{"id":208463,"date":"2025-09-07T20:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/208463\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T20:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:22:15","slug":"chicago-churches-urge-preparedness-amid-federal-intervention-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/208463\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago churches urge preparedness amid federal intervention fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The Rev. Marshall Hatch urged congregants of a prominent Black church on Chicago\u2019s West Side to carry identification, stay connected to family and protest as the city readied for an expected federal intervention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to start telling people about your whereabouts, so you don\u2019t disappear,\u201d Hatch said during Sunday services at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to despair. We\u2019re not going to feel threatened. We\u2019re not going to give up and give in to fascism and authoritarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Chicago braced<\/a> for an immigration enforcement crackdown and a possible National Guard deployment, churches across the city turned up their response from the pulpit. Some worked to quell fears about detention and deportation while others addressed the looming possibility of more law enforcement on the streets of the nation\u2019s third-largest city.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has threatened federal intervention in Democratic strongholds, most recently warning apocalyptic force<\/a> could be used in Chicago to fight crime and step up deportations. He\u2019s repeatedly cited the expected plans over fierce objections from local leaders<\/a> and many residents<\/a> who call it unnecessary and unwanted.<\/p>\n

While fears have been high<\/a> in immigrant circles since Trump took office the second time, the threat of more federal agencies and troops has also inflamed tensions, particularly in Black and Latino communities where trust in police<\/a> is fragile.<\/p>\n

Among the church attendees was Lester Burks, a 74-year-old U.S. Army veteran who said a military presence in Chicago would be threatening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want soldiers here,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are trained to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanctuary cities targeted<\/p>\n

Details on the expected intervention have been sparse, including its focus and when it\u2019s expected to begin. Trump\u2019s border czar Tom Homan said Sunday on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d that federal law enforcement action will come to Chicago this week. He also promised more worksite enforcement operations like the massive one at a Hyundai plant<\/a> in Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can expect action in most sanctuary cities across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted, and unsuccessfully sued,<\/a> over Chicago\u2019s sanctuary laws, which are among the strongest in the nation. His administration launched a nationwide immigration enforcement operation<\/a> in the city in January.<\/p>\n

There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities<\/a>. The terms generally describe limits on local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE enforces U.S. immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks state and local help.<\/p>\n

This time, the Department of Homeland Security plans to use a military base north of the city<\/a> and has alerted leaders of another suburb that they\u2019ll use a federal immigration processing center there for an operation that\u2019ll potentially last 45 days<\/a>. Meanwhile, Trump has said he might send National Guard troops to New Orleans<\/a> before Chicago.<\/p>\n

Trump has already deployed the National Guard into Los Angeles<\/a> and Washington, D.C<\/a>., where he\u2019s also federalized the police force.<\/a> A federal judge has ruled the Los Angeles deployment is illegal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need another level of law enforcement and their presence to pretend they\u2019re going to solve problems related to violence,\u201d U.S. Rep. Danny Davis,<\/a> a Democrat, said at a Sunday news conference with other Black elected leaders on the city\u2019s West Side. <\/p>\n

Most of Chicago\u2019s nearly 3 million people are Black or Latino. New Mount Pilgrim is located in the city\u2019s West Garfield Park neighborhood, a largely Black neighborhood which has faced persistent crime and years of disinvestment, including five schools near the church that closed in 2013 as part of the largest mass public closure<\/a> in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

The church has often called for action against street violence even as Chicago\u2019s rates of violent crime have dropped<\/a> substantially in recent years as part of a national trend<\/a>. Its large stained glass art installations depict the lives of slaves and memorialize Black people killed by violence. On Sunday, the church celebrated the groundbreaking of a nearby arts and activism center it said was part of the solution. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not calling for military, we\u2019re calling for resources,\u201d Hatch told congregants. \u201cWe know that there is a correlation between resources and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago on edge<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the city, other churches worked to remind people of their rights when it comes to interactions with immigration agents, urging them to carry necessary documents. <\/p>\n

The feeling of being on edge was familiar to many in Chicago, and the expected operation put a damper<\/a> on the city\u2019s usually festive Mexican Independence Day celebrations. Church leaders said the January immigration operation in Chicago had a chilling effect on attendance at immigrant-heavy and Latino churches as people stayed home. <\/p>\n

Clergy said they were preparing for the same in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like anything can happen at any moment,\u201d said the Rev. Paco Amador of New Life Community Church in the predominantly Mexican Little Village neighborhood. \u201cIt would be irresponsible not to talk about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Calvin Woodward contributed to this report from Washington. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The Rev. Marshall Hatch urged congregants of a prominent Black church on Chicago\u2019s West Side…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":208464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[3881,20148,960,114525,69,57,2055,5386,1819,1818,409,114523,8132,114524,80,2068,365,5414,3676,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-208463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-black-experience","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-danny-k-davis","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-government-and-politics","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-il-state-wire","17":"tag-illinois","18":"tag-immigration","19":"tag-lester-burks","20":"tag-military-and-defense","21":"tag-paco-amador","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","24":"tag-religion","25":"tag-tom-homan","26":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","27":"tag-u-s-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115164882467446619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}