AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to end today’s show with Juan, where he is right now, in Chicago. On Saturday, the Chicago Teachers Union organized a protest dubbed “Funds Not Feds” outside the Chicago headquarters of Google. They’re demanding an end to ICE raids and calling for federal funds to be redirected to schools, healthcare, food assistance and violence prevention. This is Chicago Alderperson Anthony Joel Quezada.

ANTHONY JOEL QUEZADA: We’re also here because we know what we’re up against. Donald Trump and his fascist authoritarian administration are advancing an agenda built on fear and division. They are stripping away healthcare, food access and housing from those who already struggle the most, like our elders and our working families. They are terrorizing our communities and kidnapping our neighbors. And while they take from the many, they reward the few.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Juan, Juan González, there in Chicago, leading reporter, as usual, reporter extraordinaire, talk about the latest in Chicago right now.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Amy, the amazing thing that’s happened over the last several weeks is this grassroots movement that has developed all around the city to protect immigrants from ICE raids.

Just late last week, in the mostly Latino neighborhood of Belmont Cragin, there was a meeting called for community members to join a rapid response group. They were supposed to meet at a Mexican restaurant. Over 200 people showed up, so many people that they couldn’t actually hold the meeting, because people couldn’t fit into the restaurant to sit down and get their instructions. So they basically had to give out the literature.

There have been meetings all around the city, at college campuses and in neighborhoods, to build this self-defense group, at the same time that the political leaders are constantly on top of the issue, from the governor to the mayor to the local elected officials and alderpersons. And the mayor, of course, issued an executive order not permitting any city-owned property to be used by ICE. So, there is, from the ground level up to the highest levels of political office in Illinois, a tremendous response and resistance to the Trump raids and to the threats of trying to bring in the military to Chicago.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, that does it for our show today. Juan, thanks so much for that report.

We end today’s show by wishing Miguel Nogueira a happy birthday, and also a happy fifth birthday to my beloved Zazu Goodpup! She came to us in a nor’easter in 2020. I wish her brother, her beloved brother Kasha, a happy birthday, as well. And thanks so much for joining us.

I’ll be speaking at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe on October 17th, on Friday night, as they show the new film on Democracy Now! called Steal This Story, Please!, and then on Saturday and Sunday in Woodstock and Saugerties. Check our website at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks for joining us.