Chicagoans prepare to defend rights of immigrants

All people in the U.S. have rights, regardless of immigration status, and regardless of what rhetoric President-elect Trump’s incoming “border czar” Tom Homan chooses to use to demonize immigrants — on a national stage or at a holiday party here in Chicago.

Chicago’s legal and immigrant communities are preparing to defend our immigrant neighbors and the rule of law during the next Trump administration. We must all be prepared to come together to defend our shared values of fairness and due process, including ensuring people have access to a fair hearing, legal counsel and a basic understanding of their rights before the U.S. government subjects them to detention or deportation.

Trump and Homan have made it clear that Chicagoans should expect swift and cruel anti-immigrant actions in our city after Inauguration Day, including unlawful enforcement operations that could put people at risk of detention and deportation regardless of their immigration status. We are working together with many other Chicagoans to prepare for these neighborhood and workplace raids. We are educating people about how to ensure their families’ safety and protect their rights during an encounter with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We also are training volunteer attorneys who are ready to step up and represent people in deportation proceedings, or to take the Trump administration to court when its actions inevitably violate state or federal law.

Polling shows that voters support relief and pathways to legalization and don't favor an extreme enforcement approach. All of us must demand that our elected officials stop pouring billions of tax dollars into punishing immigrants and instead invest in solutions and programs that make our communities healthier and more welcoming for all.

Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director, National Immigrant Justice Center

Republicans are hypocrites on law and order

Thank you for your editorial "Trump's border czar acts like a bully, not a leader who wants to fix immigration." The piece was absolutely right on!

Tom Homan came to Chicago to speak to the Republican Law & Order PAC. Republicans calling themselves "law and order" is like Catholic nuns calling themselves atheists. They simply gave up on that philosophy when they backed Trump. They backed a convicted felon for president and they refused to pass a bipartisan bill that would have gone a long way to help with illegal immigration. It is Congress' job to figure out immigration, according to our Constitution, not the Executive Branch (Article 1, Section 8).

Now Homan is saying that asylum seekers are not fleeing a dangerous situation at home but are only looking for jobs. How could he possibly know that? Isn't that what our courts are for? But a party that does not believe in laws would not allow the legal process to play out. It would be too slow and would not carry as much bravado as a mass deportation plan.

And now Trump is saying he wants to deport babies born in the U.S. to undocumented parents. Has he heard of the 14th Amendment?

The big problem is that as hypocritical or anti-Constitutional as this party becomes, a huge chunk of the voting public does not seem to mind.

Jan Goldberg, Riverside

Deport undocumented immigrants

Americans, and dare I say a large portion of Chicago and Illinois residents, voted to have President Trump and Tom Homan do exactly what Homan discussed in his meeting last week. Apparently, the Sun-Times hasn’t been paying attention to the citizens of Chicago who are fed up with aliens who entered the country illegally overrunning the city. Keep supporting failed policies. This is why the mainstream media has been left behind.

Keith Heerdegen, Libertyville

Rooting for border czar

Wednesday’s editorial about Tom Homan cast him as a schoolyard bully and someone uninterested in “fixing” immigration. Only the latter is true — it is not his job to fix immigration. It is his job to address the result of illegal immigration and because he speaks in a no-nonsense manner he was labeled a bully.

We need more people like him in politics. We need politicians who aren’t afraid to give it to us straight. The hardworking, taxpaying citizens of Chicago and Illinois are having a hard time understanding why our mayor and governor are more concerned about the care of illegal migrants versus their own constituents.

Tom Homan stating that our mayor and governor “suck” is an understatement. So maybe he should have been labeled as a "no bull" czar.

Joe Ferro, Garfield Ridge

Kudos for coverage of Chicago

As I page through the Sun-Times I am reminded what an incredible, quirky, violent, joyful, corrupt and compassionate city we have, and how fortunate we are to have the Sun-Times there to give us the script of each day’s action.

Where else would we find Neil Steinberg’s moral dilemma as a cabby tries to rip him off and Neil winds up giving him a tip? There’s the latest on the Bears and Arlington Heights. I see that Michael Jordan’s mansion was sold and see that Robbie Gould is the new head coach at St. Viator. We are given daily updates on corruption trials but note that more space is given to saying goodbye to a fallen cop. It’s an incredible array that adds up to Chicago.

The Sun-Times is more than a newspaper. It’s a daily gift. Thank you.

Ray Boyer, Evanston