On the night of Jan. 26, the day that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started making arrests across Chicago, Malena Quiroz, a Latina immigrant, was working at her night job. She was not scared.
“I [felt] prepared, especially as a member of Arise Chicago,” she said. “They helped me- but not just me, others too- to know what our rights are, to be prepared and how to defend them.
Arise Chicago is one of several organizations across the city that have created Know Your Rights toolkits, informational documents, and packets that include “rights and tools” about a person’s immigration status. These toolkits are specifically geared toward what they should and should not do if confronted by an ICE officer.
Arise is not the only group that has created this type of toolkit; the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Rights, the National Immigrant Justice Center, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights are a few organizations that have also created similar resources.
A new threat
Trump signed a flurry of executive orders on his first day in office, targeting a crackdown on illegal immigration and deportation, giving the Department of Homeland Security and ICE the “fullest extent permitted by law” to detain undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
In the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, ICE’s nationwide deportations have exceeded 142,000. However, some border experts dispute this claim, saying that “roughly” 400 ICE deportation fights have taken off since Trump took office beginning of this year. With around 125 people per plane, a significant discrepancy is evident between the reported numbers by ICE and the 50,000 figure that experts cite.
Arrests have taken place in cities including Buffalo, San Diego, Washington D.C., Boston, New York City, and Chicago, through ICE trying to make a right toward the current administration’s goals that hasn’t stopped them from detaining legal U.S. citizens and green card holders. On May 13, Block Club Chicago announced that it is suing ICE and Homeland Security for violating the Freedom of Information Act.
“The current administration is violating constitutional rights on a daily basis,” says Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward). “They do not respect due process, they are undermining the constitution, they’re attacking First Amendment rights, and not only for undocumented residents, [but] now green card holders.”
Arise Chicago, which has been operating since the early 1990s, specializes in informing unionized, non-unionized, and immigrant workers of their rights. In 2001, Arise created a workers’ rights manual written in English, Spanish, and Polish, all at an eighth-grade reading level.
Arise concentrates its efforts in areas of the city with a high proportion of immigrant workers, including Pilsen, Back of the Yards, Little Village, and Brighton Park.
To Shelly Ruzicka, the communication and finance director at Arise Chicago, the threats of arrest are seen as an insult to immigrants. “It’s a rather disgusting slap in the face and disrespect to people who kept this country running in so many ways and kept our economy running to say, now all of a sudden, ‘You don’t belong here,’” she said.
Arise started putting together the new toolkit immediately after the November 2024 election to prepare for the outcome of Trump’s first days in office. They also held a “members assembly” the Saturday after the election to stress the importance of community and reassurance in light of the future administration’s goals. About 500 members attended.
“We did not wait until the inauguration happened,” Ruzicka said. “We were prepping for this.”
During the last Trump presidency, Arise put together a document similar to the new “Know Your Rights As An Immigrant Worker.” Some of the material included in the new toolkit is recycled information from the previous one, along with newer information to better suit the current political climate.
“Sadly, we’ve been through this, and that’s what we have to remind workers: ‘We’ve been through this, we’ve lived through this before, and we will get through it again,’” Ruzicka said.
A digital version of the toolkit was posted on the Arise website on Dec. 18, 2024. The physical toolkit features a QR code, enabling others to share the information easily. Furthermore, Arise has been able to steer attention to their toolkit through news outlets covering their work, including In These Times, and posting the toolkit on their social media pages.
Spreading the word
Another massive part of Arise’s reach comes down to grassroots advocacy from its members, as that is generally how most people find out about Arise’s work, Ruzicka said. Quiroz has disseminated the informational document to many people in her life, raising awareness about the work that Arise does and its benefits to workers and immigrants.
“I’ve taught my co-workers about it and how to use it,” she said. “I’ve talked to my neighbors and at my church. I’m giving out the packet and the card. I’m taking the flyers or the packet to the store where I go shopping. I’m talking to people to make sure they know what their rights are.”
Illinois Workers in Action is another workers’ rights organization based in Chicago, with its services branching out across the state of Illinois. Similar to Arise, the organization began preparing for the outcome of the presidential election.
According to Sandra Garcia Cruz, program coordinator at Illinois Workers in Action, community navigators are established in various parts of the Chicagoland area to disseminate awareness of the toolkits. Through grassroots efforts, community navigators visit businesses, such as stores, and speak with managers to hang flyers and distribute Know Your Rights cards.
“I know one of them; she goes to the laundromat [and] takes them with her while her clothes are washing,” Cruz said. “She’ll talk to people, making sure they know resources are out there.”
To Cruz, even though she and her organization can disseminate information about constitutional rights, ICE follows protocol when it wants to, sometimes breaking it, highlighting the limitations of power that the Know Your Rights packets and organizations face.
“They have their specific procedure they’re supposed to follow, and we could only do so much,” she said. “Oftentimes, people ask us as a bystander, ‘What do you do?’ We can’t tell them to put themselves at risk. There’s no way to interfere with what’s happening.”
Although this is the case, Cruz still views the distribution of information as necessary.
Ruzicka believes that ICE had a “complete failure” of arrests in Chicago, and it can be attributed to similar organizations and their “massive” collective effort to inform undocumented immigrants of their rights. According to Ruzicka, a member of Arise had ICE agents knocking at their door. The members stood their ground until the agents left.
“Tom Homan, who’s supposed to be in charge of all of this, tried to parade around and bring a celebrity to scare folks,” she said. “This administration lost in Chicago, and the community won.”
Arise’s work has not only spanned the Chicagoland area but has also reached other Illinois towns such as Peoria and Aurora. The organization would like to expand to these places but has limited time, staff, and resources. Due to this, Arise has initiated a Train-the-Trainer program, comprising workshops designed to teach individuals how to utilize Arise’s materials and apply them as needed.
“It’s really important to have trusted voices giving these trainings so people can feel safe and know they’re getting accurate information,” Ruzicka said. “I guess it’s ongoing. It’s not completed yet in that way.”
Even Ald. Sigcho-Lopez has done Know Your Rights training with Chicagoans in his Ward, preparing them in case of ICE activity.
“This is not the end, but the beginning of a resistance to fascism,” Sighcho-Lopez said. “As Chairman Fred Hampton said, ‘Fascism is the priority for working people because if we don’t stop fascism, fascism will stop all of us.’”
Matt Brady is a student journalist from the Chicagoland area, currently a reporter for the Columbia Chronicle, the student-led newspaper at Columbia College Chicago. He began his student journalism journey at Elgin Community College, where he eventually became Editor-in-Chief of the Elgin Observer, the student-led newspaper. He follows Chicago organizations across the city, making change economically and socially. Brady independently co-runs and co-founded Brain Graffiti Zine, a physical music zine, online publication and show promotion operation that follows the current world of DIY music culture across the country.
Matt was member of the Solutions Journalism class at Columbia College Chicago taught by Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, Professor in the School of Communication and Culture.
Publisher’s Notes: Part of Illinois Latino News’ mission is to nurture the next generation of journalists.