Chicago is under attack by none other than the president of the United States in his latest authoritarian power grab.
Donald Trump has deployed the Texas National Guard to crush protests in Illinois as ICE conducts raids across Chicago, threatening the roughly half a million immigrants who call the Windy City their home as well as their neighbors who seek to protect them.
‘Squad’ member and Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez talks to Mehdi about the ICE invasion and how it’s affecting not just her community, but even her close friends and family members who are undocumented:
“I feel like we’re under siege. It is an invasion from the federal government, deploying a rogue agency that’s out of control, that is violent, to come and attack and express and demonstrate cruelty around the city of Chicago,” Rep. Ramirez says. “You have US citizens, as well as undocumented families, who are afraid of leaving their home, afraid of dropping off their kids at school. That’s the day-to-day in Chicago right now.”
The two also touch on a variety of topics, including:
Trump potentially invoking the Insurrection Act (“We are living under a fascist authoritarian agenda”)
Record-low Democratic Party approval (“The American people have not seen us as the opposition party”)
The government shutdown (“What Republicans have shown is they want us uninsured, they want us unhoused and unemployed”)
Plus, Hakeem Jeffries’s leadership, the tenuous Gaza ceasefire, and the right-wing backlash to her viral speech on her Guatemalan and American identities.
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