Is ICE In Chicago Targeting Black Americans For …Deportation? This Is What We Know

Has it begun? Is this when the federal government – this federal government – comes for Black Americans?

Ostensibly, the recent ICE operations in Chicago were to track down undocumented people the feds said had “flocked to Chicago and Illinois seeking protection under the sanctuary policies” of Illinois’ governor, JB Pritzker. Not one of the 16 people whose arrests were touted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a press release is Black.

But there’s plenty of Black trauma, plenty of Black terror from ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” Black Americans were detained during the operation for several hours. At least one South Shore resident told a Chicago radio station she and others, including children, ducked for cover when agents stormed into the building where they live.

“They was terrified,” the woman said. “The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too. Had them zip tied to each other.”

DHS said the agents were looking to apprehend the “worst of the worst.” Pritzker had a different interpretation.

“ICE is running around the Loop harassing people for not being white,” the governor said. “Just a year ago, that was illegal in the United States. Now, ICE is making it commonplace. That’s not making America great.”

A year ago, of course, was before the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court ruling that barred ICE agents from using race and location as factors in where and how they could scoop up people. Discerning Black folks, those not busy covering their eyes and ears, saw that moment as a step closer to what many fear will be the true goal of this administration: wholesale detention and possible deportation of Black Americans, long the most reviled minority for some white Americans.

Think that’s being ‘over-sensitive’ or ‘using the race card?’ Just listen to the way President Trump talks about Black Americans, some of whom he brands as irredeemable, natural-born criminals and killers. See the way some white conservatives responded to an examination of the words of recently slain activist Charlie Kirk, a man who rose to prominence – and not a little coin – by castigating Black Americans and other minority group members.

If some white Americans feel it’s a Democratic project to replace them with left-leaning immigrants, a healthy number of Black Americans feel that, while those white Americans are happy to snatch the low-hanging fruit of undocumented people, their ultimate goal is a different fruit. It’s strange fruit, and Chicago could be the beginning of a terrifying harvest.