Immigrant communities across the United States are fearing the coming days as Trump has threatened to begin carrying out mass deportations. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, had said Chicago would be “ground zero” for the initial raids, but he has since walked back his comment. Jose Muñoz is co-chair of the Illinois Latino Agenda.
Jose Muñoz: “Individuals and families are worried about what potentially could happen, and they’re worried about deportation. But the biggest blow to our community is living in fear. You know, when communities are living in fear, they don’t go to work. They don’t go to school. Long term, that has an impact not just on the immigrant communities, but it has an impact on our entire city and entire country as a whole, because we rely on immigrant labor. We have our growth, our population. Our consumers, a very large portion of them are immigrants that are coming into the U.S. And so, when they’re in fear, it impacts all of us.”