
Woke whine
Donald Trump’s revenge is to stamp out anything that is “woke.” Anything a Democrat supported is “woke.” Reducing carbon dioxide, pollution control, safety regulations and consumer protections, “woke.” Allowing immigrant farm, meat packing and construction workers, “woke.” Medical research, vaccines, free speech and Medicaid are “woke.”
The Trumplican’s motto, “We’re No. 1, and we don’t need your kind.” Deliberate ignorance protects Trumplicans from unpleasant facts.
Robert Kleps, Oak Park
A woman’s touch not always welcome
Over the years, I’ve heard people say if women were running the world, it would be a kinder, better place. I believed that until Kristi Noem came along.
The U.S. Homeland Security secretary is the epitome of heartless evil. Her refusal to pause operations on Halloween proves that. Even if her federal agents are not directly targeting children, tear gas does not differentiate by age or race. Even children aren’t gassed, the ones who are old enough to know about the possibility will not be able to relax and enjoy life without worry.
It’s so incredibly sad our government has become the agent of fear instead of our protector, as it should be.
Joyce Porter, Oak Park
Don’t panic over reading exams, studies
Today’s hand-wringing that students do not — and often cannot — read is often tied to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, one of the least reliable mass exams. It is poorly designed and narrow in focus.
Similarly, the recent University College London and University of Florida adult time-use study is unnecessarily sending many into a panic with its claim the percentage of those surveyed who read for pleasure has declined sharply.
The research included books, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks and e-readers, but what about people who are reading from the internet, including phones? Nothing is defined.
To me, as a professor and historian of literacy and education, today’s cavils about college students either “not reading” or “can’t read” are signs of either/or conclusions based on presumptions. These views are anti-student and their “cultures.” Almost always, these notions are wrong, destructively judgmental and prejudicial.
The problem is the criticizers compare preconceived notions of reading to largely false images — myths — of a “golden age” of education and reading that never existed.
Students can and do read. But they do not always read in the ways those who uphold such myths expect. To a retired professor who attended college in the late 1960s, today’s complaints ring familiarly. Our generation was accused of not reading and/or reading inappropriate materials if we did. Whether assigned books or not, long before artificial intelligence, there were CliffsNotes and encyclopedias.
Self-styled critics do not ask, “What is reading?” especially across different media and texts. They follow legions of literature and writing instructors who should know better as I explore this in my 2022 book, “Searching for Literacy: The Social and Intellectual Origins of Literacy Studies.”
The need for students to learn to read different texts differently is seldom considered. This is rare in both high school and college curricula and is among the principal causes for many of today’s and former students’ difficulties. Teaching methods — rather than students — is a large, rarely admitted problem.
Harvey J. Graff, professor emeritus of English and History, Ohio State University, Lincoln Park.