Durbin, Duckworth locked out from meeting with DHS officials about Trump's immigration enforcement plan
Source: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
After touring the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago on Friday, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth said they gained some clarity but are still largely in the dark on details of President Donald Trump’s plan to use the base for an immigration roundup over the next month.
The Democratic senators and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-IL, tried meeting with Department of Homeland Security officials Friday at the base, but DHS “refused” to meet and instead sent their officials home and locked the doors to the office that the senators and congressman wanted to view, they said.
“This kind of secrecy is not part of our government and it shouldn’t be,” Durbin said. “It’s an indication that there’s something about this mission they don’t want the public to know. We want to make sure that the public and members of Congress know every detail of what’s happening.”
The Department of Defense has secured use of an office building at the north suburban base from Friday through Oct. 5. Agents with DHS and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may only use the facility for office space, parking and storing nonlethal munitions, Duckworth said.
She added that she and other officials are trying to confirm those conditions in writing with DHS because “they refuse to write things down. It’s all been verbal.” Duckworth also wants to ensure federal authorities won’t be using the base to house agents overnight.
Navy officials confirmed with the senators and congressman that Trump’s operation won’t disrupt the Navy’s use of the base, which is the Navy’s largest training station and the largest military installation in the state.
“It was a great meeting with the Navy,” Duckworth said. “They are deeply concerned about the community, they are concerned about their sailors and their training, and they’re making sure that that is upheld to the highest standards and that whatever happens with DHS and ICE, it will not interfere.”
The number of DHS and ICE agents being sent to the Naval Station Great Lakes remains unclear, but sources familiar with the planning have told the Sun-Times that it would be around 230 agents who are coming from Los Angeles, where an immigration blitz this summer spurred protests that elicited Trump to call in the National Guard.
‘We just want to live our lives’
Lina Alvarez, a U.S. Army veteran, was in tears as she spoke with Duckworth, also an Army veteran, thanking the senator for serving as a voice for her.
Alvarez also told the senator about an incident two months ago in North Chicago when federal immigration agents intimidated her 14-year-old nephew.
“He was just walking to the corner store and, like, five ICE agents surrounded him, saying a bunch of racist things in his face,” Alvarez said.
She plans to sit outside Naval Station Great Lakes on Saturday protesting the federal immigration officials’ presence in her hometown.
“Even if it’s just me and my sign, I’ll be out here just to let them know that they’re not welcome here. We don’t want them here,” said Alvarez, 42. “Our community here, it’s a Black and brown community and we support each other, and we just want to live our lives. We don’t want to walk around in fear to send our kids to schools, scared for our kids to walk home from school. This is not OK.”
By: Kade Heather
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