Michelle L. Quinn and Meredith Colias-Peter, Post-Tribune
East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland encouraged residents to join an anti-ICE protest at City Hall on Saturday afternoon, but warned them not to “engage” immigration officers.
In a statement, Copeland said East Chicago Police will not partner in any immigration enforcement in the city. However, ICE does not say when or where they are conducting arrests.
East Chicago Police confirmed that ICE agents were set up in the publicly accessible portion of the department’s parking lot after the mayor’s office saw an online video showing ICE agents conducting an arrest Thursday afternoon, Mayor Anthony Copeland said in a Thursday evening social media post. Early Thursday, ICE agents attempted to establish a staging area at the Hammond Police Department, but Hammond city officials told them to leave. Like Hammond, East Chicago’s administrators weren’t alerted to their presence or plans, he said.
“(Thursday) will be remembered as the day that tested my resolve,” Copeland said. “We want to be clear: The East Chicago Police Department is not involved in any operations with ICE. We have not coordinated, supported, or participated in any immigration enforcement actions, and no information has been shared with ICE regarding such matters. Our department’s parking facility is open to the public and may occasionally be used by other law enforcement entities. However, their presence does not indicate cooperation or endorsement.”
Some of the city’s 1,100 cameras have captured some of their movements, he said Friday.
“It was far better for us to capture images on how they would detain people and their means to transport people,” Copeland said. “To impede them is something we cannot do.”
While Copeland understands that federal agencies aren’t required to inform municipalities when they’re in the area, the Police department’s duty is to its residents, East Chicago Police Chief Jose Rivera said in a release.
“We remain committed to protecting the rights and safety of all East Chicago residents. Our department is here to serve and support the community — not to participate in immigration enforcement,” Rivera said.
Officials have confirmed that “Operation Midway Blitz,” a federal immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago, includes Lake County, Indiana.
In a video shared widely on Facebook Thursday, immigration agents appear to be arresting a man in a vestibule just outside an East Chicago bakery. The person filming asks the man to say his name.
The man appeared to run inside the building trying to dodge agents, a woman who answered the phone at La Rancherita Bakery said Friday.
“All of us have never seen him before,” she said.
East Chicago Councilman Robert Garcia said Friday he plans to introduce an ordinance barring ICE from using city property.
Like Copeland, Garcia said he doesn’t know how many people ICE has detained in East Chicago since January, when the Trump administration promised to ramp up enforcement. He noted East Chicago also has a significant population of people with Puerto Rican, South Americans and Cuban descent.
“Let’s do it the right way,” he said, “not just snatch people off the street (and) break up families. People have due process.”
North Township Trustee Adrian A. Santos said ICE was temporarily staging in the back area of the Oak Hill Cemetery in Hammond early Friday morning.
“We want to be clear, the Office of the North Township Trustee was not notified, did not coordinate, and did not authorize this activity,” Santos said in a statement. “Our office stands firmly with and for the people we serve. We understand how alarming and distressing this situation may have been for our staff and for our residents and families with loved ones laid to rest at Oak Hill Cemetery. Please know that ICE is no longer present on cemetery grounds.
“Oak Hill Cemetery is a sacred space and a place of rest, reflection, and remembrance. It should never be used in a manner that causes fear or distress within our community. We remain devoted to transparency, dignity, and advocacy for all people and especially the most vulnerable among us.”
Immigration tactics appear to have grown increasingly aggressive, according to the Associated Press.
Agents used unmarked trucks and a helicopter on Sept. 30 to surround the five-story apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore section. NewsNation, which was invited to observe the operation, reported agents “rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters.” Agents then went door to door, woke up residents and used zip ties to restrain them.
Across the U.S., ProPublica documented cases of agents smashing car windows in arrests. The Chicago Sun-Times documented at least four unmarked vehicles that ICE used without license plates.
“What’s to stop them from picking me up,” said Garcia, who is of Puerto Rican descent. “There’s a big fear that they will pick up other (U.S. citizens) as well.”
Copeland promoted a protest for 1 p.m. Saturday at City Hall, organized by Purdue Northwest-based More Action for Students.
City police officers will be there to make sure it goes off peacefully, Copeland said. He added in a statement that the city “fully supports the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech” and will have police there to protect those attending. He cautioned, however, that residents “remain calm and not engage with ICE agents, either verbally or physically.”
“There will be many who will foolishly inform you that the city is empowered to take action against ICE; this is not only false, but it is dangerous misinformation,” Copeland said.
Like Copeland, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton told residents to be careful, noting police cannot stop immigration enforcement.
“The presence of federal ICE agents in our region is unsettling and causes significant concern within our community,” he said in a statement. “I want to be unequivocally clear: my administration does not support the efforts or condone the actions of ICE raids that target our friends, family, and neighbors because of their race and ethnicity.”
“While the Gary Police Department cannot legally interfere with the operations of a federal agency, our commitment remains to the safety and civil rights of every person who calls Gary home,” Melton added. “Our police officers are here to protect all residents and enforce local laws, and they will continue to serve our community with dignity and respect for all people.”
On Thursday, Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott, providing a screenshot from surveillance cameras, said ICE was kicked off the city police’s parking lot and barred from using it as a staging ground.
“Let me be clear: Hammond does not have any agreements or partnerships with ICE that authorize them to use our city’s facilities or property for their operations,” McDermott said in a statement. “It is deeply concerning that federal agents would enter and use Hammond’s property without permission — especially when the Federal Courthouse is located just one block west of our police headquarters.”
Unlike Illinois, which bars local and state police from cooperating with ICE, Indiana Governor Mike Braun, shortly after he took office in January, signed an executive order requiring the state’s law enforcement agencies to sign immigration-enforcement agreements with the Department of Homeland Security, the Post-Tribune previously reported. The federal agency now has agreements with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indiana State Police, Indiana Department of Correction, in addition to the Indiana National Guard.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security has a 287(g) agreement allowing it to make arrests, issue legal detainers, hold immigrants in custody and operate in a joint ICE task force. Indiana State Police “have a similar agreement,” he said.
The executive order, however, stops short of requiring local municipalities, like East Chicago, Hammond and Gary to do the same, saying instead that he “requests and encourages the local law enforcement officers and agencies of the State of lndiana’s political subdivisions to fully cooperate with ICE and to enter into agreements under 8 U.S.C. 1357(g) with the United States Government, as found necessary and appropriate.
The Associated Press contributed.