Quigley cuts funds for ICE 'Citizens Academy'

Garcia, Schakowsky call ‘vigilante’ program training citizens to arrest undocumented immigrants a boondoggle

U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Mike Quigley (right) have raised issues over funding for a “Citizens Academy” in Chicago that Schakowsky charges is a “vigilante organization.” (One Illinois/Ted Cox)

By Ted Cox

Three Illinois U.S. representatives joined this week in attacking a federal immigration initiative they charged with being a “vigilante” program that would turn Chicago and other cities into a “police state.”

U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia of Chicago and Jan Schakowsky of Evanston all took issue with a “Citizens Academy” program under the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in the Department of Homeland Security. Set to launch with a six-week pilot program in Chicago in September, it “aims to train citizens to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants,” according to a news release. It charged the program “would dangerously increase fear and discrimination against immigrant communities and lead to increased violence and racial profiling.”

“The United States is not a police state where ordinary men and women are deputized to carry out immigration enforcement based on discriminatory racial-profiling practices,” Quigley said in a statement. “The so-called Citizens Academy program would do nothing less than train Americans to suspect their friends and neighbors of being dangerous criminals, regardless of their actual immigration status. In Chicago, we believe that immigrants make our city great. ICE’s targeting of our city for this pilot program is an affront to our values and I, for one, will not let it stand.”

Quigley lived up to that pledge by getting an amendment passed Wednesday to the Homeland Security funding bill for the 2021 fiscal year that denies funding for the program.

Earlier in the week, Garcia charged that it was a boondoggle, especially as the Department of Homeland Security has cried poor in claiming that it is not adequately funded. Both he and Schakowsky complained in a formal letter to the House Appropriations Committee that it should not be funded.

“These ‘academies’ are nothing more than taxpayer-funded PR stunts to improve the image of an agency that continues to cage migrant children in inhumane and deadly detention centers,” Garcia said in a statement. “The launch of a pilot Enforcement and Removals Office Citizens Academy in Chicago directly contradicts the Department of Homeland Security’s claims of being too cash-strapped to carry out core components of their mission.

“It is unconscionable that the Trump administration further delays resolving … visa and citizenship application backlogs while allowing further personnel resources to be allocated to unchecked programs that create fear within our communities,” he added. “I’m proud to support my colleague, Rep. Quigley, to immediately defund these activities.”

“We are a country of immigrants, and throughout Illinois and the Chicagoland area we have a diverse population and welcoming communities that are open to all,” Schakowsky added. “When I heard that ICE is starting a ‘Citizens Academy’ for the Enforcement and Removals Office in Chicago, I knew they were trying to attack sanctuary cities by creating some sort of vigilante organization to harass, arrest, and deport our immigrant-community members. Given the history of ICE abusing its power, Congress must block any funding that would be used to support these kinds of programs that could lead to increased profiling and militarization by ICE.”

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth echoed those criticisms Friday, issuing a statement saying, “This PR move by ICE is remarkably misguided, will do nothing to make communities any safer, and should never have been proposed in the first place, much less while ICE is claiming they do not have sufficient funding for essential functions.”

Garcia, whose district is heavily Hispanic, has railed repeatedly against ICE. He charged last year that the Trump administration was “declaring war on our neighborhoods” by creating a $1 million training site for immigration agents designed to look like Chicago’s Hispanic neighborhoods.

Quigley argued forcefully for the funding ban on the House floor Wednesday, saying, “This program has yet to become operational, and with this amendment it never will,” and adding, “This program intends to train everyday citizens on how to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants, and includes courses on defense tactics, firearms instruction, and targeted arrests. This cannot simply be understood as a program designed for citizens to learn about a federal law-enforcement agency’s operation. Instead, it will perpetuate a culture of fear and discrimination that will inevitably lead to increased violence and racial profiling in our communities.”

Quigley pressed the point, saying, “It is neither the right nor the responsibility of civilians to carry out immigration enforcement in the United States. Regardless of how one feels about the administration’s policy — I for one am deeply opposed — we should agree that federal law enforcement does not need to build up an unofficial citizen police force aimed at suspecting neighbors and friends.”