‘You do in fact have rights’: Rolling Meadows officials provide info to residents amid ICE crackdown
Amid increased immigration enforcement operations in Rolling Meadows, city officials say they’ve provided information and resources to immigrants, and plan to launch a marketing campaign to help businesses whose employees are afraid to come to work and customers who are afraid to shop.
“We are here to help you. We are here to provide a resource,” Mayor Lara Sanoica said at a city council meeting this week. “And I do want to remind everyone that even if your rights are violated that you do in fact have rights. We are here to continue to provide those resources to you during this unprecedented time.”
That outreach has included giving out a hotline number for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and “know your rights” information, but it’s stopped short of providing legal advice, which the city cannot do, said City Manager Rob Sabo.
“Our approach has really been to provide the information and resources to members of our community who are in need of it, who are looking for information about how to navigate these difficult and somewhat uncharted territories, and we will continue to be doing that on a day-to-day basis,” Sabo said.
Sanoica in late September announced a mayoral tour and social media campaign to highlight restaurants, bakeries, cafes and family-run businesses, and encourage people to shop and dine local. Since then, city officials said they’ve heard from business owners whose employees aren’t showing up for work, while they’ve experienced a drop in foot traffic from shoppers.
The mayor also called for more virtual court appearances — in lieu of in-person — for those required to be at the Cook County courthouse in Rolling Meadows.
Judges will consider virtual proceedings for crime victims in felony cases on a case-by-case basis, according to Natalia Nieves, director of the city’s department of human services. More remote court participation will be permitted for victims of domestic violence, she said.
“Our advocacy as a municipality is to continue to allow as many individuals as possible to be able to participate remotely since we were able to do this successfully during COVID,” Sanoica said. “This is unprecedented in the same way that the pandemic was unprecedented for our community.”
Last month, Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans issued an order prohibiting civil immigration arrests at county courthouses and surrounding property.
Some residents have called on Rolling Meadows’ city council to do the same with respect to municipal property, mirroring measures enacted by local governments in Wheeling, Evanston, Aurora and Chicago.
On Oct. 9, two people were detained in the city hall parking lot on Kirchoff Road after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers followed their vehicle there.
But Sabo said so-called “ICE-free zones” would be challenging to enforce, and could create a “false sense of security” for people who think federal agents wouldn’t be able to come to those areas.
Sabo and Police Chief Tony Peluso added that local police are not allowed to assist with civil immigration enforcement activities under the Illinois TRUST Act, and they’ve recently reinforced that law with their officers.