West Chicago, IL – Hundreds of protesters marched through West Chicago on the morning of Saturday, October 4 to denounce ICE’s attacks on Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, referred to by the Trump regime as “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Demonstrators had planned to converge at a local gas station before rallying at the Mayor’s office, but ICE attacked the gathering activists shortly before 9 a.m., pepper spraying three members of the group who intervened when ICE took two men who were at the gas station.

Rapid response networks were quickly notified, and hundreds of people then mobilized at the site of the attack, where a rally began under the flags of Mexico, Puerto Rico and other flags of the Americas.

Notable among the speakers were Cristobal Cavazos of Casa DuPage People’s Patrol, Joe Iosbaker of the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda, West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey and faith leaders Pastor Roberto Moreno-Cruz and Reverend Avani Christian.

Speaking as an organizer of the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda, Joe Iosbaker referred to Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, who was killed by ICE while dropping his child off at school in Franklin Park, as the first martyr of the new struggle now taking place.

Iosbaker stated, “He is the first martyr of this movement! We are workers! Everyone here is a worker like Silverio, he is our martyr. Like the martyrs of the Primero de Mayo, he is the first martyr, and we must remember him, and fight for him, and fight for justice for him!”

West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey’s remarks began with the news that the two men who had earlier been taken by ICE were now free. The mayor then said West Chicago needed to learn from its history, when its Mexicano community was decimated in the 1950s, alluding to “Operation Wetback” the Eisenhower-era immigration crackdown where a large number of undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens were deported to Mexico.

Cristobal Cavazos, who has been leading the People’s Patrol from the Casa DuPage Workers Center, emphasized the role of mass organization in the release of the two men, stating, “I do not think it’s a coincidence that ICE freed those dudes, because there were people there, and people can be there a lot more. That’s what we’re trying to do with our marches, with our People’s Patrol, with our rapid response.”

#WestChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #ICE #Trump

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