DeKALB – Dana Yarak said he’s still in contact with families affected by the June 2018 raid on Alfredo’s Iron Works in Cortland, and hopes a bill ready to be signed into law will alleviate stress placed on local families affected by deportation.
Dubbed the Keep Illinois Families Together Act, House Bill 1637 was sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office June 6 to be signed, and includes regulations on ways the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can deputize law enforcement.
The act would prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from participating in ICE’s 287(g) program, a 1996 addition to the federal Immigration and Nationality Act that authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to deputize state and local law enforcement to help federal agents identify, arrest and serve detainer warrants on foreigners with criminal charges or convictions.
Yarak, a member of local immigrant advocacy group Welcoming Western Counties: Solidaridad and Santuario, said national rhetoric involving immigrants has led to a general distrust of law enforcement by the immigrant community.
He attended a March summit in Aurora with Illinois police chiefs and other local law enforcement officials, which was co-sponsored by the Illinois Business and Information Coalition. Yarak said many law enforcement officers expressed a desire to not be affiliated with ICE.
“When we’ve talked with [former DeKalb Police Chief] Gene Lowery, he’s made it clear that’s not his policy and not how the DeKalb police want to operate,” Yarak said. “But one of the points we made to him was we need to codify this into law before people retire. That’s why laws like this at the state level are so important for us.”
Alfredo’s Iron Works in Cortland was raided by federal immigration officers June 1, 2018, during which ICE officials removed several employees from the plant. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office assisted in establishing a perimeter of the area, which DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said was standard procedure when asked to aid a federal agency.
The plant’s owner, Luis Alfredo De La Cruz, was indicted on federal charges in April, and soon after pleaded not guilty to harboring eight people at his business by employing them there.
“These were workers at their job, and this unrelated investigation,” Yarak said. “ICE might be able to put in a press release that they were targeting dangerous criminals, but whoever else is there gets caught.”
He said law enforcement and undocumented people need to all be educated on their rights. He said people should know ICE can only enter a home or business with a warrant signed by a judge.
Breaking it down
If signed, the new law would give the Attorney General 90 days to come up with rules that limit assistance to immigration enforcement at places such as public schools, including pre-K through higher education; hospitals, clinics, emergency and urgent care facilities, nursing homes, group homes, and mental health facilities; public libraries; facilities operated by the office of the Secretary of state such as the Department of Motor Vehicles; and courthouses.
Within six months of the law going into effect, schools, state agencies, and higher education institutions would need to review any policies that require people to identify immigration status or other relevant information and limit the use or disclosure of that information.
Also, law enforcement officials would be prohibited from asking questions about a person’s citizenship, immigration status or place of birth, including a person who has been arrested or detained by the agency, any person under questioning, any victim of a crime, and any witness or other person who calls or approaches the agency seeking assistance.
Scott said jails such as DeKalb County’s have been recording people’s information for years for booking purposes, and he doesn’t know if that will change with the new rules.
“Part of our booking process includes the fact that we do take information as to where people live, where they were born,” Scott said. “It’s all for internal security at the jail, to know who’s there and if something happens, how we contact relatives.”
‘Environment of fear’
Lynnea Erickson Laskowski, communications and prevention services director for Safe Passage Inc., which provides confidential services to victims of domestic violence in DeKalb County, said she remembers the day of the Cortland raid.
“I remember getting messages that there were police blockades getting set up,” she said. “It turns out it wasn’t quite that broad of a net, but there’s this environment of fear that makes people feel unsafe in their community.”
She said undocumented victims of domestic violence often don’t seek help because of fear of retaliation or deportation.
Both Erickson Laskowski and Yarak acknowledge a large portion of the debate deals with trying to persuade others to be more empathetic, which can feel like an uphill battle. They said the key to combating that is passing legislation into law.
“We all need to connect on that common bond of empathy and humanization,” Erickson Laskowski said. “If we look at historically how we’ve ended up in situations of extreme violence or prejudice or oppression, it’s because people stopped viewing someone as a fellow and equal human being.”
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June 14, 2019 at 12:35AM
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