CHICAGO (NewsNation) — Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez is blaming the city’s mayor for “fear” and spreading “false information” in the city’s immigrant communities following news of planned ICE raids.
“Our mayor, and others, have continuously stoked fires of fear and anxiety in neighborhoods, spreading false information that the Trump administration and ICE were coming to round people up out of churches,” Lopez said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America.”
Lopez said when he met with President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, they agreed that detaining “criminal” migrants who entered the U.S. illegally was the chief concern.
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“They want to focus on those dangerous, undocumented, criminal migrants that are here in our communities,” said Lopez. “When I met with (Homan) in December, that’s exactly what he said.”
Lopez said he is trying to limit “collateral captures,” immigrants without a criminal record but lacking legal documents, and implored Democrats to work with the new administration.
“Many Democratic leaders refuse to show any kind of working relationship with the Trump administration, and that’s only going to hurt the people that they pretend to care about,” said Lopez.
Lopez compared Democrats’ maneuvering on immigration to the way they handled abortion.
“(Democrats) took government for granted (on abortion), and they’re doing it again with immigration,” he said.
Chicago Public Schools officials said Friday that ICE agents showed up at an elementary school in the city but were denied entry.
After confusion, the Secret Service said it was they who visited the school, not ICE.
