Rep. Delia Ramirez on what’s happening in Chicago.
Watch the full conversation in the video above. And please subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don’t miss future interviews.
Black helicopters over Chicago neighborhoods. ICE agents in ski masks storming grocery stores and parking lots. A congresswoman says her city feels “invaded by our own government.”
That’s how Rep. Delia Ramirez described life on the ground in her district — the heart of Chicago’s West Side — as federal agents round up immigrants and anyone who dares to question them. “This isn’t law enforcement,” she told me. “It’s an operation of terror, cruelty, and chaos.”
Ramirez is not given to exaggeration. She grew up in Chicago, the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants. Now she sits in Congress, and what she sees unfolding in her hometown — untrained agents arresting street vendors, shoving women to the ground, detaining U.S. citizens because of how they look — she calls “a war created by our very own government.”
We talked about what that does to a city’s soul — and to the idea of America. Ramirez said these raids aren’t just about immigration or crime. They’re about control. “He wants to break us into submission,” she said of Donald Trump. “He’s targeting cities that dissent, that organize, that still believe in democracy.”
And the images are made for television. Troops and armored vehicles rolling past the Trump Hotel, the message unmistakable: strength, dominance, fear. “Fascism always requires a public enemy,” Ramirez reminded me. “First, they come for the immigrants. Then they come for anyone who dares to confront it.”
Her warning is rooted in family experience. Her husband is a lawful permanent resident, a former Dreamer. And yet she says their home isn’t safe either. “People with green cards, even U.S. citizens, are walking around with passports in their pockets,” she said. “They’re terrified they’ll be taken anyway.”
Still, she insists she hasn’t lost faith. “I feel a higher sense of urgency to exercise my pride for this country by defending its democracy,” she told me. “My story isn’t unique. Every American family has an immigrant story — the question is whether we remember it.”
Watch the full conversation above. Then tell me what you think: Is what’s happening in Chicago law enforcement — or something darker?
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—Terry
P.S. In case you missed it, check out my conversation with Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes, who was handcuffed by ICE agents at a local hospital, as she tried to get information about an constituent injured in an ICE raid.