Two questions were written on the whiteboard at the front of LWH 1001. One of them was, “Why is this issue important to you?” Everyone was asked to write answers on sticky notes and stick them on the board: “Collective responsibility to care for one another”; “The US is built by immigrants who continue to be a blessing to our country”; “This affects my friends, my family, my community”; “Because I am an immigrant.” 

In a joint effort from the NEIU Sociology Department, the NEIU Chapter of University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) and the NEIU Council on the Status of Latines, a MigraWatch Training was held this past Thursday and Friday. I attended Thursday’s session.

The session Diego Morales, organizer for the rapid response group Pilsen Unidos Por Nuestro Orgullo (PUÑO), a coalition advocating for immigrants and immigrant rights through education, community engagement and legal support in Pilsen and the surrounding areas. He led us through the important broad strokes of MigraWatch and the rest of their Rapid Response approach.

This huí was far more intricate and educational than I could be here, so I initially planned to showcase the high points, the overall feeling during and after the training, and to recommend you get to one of these training sessions if possible.

However, on September 12, the day after I attended that training and at the same time the second session was being held at the El Centro campus, ICE agents shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez in the Franklin Park suburb of Chicago after dropping off his two young sons at school. 

During the training, Morales outlined important immigrant legislation operating at the city, state and national levels. He cited the Nava Settlement, the TRUST Act and the Chicago Welcoming City Ordinance. Together, these determine the scope of federal immigration agencies’ jurisdiction, while disrupting potential cooperation between state and federal agencies. They each do much more than that, and I encourage you to look into each of them to see exactly what’s what.

In a video from Borderless shortly after the shooting, IL Rep. Norma Hernandez emphasized the need for verification of the warrant used during the stop and said, “My understanding is that it was not a judicial warrant.” We just learned that federal agents must have a signed judicial warrant to justify activity. If not, these agents had no jurisdiction to make a traffic stop. How is that possible? 

In another video caught by a bystander that showed the aftermath of the shooting, you can see that neither of the agents were wearing an official uniform. They both have on t-shirts and vests that look like they bought them themselves. 

According to the training, ICE agents can look like many things. It is important to know the difference between federal and state outfits in order to make the most accurate report and to know what these agents are officially emboldened to do. Variation in badges, vehicles, masks and clothes under the vest can all indicate whether they are ICE or not. 

But it is most definitely not that clear cut. Recounting a recent ICE raid in Pilsen, Morales showed pictures of agents and said, “[Federal agents] are not supposed to give the impression that they are police, and so you might ask yourself, why do they get to wear a vest that says ‘POLICE’ on it?” 

One of the agents who pulled Villegas-Gonzalez out of his car wore a vest with “POLICE” across the top, right above two sets of prepared zip ties. If they are not supposed to be dressing up like police, how are they getting away with it? 

In a DHS statement responding to the killing, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “Viral social media videos and activists encouraging illegal aliens to resist law enforcement not only spread misinformation, but also undermine public safety, as well as the safety of our officers and those being apprehended.” 

It sounds as if McLaughlin is blaming organizers for the reactionary state violence that has sadly become unsurprising. She is claiming that it was an encouragement to disobey that cost Villegas-Gonzalez his life, not the bullets shot by the officer in negligent panic, or worse, with cold-blooded intention. 

The MigraWatch training was the complete opposite of McLaughlin’s assertions, though. It centered around providing clarity and teaching us what rights to know, how to identify agents and how to assist in the most effective and accurate way possible in the event of ICE engagement. 

A bilingual flyer went around NEIU that said, “MigraWatch is a community-led effort where neighbors look out for one another by watching and documenting interactions with immigration agents, such as ICE, especially during potential raids and arrests.”

This was an apt description, and the training was massively educational in the laws governing immigrant rights, our own civil rights and tactics for helping in times of potential detainment like documenting and alerting the neighborhood to ICE activity.

But there was no training for what to do if you are (potentially) illegally pulled over and you react out of reasonable fear and you are killed. There is no plan for that. Because none of that should be legal. 

Violation of due process, overstepping allowed jurisdiction and use of unnecessary lethal force could all be potential claims of illegal behavior from the agents involved. So what? Will they be reprimanded? Or will this be justified away like most every state-sanctioned killing?

There was a motif, a pattern that Morales continued to reiterate throughout his training. “They are trying to make themselves look larger and meaner than they actually are.” “They, like all government agencies, are underfunded and understaffed, for the work they are trying to do.” I cannot stop thinking about the busted looking vests on the officers in that video. Has that $50,000 signing bonus not hit the account yet? What’s going on?

Reacting to the training, Secondary Education graduate student Noah told me that this was “something tangible in the nebulous cloud of chaos. This feels really actionable […] Everybody has the right to feel safe and everyone should care about protecting people that are being abducted illegally.” 

In the coming months, as Operation Midway Blitz rages on, we will see the extent to which these federal agents plan to stretch what they’re allowed to do. And, as Morales continued to point out in the training, “logistically, they don’t have the resources to do the work they’re trying to do.” So, they will be stretched too thin, or act reactively, or break laws in order to do the work being demanded of them. What does this mean for immigrants? I’m not sure, but I don’t think it bodes well.

So we have to do work too, as citizens. As neighbors, friends and family of immigrants. We must find ways to contribute whenever we can. We have to each make an assessment of the risk and time we are willing to sacrifice and act accordingly. Morales told me after the training that PUÑO wants to “empower people with knowledge, impress that there’s power in knowledge, and power in organization.” 

If you are interested in this sort of Rapid Response work, look into PUÑO and other groups’ offerings wherever you search on the Internet. If you don’t live in Pilsen, these trainings are propagating all around the city. Keep an eye out for opportunities to get involved in whatever community you may be a part of, and if you have the time and energy to join them, do it!

It is through these sorts of communally engaging and building acts that we can develop the networks of strategy and care that are needed to combat the ever-encroaching fascism and the never-ending state violence plaguing our neighbors.

In case of suspected ICE activity, call the Family Support Hotline: 1 (855) 435-7693 and report the instance as accurately as possible.