Robert Vargas

6. Among other things, Trump and Noem have sent a surge of SWAT-tactic trained federal agents to Illinois to use unprecedented, brute force tactics for civil immigration enforcement; federal agents have repeatedly shot chemical munitions at groups that included media and legal observers outside the Broadview facility; and dozens of masked, armed federal agents have paraded through downtown Chicago in a show of force and control. The community’s horror at these tactics and their significant consequences have resulted in entirely foreseeable protests. In response to those protests, local and state law enforcement agencies, including the Broadview Police Department, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, the Illinois State Police, and others, have been deployed to Broadview to maintain the peace. And ICE continues to operate the facility to process the hundreds of individuals it has detained in recent weeks. There is no legal or factual justification for Defendants’ Federalization Order. 7. Defendants’ deployment of federalized troops to Illinois is patently unlawful. Plaintiffs ask this court to halt the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the National Guard of the United States, including both the Illinois and Texas National Guard. Because this federalization is patently pretextual and baseless, Defendants cannot satisfy any of the three prerequisites for involuntarily federalizing any of the National Guard of the United States under 10 U.S.C. § 12406. Not only have the defendants acted outside the authority of 10 U.S.C. § 12406, but their conduct also violates the Posse Comitatus Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and, of paramount concern, several provisions of the U.S. Constitution. 8. The Trump administration’s illegal actions already have subjected and are subjecting Illinois to serious and irreparable harm. The deployment of federalized National Guard,

Illinois v. Trump lawsuit seems to confirm the idea that the recent surge of county and state police departments outside of the Broadview ICE facility was decided to preempt the Federalization Order.

I'm not justifying that decision per se, but it appears to be the least poor of two poor options.

The Jimmy Kimmel news got me thinking of Stuart Hall saying, “Where are the emergent forces? Where are the cracks and the contradictions? What are the elements in public consciousness one could mobilize for a different political program?"

The president of the United States just declared war, actual military war, not a metaphorical one, on a major American city, and one governed by his political opponents.

In any other period, this would be impeachment-worthy.

ICE just reactivated its contract with an Israeli firm that makes phone-hacking spyware. Here's what you should know.
#ICE #NewsUS #Hacking #spyware

Good lord. Does nobody on his staff know about the data portal?

Cities so desperately need more help negotiating the terms of their contracts with private entities. What a world we live in where presidents can shutter federal agencies with a flick of a switch but cities can't get out of their contract with surveillance tech firms.

It's a conflict of interest not to have a conflict of interest with the police lmao

That tweet made me think it was a headline from the onion. I don’t even know where to start.

The public-private partnership model leaves public safety dependent on private goodwill. When donors lose interest, programs disappear. Violence prevention’s enemies are not just in the White House, they’re in the room signing checks with one hand and blocking taxes with the other.

Criticizing Trump for sending troops into cities and not addressing the economic inequality driving crime is one thing. But casting violence prevention as a smarter and less expensive alternative is tone deaf given that the Black/brown VP work force earns a fraction of what first responders earn.

Opinion | Trump’s Crackdown Will Make Crime Worse

Pleased to see attention brought to Chicago’s public-private funding of violence prevention. But feels like the private sector wants it both ways. Celebrate crime declines from programs they fund but opposing taxes for scaling these programs permanently.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/o...

Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s theorizing about lynching in relation to the carceral system helped me understand how—like today—people and institutions may fight over who has dominion over committing racial violence, detentions, and executions, but they aren’t antagonistic to each other’s political project.

Fantastic work!

Thanks! One more question, would it be state level prosecutors, or the local prosecutors (like a county level prosecutor)? Asking because Illinoisans are looking into very similar strategies.

Who or what is the enforcement mechanism/agency if someone gets caught violating this?

Stephen Miller Crime stats in big blue cities are fake. The real rates of crime, chaos & dysfunction are orders of magnitude higher. Everyone who lives in these areas knows this. They program their entire lives around it. Democrats are trying to unravel civilization. Pres Trump will save it.

Wow

🚨NEW: This is what all networks should do!

MSNBC fact checks Trump live during his press conference.

The REAL crime stats are put on screen as he reads out his made up figures.

Chicago violent crime, homicides dropped after ShotSpotter removal, study finds A new study looks at Chicago crime post-ShotSpotter.

Proud of David Hackett for fielding questions about our study live on WGN. For folks worried about the 54 deaths at locations where the tech was turned off, please note that more deaths occurred at those places when Shotspotter was ON last year.
wgntv.com/news/chicago...

“We’re first responders—just like police, firemen and nurses —but we don’t get protective gear. Just for $40K? And a lot of [street outreach workers] don’t make that!”

A powerful op-ed that should really open some eyes.

Relatedly, we show that homicides are down 37% in police beats with shotspotter devices. This is an especially important fact given the surprising number of advocates who said that turning off the mics would lead to a massive increase in preventable deaths.

With everyone under the sun trying to claim credit for Chicago’s 2025 crime decline, we created this interactive granular map to examine some of the most popular claims. Take a look. If you have claims you’d like us to fact check, let us know!

uchicago-justice-project.github.io/chicago_crim...

This is a reason why I've been skeptical about the Mayor's claim that improved clearance rates have contributed to the decrease in crime.

I messaged the author exactly about this and he said a response is coming.

CPD has steadfastly claimed responding officers did not know immigration activity was happening on June 4. But a phone call to OEMC from a police captain in CPD HQ shows he knew it was Homeland Security Investigations—an arm of ICE—but didn't want to broadcast that or "make it a media thing."

I doubt it changes most of your findings but im still not sure whether the decline is real. Clarity would be great!

Chicago: The city of moving goal posts. I hope Mamdani's people in NYC are taking notes.

CPD Working to ‘Fix’ Problem That Led to 211K Undocumented Traffic Stops, Police Official Tells City Panel CPD reported to state officials that officers made 295,846 traffic stops in 2024. But police dispatchers recorded that officers made an additional 210,622 stops in 2024 that were not documented, raisi...

Cool graphs. I read that 210,000 traffic stops are missing in the data according to this piece? Did that affect your findings? news.wttw.com/2025/07/02/c...

State + local budgets will be torpedoed by the deathmonger bill.

It will be beyond tempting for your state/local politicians to try to fill in the gaps by seeking the only new federal assistance $ available to help offset huge expenses: billions in ICE $ for policing and jails.

Strategize NOW.