Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants Gov. Bruce Rauner to publicly back his efforts to promote Chicago as a welcoming place for immigrants as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
A resolution sponsored by Emanuel, new Democratic state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and 35 of the city’s 50 aldermen calls on Rauner to issue a statement of “support for cities that welcome our undocumented family members and neighbors and condemn any effort to strip the city of Chicago of federal funding.”
Chicago Democrats also are attempting to whistle in the Republican governor — the resolution, which was advanced Monday by a City Council committee, calls on Rauner to speak at a special council meeting “held solely for the purpose of discussing the president-elect’s plans for cities that welcome and protect immigrants.”
Asked to respond to the specifics of the city resolution, a Rauner spokeswoman instead issued a general statement reiterating the governor’s support for immigration reform. Rauner has spent much of the last year avoiding even the mention of Trump’s name.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to deport as many as 3 million immigrants who have criminal records or are living in the country illegally. He further stated that he would move to cut off federal funding for sanctuary cities — which at one level or another don’t take proactive steps to ferret out and report people who have entered the country illegally.
What Trump will actually do once in office remains to be seen, but during a Trump transition media briefing on Monday, spokesman Jason Miller said the president-elect “has been very direct in where he stands with regard to sanctuary cities, and I expect to see significant action on that front after he is sworn in.”
Rauner during the campaign said he would support the GOP nominee for president, but repeatedly demurred when asked if he would support Trump — even after the New York tycoon became the nominee. It was a way to avoid alienating Republican voters who back Trump, a group whose support he’ll need if he seeks re-election in 2018 as he’s said he will do.
In light of Trump’s comments, the City Council Human Relations Committee on Monday recommended a resolution reaffirming Chicago’s so-called Welcoming City ordinance, a measure approved in 2012 to cement the city’s status as a sanctuary city.
That measure states that Chicago police can turn over information to federal immigration agents on immigrants only if they are wanted on a criminal warrant or have been convicted of a serious crime. Chicago’s law also prohibits officers from allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to use their facilities for interviews or investigation. And it bars on-duty officers from responding to ICE inquiries or talking to ICE officials about a person’s custody status or release date.
This year, the council doubled down by approving an Emanuel-endorsed ordinance to provide municipal ID cards to immigrants who are in the country without permission.
But some Republican congressmen have called for a halt in federal funding to cities that don’t cooperate with U.S. agents working to track down people who have illegally entered the country. It’s unclear how far they want that to apply to U.S. Department of Justice grants or all federal grants.
If it applies just to DOJ grants, it would amount to about $29 million a year in Chicago — which some consider a rounding error in Chicago’s $8.2 billion budget for 2017. But that budget — which comes to $9.8 billion with grants figured in — also relies on $1.3 billion in federal grants for myriad programs, including early-childhood education, transportation, policing, health initiatives, public assistance programs and disaster management.
