Over the weekend of Oct. 11, videos from Loyola students circulated across social media, spreading word that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pointed a gun at a man in the 1200 block of West North Shore Avenue, behind Bellarmine Hall.
Due to the fast action of students, ICE’s location became somewhat common knowledge across campus, allowing individuals to take action to protect themselves.
This degree of protective community action left The Phoenix in awe of the resources gained by neighbors joining together to share information. Yet, while social media spreads knowledge quickly, it also has the potential to spread fear and misinformation.
As student journalists, we want to use our platform to create a consolidated location for verified ICE sightings to be shared within the community. Furthermore, we were disappointed by the lack of information given to students by the university after repeated ICE sightings. We have created a map of ICE sightings in Rogers Park and Edgewater which we have been able to verify. That information can be accessed here.
The Phoenix is vehemently against the unconstitutional use of ICE in our neighborhood, city and country. Immigrants make America great — from the Northern corners of Rogers Park, to the Southernmost parts of Edgewater and, broadly, to the greater Chicagoland area. We stand in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors, working people and at-risk community members.
We need the community’s help to keep our neighborhoods safe from ICE engagement.
This map can only be effective when we all join together to alert our friends and community of potentially dangerous and unpredictable ICE interactions. We implore you to join us in spreading information to keep our affected neighbors safe.
Our map will only include sightings in Rogers Park and Edgewater, but if you see ICE outside of the neighborhood and send the information to us, we will send it to other news sites who are tracking throughout Chicago.
Editors note: This article was published Oct. 26 to further separate The Phoenix’s ICE Tracker from the Staff Editorial.