Some Forest Park residents want ICE-free zones in the village, and for it to update its welcoming resolution after, on July 30, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer entered Village Hall and was escorted out the back to avoid being filmed.
The following week, Forest Park resident Betty Alzamora had a petition ready to present at the first council meeting in August. Now signed by over 180 people, most of them Forest Park residents, the petition asks the village council to pass legislation that restricts ICE agents from entering certain buildings, including Village Hall, and update the village’s pledge to serve all residents equally.
“It kind of boiled down to two big things that could be done fairly quickly,” Alzamora told the Review, a conclusion she came to after consulting immigration lawyers. Alzamora leads the PASO-West Suburban Action Project’s response team and co-heads the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “I got outrage from a lot of community members that live in the area. I started getting a sense of just the level of distress we were all feeling.”
Forest Park resident Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin was one of those community members.
“Police want people to be able to report crime. They want people to feel safe coming to them for help, and people are only going to do those kinds of things if they feel safe, that the police aren’t cooperating with ICE,” Bloyd-Peshkin told the Review.
Mayor Rory Hoskins said he understands the community’s requests through the petition.
“I would support designating ICE-free zones near Forest Park buildings if we have the legal authority,” Hoskins told the Review, since Forest Park is a non-home rule community and has limited authority in passing local regulations and ordinances. “I appreciate the work being done by the advocates. I support updating the welcoming resolution.”
Alzamora said during public comment at the Sept. 14 meeting that organizers have shared draft language for welcoming resolutions and ordinances that would codify new amendments into the village code.
“It’s an open conversation that we hope to continue to have with all of you. We’re just super grateful that you you’ve made yourself available,” Alzamora said to the village council. “We’ll be patiently waiting for next steps from you.”
Alzamora, who is also on the board of the Park District of Forest Park, said the suggestions the petition makes extend to both sides of the aisle.
“This is not a political thing,” she told the Review, adding that first responders “may not agree with some of the politics, but I think they would appreciate procedure because that is what they have sworn to do, to uphold the constitution, to follow the municipal code.”
Passing legislation
Forest Park’s welcoming resolution hasn’t been updated since it was written in 2017. Later that year, the Illinois Trust Act was signed, restricting municipalities from participating in federal immigration enforcement. And the Illinois Voices of Immigrant Communities Empowering Act was passed in 2018 to allow victims of crimes like trafficking and rape to request a form needed to apply for a federal visa.
“I feel like this is a time to challenge the village to move beyond resolution and into codifying some of this language into an ordinance, like many municipalities have done,” Alzamora said, citing that Oak Park, Evanston, Chicago and several other surrounding municipalities have ICE-free zones.
During meetings with Hoskins and Commissioners Maria Maxham, Michelle Melin-Rogovin and Jessica Voogd, Alzamora provided officials with information about how other municipalities have created ICE-free spaces and sample training procedures.
“If we train our first responders, our village staff, the people who are most likely to interact at Village Hall with, not just a potential federal presence, but also with residents that have varying degrees of vulnerability. That should be something that feels like it’s common sense, practical and easy to implement,” Alzamora said.
“Municipal employees will be better situated if they know exactly what the rules are,” Bloyd-Peshkin said. “Training is what helps people respond when they’re under pressure or stress.”
And Alzamora said it should be an effort between Forest Park residents, local government and businesses.
“I think it’s a collective responsibility,” she said, adding that residents and first responders have the same priority of community safety.
Bloyd-Peshkin said it gives her hope that village staff and commissioners are working with the Forest Park Police Department.
“I love the respectfulness that they won’t tell police what to do, but work with them,” she said. “The timing is perfect with the new police chief to institute policies that make everyone feel comfortable.”
Lt. Daniel Pater will become police chief next month, after Chief Ken Gross retires at the end of September.
ICE surveillance
Alzamora expects ICE activity to only increase in the western suburbs and says the village should have processes in place for when it happens.
“This last week has been horrendous in terms of enforcement,” Alzamora told the Review on Sept. 11. “They’re out in force. They’re starting to come out at night, which we hadn’t seen since last year. Chances are, as we deepen into the fall, we’re going to start seeing more activity.”
Because of this, Alzamora hopes that appeasing the requests of the recent petition can serve as a foundation for future protections against ICE.
“It doesn’t end here,” Alzamora said, rather “this is the last straw” in numerous cases of alleged misbehavior of Forest Park police officers.
She said she also wants to get rid of the several license plate reader cameras in the village and was part of the effort to successfully do so in Oak Park last year.
Last September, Forest Park police discovered that, for over a year, they’d inadvertently been sharing data from license plate readers in the village with ICE.
Alzamora said that, last year when ICE came to the Chicagoland area, one of the first people that PASO-West Suburban Action Project’s rapid response team helped was located through cameras that capture license plates.
“I’m dead certain that was license plate reader data,” Alzamora said of how ICE found the person. The license plate readers are “surveilling all of us, not just people with vulnerable immigration statuses.”