Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago public faculty officers falsely claimed final week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers arrived at an elementary faculty, as President Donald Trump’s administration continues enforcement operations focusing on violent unlawful immigrant offenders within the sanctuary metropolis.
ICE mentioned its brokers by no means arrived at Hamline Elementary Faculty, positioned in Chicago’s Again of the Yards neighborhood, and the US Secret Service launched an announcement saying it was their brokers who stopped by on Friday to analyze a risk made in opposition to an unspecified authorities official. Chicago Public Colleges later admitted their mistake, citing a “misunderstanding,” however affirmed that the college system won’t coordinate with federal immigration authorities.
In entrance of native information cameras on Friday, Chicago Public Colleges Chief Training Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova advised reporters that earlier that morning ICE brokers “confirmed up” at Hamline, however “faculty employees adopted CPS established protocols.”
“They stored ICE brokers outdoors of the college and contacted CPS’s Legislation Division and CPS’s Workplace of Security and Safety for additional steerage,” Chkoumbova mentioned. “The ICE brokers weren’t allowed into the college and weren’t permitted to talk to any college students or employees members. Right here is the underside line: Our college students and employees are protected…. We won’t coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers.”
“We won’t open our doorways for ICE, and we’re right here to guard our youngsters and ensure they’ve entry to a wonderful schooling,” Hamline Principal Natasha Ortega mentioned on the identical press convention, in accordance with video revealed by WMAQ-TV. “We stand in solidarity with our households and the Again of the Yards group.”
The governor chimed in on X.
“After every week of Republicans sowing concern and chaos, the primary stories of raids in Chicago are at an elementary faculty,” Pritzker wrote Friday, sharing a ChalkBeat.org report. “Focusing on kids and separating households is merciless and un-American.”
The publish was slapped with a Neighborhood Observe, studying: “This was not ICE however the US Secret Service visiting the college because of an unspecified risk.”
There has not been an replace posted on the governor’s X account, and Fox Information Digital reached out to Pritzker’s group for touch upon Monday, however they didn’t instantly reply.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson launched an announcement of his personal on X, correcting the document and chastising officers who amplified unverified claims.
“Chicago will all the time be a welcoming metropolis, and we are going to all the time uphold the welcoming metropolis ordinance, and we are going to all the time defend our college students and each resident of our metropolis,” Johnson, a Democrat, wrote. “At present Secret Service brokers, not ICE, had been current at John H. Hamline Elementary Faculty. Whereas individuals throughout town are anxious about heightened immigration enforcement, it’s crucial that people not unfold unverified info that sparks concern throughout town.”
Chicago Public Colleges Chief Government Officer Pedro Martinez initially repeated the doubtful allegations on Friday. Throughout an look on MSNBC, he mentioned “people” got here to Hamline “and offered credentials and shared that they had been from ICE.”
“Our employees adopted the protocols. We’re very clear,” Martinez mentioned. “We’ve been coaching our principals, our safety guards, any entrance workplace employees… ensuring that they know that we’re not to share any info with anyone from the immigration division or ICE. Until they’ve a judicial order, they’re not even allowed to enter the constructing.”
ICE mentioned it was not concerned within the encounter. In an announcement obtained by Fox Information Digital, Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the US Secret Service, revealed that particular brokers from the Chicago area workplace on Friday had been “investigating a risk made in opposition to a authorities official we defend.”
“In the midst of their investigation, brokers first visited a residence in an area neighborhood after which made a go to to Hamline Elementary Faculty,” Guglielmi mentioned. “Brokers recognized themselves to the college principal and offered enterprise playing cards with their contact info. The brokers left with out incident. The Secret Service investigates all threats made in opposition to these we defend. We don’t examine nor implement immigration legal guidelines.”
Chicago Public Colleges officers walked again their earlier claims on Saturday.
In a message addressed to households, Martinez and Chkoumbova mentioned, “Brokers offered faculty employees with credentials from the Division of Homeland Safety, the federal division that oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
“We later realized that these officers weren’t from ICE, however quite from the US Secret Service – a distinct federal regulation enforcement company additionally overseen by the Division of Homeland Safety,” the assertion mentioned. “Whereas this incident was because of a misunderstanding, it displays the concern and anxiousness that’s current in our metropolis proper now, and it displays the diploma of warning that we’re taking given latest federal coverage adjustments.”
The varsity officers additionally decried DHS’s resolution final week to rescind a directive that had prevented ICE from finishing up immigration enforcement at delicate places equivalent to church buildings, faculties and physician’s places of work.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who has been overseeing ICE raids in Chicago and throughout the nation as a part of the president’s mass deportation technique, defended the reversal throughout an look on ABC Information on Sunday. Homan mentioned many MS-13 gang members are sometimes round age 14 and well-trained ICE brokers ought to have the discretion to weed out public security and nationwide safety threats.
“Earlier this week, the brand new presidential administration rescinded a longtime coverage that protected delicate places like faculties from being focused by ICE for immigration enforcement. In consequence, our college directors have been on excessive alert to guard their faculty communities,” Martinez and Chkoumbova mentioned Saturday. “Regardless of yesterday’s misunderstanding, the college’s response demonstrates that our college system, in partnership with group organizations and our labor companions, is ready and able to preserve our college students and employees protected.”
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