Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Bans ICE from Police Database Before Raids

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) said Wednesday that the Windy City has made moves to bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from accessing its police databases amid reports of potential raids in more than 10 major U.S. cities slated for Sunday.

“They will not team up with ICE to detain any resident. We have also cut off ICE access from any CPD databases and that will remain permanent,” Lightfoot said. “Chicago is and will always be a welcoming city that will never tolerate ICE tearing our families apart.”

In a statement to the Chicago Tribune, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the city’s Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) database will not be available to ICE officials, though several federal government agencies will still have access.

“All other federal agencies still have access to these systems, as sharing this information is crucial to active criminal investigations in which we are partnering with federal agencies along with intelligence sharing functions that are vital to national homeland security functions,” Guglielmi stated.

Appearing Sunday on CBS News, Ken Cuccinelli, Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director said ICE is prepared to remove approximately one million illegal aliens with final orders for deportation. “[ICE agents are] ready to just perform their mission which is to go and find and detain and then deport the approximately one million people who have final removal orders,” he said. “They’ve been all the way through the due process and have final removal orders. Who among those will be targeted for this particular effort or not is really just information kept within ICE.”

Sunday’s expected raid will target at least 2,000 illegal residents.

Last month, President Donald Trump called off planned raids to deport roughly 2,000 illegal aliens with final deportation orders after details of the operation were leaked to the Washington Post.

Thomas Homan, the former Director of ICE, suggested Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan was responsible for the leak, which prompted the operation’s delay.

A Harvard/Harris survey shows a majority of Americans back plans to deport illegal aliens if Congress fails to act. More than 8-in-10 Republican voters support the move, while and more than 5-in-10 swing voters agree with it.