What Happens to Unhoused Chicagoans Detained By ICE

dating to be treated the same way. And so when you are unhoused and your immigration status may be vulnerable and you're not white, there's just multiple ways in which you become a target. And I think that there can be fewer resources to, like less of an public outcry to find you. And Something that when I was thinking about writing this piece, it's like this tension between people that are unhoused are... often ignored or pushed to the margins or sort of made invisible by others in our communities who have more resources. We don't always see our eyes come and glide by people that are maybe staying at a bus stop unless there's like a concern about crime or there's like sort of like a panic about how people are using public space. So I think it makes sometimes their disappearances. less obvious. But that said, people know you, you know, like when you're an encampment, like you are part of a community. People miss me. People, people, your friends, you share resources, you look out for one another. You know, this is, these are communities where, where folks are our vital members. Yeah. In your reporting, you mentioned how Chicago's unhouse population has only grown since 23, especially after Texas Governor Greg Abbott. bused approximately 51,000 people to the city over the course of a few years. We saw how shelters were pushed to their capacity. The conditions inside were inhumane. And you mentioned how even in Bronzeville, there were agents who showed up at one of those shelters. How have federal agents engaged with shelters and the people who go in and out of them? It's, again, kind of chaotic, and it depends on the shelter. It depends on the place. My understanding is that one of the shelters that they showed up at twice, once in September, once in October, in North Park, they did not enter, but they did take people from outside of there. And they... I know that like a Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness, again, is offering resources for shelter providers about whether they can let someone, you know, should let an agent in. I think a question and concern is, are they targeting shelters that are known places for new arrivals? Or are they kind of just going to shelters for homeless people and seeing who's vulnerable? Some folks I talked to for this story who witnessed abductions of unhoused people near Grand First Park area said that when they saw them, it seemed very...

Like they're just kind of like grabbing first and asking questions later. The shelters now that we're into one system, they're no longer specifically just for new arrivals or just for long-time Chicagoans. They are divided based on, you know, shelters that are families. There are shelters for domestic violence victims. There are shelters for individuals, right? But your immigration status or your arrival to the city is no longer part of it. Yeah. So. I think there's still just like a lot of questions and not always clear guidance on how to proceed. But a lot of advocates are trying to make their own as they go. Two of the Chicagoan stories you share are Theo and Samuel, as you refer to them in the piece. Can you tell us a little bit about them in their communities? Yeah. I was able to get more on Theo than Samuel. Someone that I spoke with had recently. The last couple of months got into no fear more. He said that he just had a birthday the day before he was taken. He went into this specific, he was an unhoused person who stayed in an encampment near Lawrence and Pulaski, but he showed up specifically at there's like a day labor site or there was where people would look for work near there because he really liked the camaraderie of the other. other people there showing up looking for work, kind of like helping share resources. You know, maybe this gig isn't good for you, but it might be good for someone else. That he was recently just like telling this person I spoke to how thankful he was and appreciative of like the local businesses in the area that did not shun, you know, on house people that were coming to use their bathrooms or restrooms and like what actually like give like free food and donate like goods and stuff like that. So he seemed like somebody who is hopeful, someone who is trying to make his way. So as Theo was out there, what exactly happened to him in Samuel? Yeah. So I, with Theo, this was on October 29th. There was a group with the Latino Union of Chicago via their Adopt-A-Corner Initiative, which was getting community members together to keep an eye out on certain corners where people might be vulnerable to abduction. People were keeping an eye on that in that area. And one person who sent me video witnessed Theo being grabbed in the middle of the street. This black SUV pulled into an alley, just southeast of the Pulaski and Lawrence intersection. You had agents with U.S. Border Patrol patches jump out of that SUV and grab Theo. They shoved him to his knees, and then they dragged him inside of the vehicle and pushed him inside. the violence and the speed were striking. I don't think that that is unusual for these abductions, right? They're fast against Want to be Fast because community members are like Chicago has had it. People are filming are intervening and so they're going as fast as they can. But just like

This whole thing happened in less than a minute. And as far as I know, nobody, he has not been released and people are unable to locate a status, like where he is in this fast system. And then while that was happening, I seem like federal agents were hitting in multiple spots. and hitting multiple unhoused people in this area, right? You've got a lot of unhoused people living in Gompersh Park in similar parks in the area. So it's kind of like a known place at the same time that Theo was being abducted. Another person who Theo knew, who I'm calling Samuel, was also grabbed by a restaurant on Lawrence Avenue. Both were day labors, and yeah, the status of both of them is unknown. I'm

For the last couple of months, we've been talking about the Broadview facility where a ton of detainees have found themselves abducted and taken before quickly moved somewhere else. Do we have any sense of where that place is when unhoused Chicagoans are being abducted off the street? Are they also being taken out to Broadview or do we just not know? I had no idea. I would guess Broadview, but guess isn't a fact, right? And that's what so... One of the many things that are so crappy about this, I know that like Chicago Coalition dead homelessness, they're, you know, trying to. understand whereabouts that emit the Illinois Coalition for Immigant Refugee Rights has also been trying to track, but they're overwhelmed with requests for help. So, yeah, I'm not sure. I just read a story from Block Club Chicago that some 400 arrested by ICE in Chicago between, I think, June and October, are set to be released this week. Do we know, do we have any sense of how many unhoused Chicagoans have been detained over the course of this operation? I was able to document at least 26 people being taken. But it's really like there's whole neighborhoods on, you know, at the south side where I just like wasn't able to make contact with like outreach providers or find people that are that are watching. Yeah. You said in your. In your piece, that some advocates argue that abductions by federal agents are not separate from the city's approach to a campment sweeps, but rather a continuation of it. Can you remind folks, what does it mean when an encampment, like those in Humble Park, Legion Park, Gumpers Park is swept and clear? What does that look like? Thank you for asking that question. That's something I'm working on for an upcoming story because I want to make sure that Chicagoans really understand what that means because I feel like there's a lot of... like assumptions and euphemism. But yeah, when, you know, encampment sweep, an encampment clearing, a closure, I usually often refer to it my reporting as an eviction because that is what it qualifies as. There is a time period beforehand in which people that are living in an encampment that's identified by the city as a place that... You cannot live, right? So we're talking about under biodecks in city parks. And they are supposed to be contacted by outreach workers with the city, usually through Department of Family Support Services and like offered connections to shelter, help applying for longer term housing, a data set that they folks just like have to be out of thereby. And if they're not out of thereby. You have Department of Streets of Sanitation coming with bulldozers, like whole bulldozers, giant barbages. You have Chicago police officers. You have outreach workers.

And you have community members both for and against these evictions. And people that are living in tents. Those tents are picked up by those bulldozers and destroyed. People lose their belongings. They lose their connections. They lose papers. And this is a time period where you really don't want to lose your identification, given that we have federal agents demanding you show it, which may or may not be legal. Yeah. This is framed by... You know, some people are connected to shelters that are temporary and hopefully then from there onto housing. A lot of people then just sort of have to move to another camp, another viaduct, with even fewer resources than they had before. People are hopefully given time to collect their belongings and collapse and move their tent if they can. This is happening in like 17 degree weather. It doesn't matter if it's below 32 degrees or not. People are moving from place to place to place to place, right? And you don't have enough shelter beds in the city. Shelters are temporary. And then even if you call 311 and ask for a shelter bed, the average wait for a shelter bed in the city is 19 days. What are you supposed to do for that 19 days? Where do you go? Folks that have winterized their tents, you know, that are unable to move those tents because they've made them as like sturdy places like that are like kind of winterproof. They might have to leave those and find like a less safe option to try to stay. There is no emergency shelter. for unhoused single people on the far northwest side of the city. What that means is that people, like the majority of folks, I've talked to advocates. I've talked to state representatives, Lindsey LaPointe being one of them. I talked with Alder Ruth Cruz Monday about this call. There's like a new call to build a shelter in that area, and she'd love to see it in her ward. They both say that the majority of unhoused people in their area are older adults. over the age of 50, who have mobility issues, who are disabled. So they don't, when they are getting evicted from these camps, the shelters that they are getting offered are in neighborhoods that they maybe have never been to that are far away from their doctor appointment. And they're not in the neighborhoods where they grew up. So they're going to someplace that's like a temporary spot. Shelters are important. We need more of them. We need more shelter beds, but they're not the solution to homelessness in Chicago. I would say that more affordable housing is. And I think that there are parallels between these local encampment evictions and national deportations. Among them is like, who is called a threat to public safety, whose presence is considered unsafe in public space? Who do we think as a culture and community deserves to live in a space and who gets to be a member of the public? These questions sound like existential, but they are materializing in policy and how people are treated. Yeah, I mean, we've speculated for weeks now if federal agents will start leaving the city and winding down a terror campaign. But as we know, this hasn't been the only way the federal government has been targeting the unhoused from the increased attacks that we've...

kind of covered in this conversation. But the administration is also upending sort of decades long homelessness policy with deep cuts to funding for long term housing. One of, you know, the best solutions and most practical solutions we can talk about. Can you kind of give us a sense of how this $3.9 billion in cuts is going to impact organizations? So there's something called rapid rehousing in Chicago, well, in the country. But rapid rehousing is something that people in shelters and encampments are offered to get connected to. That rapid rehousing funding lasts up to two years that pays for somebody's rent. But then people have to find a way to pay their own rent after. Usually, you're talking about folks that are disabled, that are dealing with severe mental illness that are elderly, and many of them then qualify for something called permanent supportive housing. Permanent supportive housing is... Great. That is my objective journalist opinion. Permanent supportive housing is resources that keep people housed, that gets them connected to social services, and this is good for their health outcomes. This is good for their connection to community. It's good for all of us, so it helps pay for their rent. But that permanent supportive housing, I believe... Usually up to 80% of the money that housing providers are getting through this continuum of care, this like federal body that disperses the money like in Chicago, 80% of that usually goes to permanent supportive housing because there's such a huge need. And that's just like paying for people's rent and social support services. The federal government wants to cut that to 30 or like maybe like 33. And that is an enormous cut at a time where the state and the city budgets are already strapped. Like, where is that money going to come from? People are not going to be able to make their rent, right? And at the same time, we're looking at all of these new limitations being proposed around SNAP or on food assistance benefits, you know, these. Are you, you have to show documentation in the coming months. You might have to show documentation that you're looking for work, that you are working or that you're at least volunteering. People are going to be forced to choose between paying their rent or paying for food. This is just like a humanitarian crisis that doesn't have to happen with these HUD changes. One of the things is fellow funding being contentioned on how to providers define gender. How do you, does your municipality work with ICE agents? And these are people that.

You know, if you're trans, if you are non-white, if your documentation status is vulnerable, those increase your unfortunately in this country, your likelihood of being homeless. And in meanwhile, the city is still planning camp evictions for the winter. Where are people going to go? These federal funding cuts will have to be made up somewhere if we're going to keep people housed. And right now, I'm not sure of where that money is going to come from. There are possibilities of, like, can we call for an eviction moratorium, right? At least temporarily, it's to keep people housed. That's been something proposed by various tenant unions. Johnson said something about maybe looking into it, I think, at a news conference, J.B. Pritzker has not returned to requests for comment from other outlets that I've seen about it. Yeah, I'm not really sure what the plan is on the city level as well as the state. Yeah. I mean, as the, as you point out, the stricter requirements about who can get access to SNAP benefits, who can get access to funding for housing, the deep cuts that the federal government is planning to make pretty swiftly. Some of these cuts are likely to go into effect at the very start of the year. Advocates warn that up to 200,000 people could be at risk of losing their housing across the country. You know, when someone is being detained, we have seen how difficult it can be for their family networks to track them down, how long it can take to ever hear from them or see them. You know, unhoused Chicagoans may not always have people who have the resources to navigate those hurdles if they disappear. How have you seen advocates and organizations in the city step up to look out for unhoused individuals who they worry are increasingly vulnerable to ICE? So I know that there are many outreach providers across the city who are in conversation with one another, who are talking to the unhoused people they work with, putting together Know Your Rights Campaign information that are specific to people who. What are your rights if you are riding the CTA and maybe sheltering on the CTA if a federal agent is talking to your tri-citizen you? What are your rights if you're in a city park? What if your rights if you're like kind of camped out near O'Hare? And people can find more about that. If they look at the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness website, we also have that information in English and in Spanish on the Chicago Reader website. I think that people. By getting to know your neighbor's house and unhoused, we've shown like a tremendous ability to like support each other, to feed each other, to help people shelter in place if they can't leave their house or if they can't leave their tent. I think, you know. People are checking in various mutual aid groups, but also kind of like less organized as well, just like asking folks if they need food, so they don't have to go like panhandle to get that food. If they're working, if they need a ride from the encampment to where they're working. Yeah, there's a lot of different ways in which I think people are showing up and caring for one another. What are you going to be paying attention to most, especially?

As it gets colder and colder in the city. You know, the city doesn't have a ton of control over a lot right now in some ways, right? Like federal agents popping up and showing up what they're doing. There's been, I've meant to keep using this word, but a lot of chaos. But what the city can choose to do differently are these encampment evictions. That is something I think that the city does have control over. And the something that I'm looking forward to digging in more over the next couple of months is. What policy, if any, exists around these closures, these evictions? Why do they happen in some places and not others? Is there a mechanism? Is it a certain number of people? Is it a certain number of complaints from alders? Like, what is this? What is it? I've been trying to get an answer for that for a while. And I am looking forward to not giving up. I appreciate you also reminding people the folks who are most vulnerable to being unhoused, black queer youth, disabled veterans, elderly who have mobility issues or who are suffering from different mental health conditions. I really appreciate you saying that because these are people who are already criminalized, even if they are not unhoused, who are already having it made more difficult for them to get food, to get access to health care, to get access to the type of resources they need to just go about their daily lives. And you know, exactly. And so it's like criminalizing people into the point and marginalizing people into the point in which they are. facing extreme precarity, you know, unhoused, and then doubling down on that criminalization. And so I think to your point, it is. You know, for the city and the state who talk about, you know, providing some sort of pushback to the federal government, like you said, this can't just be reactive, finding shelter bids. It has to be providing affordable health care broadly across the city, but also providing more resources for these exact communities who are being targeted at every level. And so I really appreciate you, you kind of taking the time to flesh that out. Yeah, thanks for asking about it. You know, if we don't have the resources right now, then perhaps it is not.

the most humane, but also fiscally responsible to spend resources to then just simply evict people into a older precarity until we have better resources to offer them. I am curious what it would look like if the city changes approach and allow people to be where they're at until there's a viable, sustainable option for them. I want to give a huge thank you to our guest today from the Chicago reader, Katie Prout. Thank you so much for making time for CityCash Chicago. Yeah, thanks. I love being on. You guys do tremendous work, and I'm super glad to be here talking about this. So thank you. Before we get out of here, you know I got some good news for you. There are a few events I wanted to put on your radar coming up, including tonight. Respect the mic. The very last one of the year is going down at Monday coffee. You've got play date within all women and femme DJ lineup at Connect Gallery this Saturday from 12 to 7. And then last minute, Mike, queer comedy at the crib comedy play space 7 o'clock on Sunday. For more great events, please head over to our website, Chicago.citycass. and peruse through our events calendar and while you there make sure you are subscribed to our daily newsletter hey chicago our newsletter editor emmy mac is working tirelessly every single day to put out one of chicago's absolute best newsletter so please follow along make sure you tuned into our social media our manager rick holmuth is putting out some fantastic videos every single week so please go ahead give it a like give it a comment give it a share and then last but not least make sure you back here bright and tomorrow. We will talk to you then. Peace.