As counsel for Illinois children in Department of Children and Family Services custody, I fully understand the trauma our clients endure while in DCFS care. Our direct experience raises deep concern about the op-ed by professors Sara A. Font and Emily Putnam-Hornstein (“Children are being harmed by Illinois’ tepid response to abuse and neglect,” April 23), which urges child protection workers to swiftly separate children from families based solely on a call to the DCFS hotline. That solution is wrong, as are many of their underlying assumptions about child safety and trauma.

In the complex and emotionally fraught field of child protection, there is one known constant: It is inherently traumatic to separate a child from their family. Family separations cause grief, confusion, attachment disruption and guilt for children, often leading to lifelong emotional and psychological suffering. Given these profound stakes, the extreme step of removing a child from their home must be reserved for the rare circumstances when a child clearly faces imminent, serious harm.

The authors, not content to simply defend their viewpoint, misrepresent our organization’s positions on the range of harms that children in DCFS custody experience. They should be more focused on defending their position than speaking for our organization. Driven by blunt ideology rather than the reality of balancing harms, Font and Putnam-Hornstein advance a flawed and damaging premise that child safety requires normalizing and regularizing family separation. As support, they point to two recent tragic deaths of children previously known to DCFS. These deaths demand scrutiny and should be studied to identify specific failures and recommend targeted reforms. However, invoking these deaths as justification for more draconian state intervention is misguided and dangerous.

Research shows that increased rates in child removals do not lead to a decrease in child fatalities. But they do cause harm. Expanding removal sweeps for children who were never in danger inflicts unnecessary trauma without justification. Sound public policy must weigh the detrimental impact.

The death of any child is devastating and warrants rigorous review. But it is wrong-headed to skip over the review and overgeneralize these tragedies, leading to broad policy changes that would needlessly separate thousands of children from their families where they are, in fact, safe.

Policymakers in Illinois must know that rushing to judgment, as these professors suggest, will do immeasurable harm to children across our state for generations.

— Melissa L. Staas, senior supervising attorney, ACLU of Illinois, and counsel in B.H. v. Mueller, representing children in the care of DCFS

City comptroller: Bonds cut costs

At a time when Chicagoans are asking tough questions about how their tax dollars are used, it’s important to separate perception from reality. With respect to the city’s 2026 general obligation bonds, residents deserve a clear explanation of how and why these bonds were spent.

A significant portion of this bond issuance addresses pre-existing obligations, not new spending. These include court-ordered settlements tied to police misconduct that predate the current administration. The city has both a legal and moral responsibility to meet these obligations. Fulfilling them is not optional; it’s justice and common practice.

At the same time, Brandon Johnson’s administration prioritizes reducing the risk of future costs through investments in violence prevention, community engagement, and modernized policing practices. The goal is simple: Address past harm while preventing it from happening again.

Additional funding included a retroactive payment to firefighters made through a collective bargaining process. This is an ironclad obligation, as firefighters put their lives on the line every day to protect Chicagoans.

Both liabilities are one-time, extraordinary events with unpredictable costs, stemming from legal processes outside the city’s control. This is not as simple as funding a new bridge, where costs are more easily assumed.

These bonds are structured to pay down obligations on an accelerated timeline, not push them into the future. That distinction matters. Responsibly managing repayment over a shorter horizon reduces interest costs. An alternative would be a one-time tax increase, placing a significant financial burden on Chicagoans in a single year — clearly an unacceptable approach.

The same is true of capitalized interest, a standard tool in finance. It allows the city to make timely interest payments even when revenue, such as property taxes, arrives later in the year. Investors expect regular interest payments, and delays would lead to higher rates, increasing costs for taxpayers.

Finally, no bond issuance exists in isolation. Chicago manages its debt as part of a broader, long-term financial strategy, balancing new borrowing with the retirement of existing debt.

The city’s debt paydown rate, about 40% over 10 years, is considered responsible and sustainable.

The 2026 bonds cut costs to protect vital services and future growth. As leaders, we must uphold transparency and clarity, ensuring every community conversation remains rooted in hard facts.

— Michael Belsky, comptroller, city of Chicago

Investigate federal agents

Regarding the editorial “Usual suspects take aim at O’Neill Burke over lack of Midway Blitz prosecutions” (April 23): “We’re blessed in Cook County” by this? I am a Catholic priest, and I know a few things about blessings. I have served Chicago’s immigrant community for nearly 25 years. Yet I have seen federal agents use tear gas, pepper bullets and conceal license plates. I am one of over 400 members of the clergy, elected officials, members of the media and public interest organizations who have signed a petition seeking an independent prosecutor to investigate and charge federal agents who committed violent crimes during Operation Midway Blitz last year.

The independent prosecutor is necessary because Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke refuses to investigate the federal agents who committed these crimes. In a court filing last month, she claimed that it would be illegal for her office even to investigate the agents.

In its editorial, the Tribune Editorial Board applauds the state’s attorney’s inaction, assuring the public that there is no “compelling evidence of federal law-breaking.” Seriously? On Oct. 4, 2025, a federal agent shot Marimar Martinez multiple times for no reason, nearly killing her — an event captured on video. The same day as the editorial, the Tribune ran a front-page story (“At hearing, Martinez recounts shooting”) detailing Martinez’s powerful testimony before a congressional oversight committee. She is a crime victim — along with thousands of others who were shot at, tear-gassed and maimed, including Silverio Villegas González, who was fatally shot by federal agents without justification.

Burke must show responsibility to Martinez, Gonzalez and countless others who were grievously injured by out-of-control federal agents. Hundreds of hours of publicly released video and thousands of pages of records await the state’s attorney’s review. She should follow the example of prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minnesota: Examine the records, convene a grand jury and prosecute federal agents who commit violent crime.

In 2016, concerned citizens petitioned for an independent prosecutor to prosecute the Chicago police officer who killed Laquan McDonald. The Cook County state’s attorney had possessed video showing that crime for months and did nothing. This paper editorialized in support of that petition and encouraged the state’s attorney to voluntarily step aside.

The Tribune must never forget that federal agents cannot be above the law. Our community refuses to remain silent.

Real blessings are by Martinez and others who refuse to be silent.

— The Rev. Brendan A. Curran, The Resurrection Project, Chicago

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