While many families prepared their children for school Monday morning, Sept. 29, I woke up to calls from parents in Chicago too afraid to leave their homes. Rumors of immigration enforcement were spreading, and the simple act of walking a child to school felt like too much of a risk. I am a mother and an Illinois state representative, and these calls hit me in two places at once: as a parent who wants my child to grow up free from fear and as an elected official entrusted to protect the rights and dignity of my community.
Friday, the scene in my Chicago neighborhood included helicopters flying above and armed convoys patrolling our streets.
Some of our worst fears were realized the next day when, as NBC Chicago reported, ICE agents rappelled from helicopters onto a housing complex during a 1 a.m. raid and zip-tied people, including U.S. citizens and children, in the South Shore neighborhood. That’s near where my family has lived for decades. By all accounts the federal administration has used this exaggerated staging as a media opportunity without producing a shred of evidence that its use of excessive force was justified.
By Friday, the scene in my Chicago neighborhood included helicopters flying above and armed convoys patrolling our streets. In broad daylight, federal agents released multiple tear gas canisters into a crowd across the street from an elementary school. In a second instance, as a local TV station reported, agents released tear gas outside an emergency room in my community, and Alderwoman Jessie Fuentes, our City Council representative, posted a video of being handcuffed by ICE briefly after she questioned agents at that medical facility.
That is what makes President Donald Trump’s latest threat, that Chicago is one of the cities he wants to use as a “training ground” for the military, even more chilling. Trump is not only scapegoating our city and other cities for political gain; he is openly plotting to experiment on working families, immigrants and communities of color by turning our neighborhoods into staging grounds for authoritarian force. We must not turn away at this moment.
I know what militarization looks like, and it is not safety, it is fear. It looks like children crying when their parents don’t come home. It looks like families going underground, skipping school or work, because they are terrified of who might be waiting outside their doors. Militarization leads to trauma that lingers long after the raids end.
I know how this feels because I grew up with a mother who was undocumented. I grew up not knowing whether my mother would be there when I came home from school. I also know what real safety looks like. It looks like parents walking their kids to school. It’s stable housing, a living wage, health care and classrooms where children can learn without fear.
Chicago resists because it must. When Trump threatens to tear us apart, we come together through rapid response networks, neighborhood associations, congregations and coalitions of workers and students. The Chicago I represent is not a testing ground for militarization; it is a proving ground for democracy.
I grew up with a mother who was undocumented. I grew up not knowing whether my mother would be there when I came home from school. And we are not powerless. For months now, I have worked alongside rapid response teams that mobilize the moment there is word of an ICE raid or sweep. We have turned resistance into law. In Springfield, I led the Safe Schools for All Act, which ensures schools remain safe from immigration enforcement. I worked to secure major state investments for Illinois’ Welcoming Centers and the Access to Justice program, in which immigrant families receive housing, health care and legal support that is denied to them in other settings. Additionally, I worked alongside the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to ensure resources reached grassroots organizations on the ground. As I reflect on the moment, I am reminded of the important work to follow. This veto session, Illinois lawmakers have a clear opportunity to take the next step: passing legislation to ban ICE from courthouses, health care settings and day care centers, places where people should feel safe. For too long, immigration agents have lurked in the hallways of our courts, deterring victims of crime and survivors of abuse from seeking justice. A courthouse should be a place where truth and fairness are protected, not where fear is manufactured. If we are serious about building communities where families can thrive, we must ensure that every resident, regardless of status, can access the justice system without intimidation. I return to where I started. I’m a mother. When I walk my son to school in West Humboldt Park, I want him to see a city that welcomes families, not one that frightens them into silence. I want him to grow up knowing that leaders stood up against fear politics and that resistance is not only possible, but powerful. Trump may see Chicago as a training ground. I see it as a home, one worth defending with everything I have as a mother, an attorney and a state representative. We will not be his training ground. No city should ever be used as a training ground; authoritarian reach is not acceptable anywhere in the country. I am part of a network of mothers, attorneys and elected officials at every level of government who will resist.
Illinois state Rep. Lilian Jiménez
Rep. Lilian Jiménez, a Chicago native and daughter of immigrants, has dedicated her career to protecting workers, immigrants and underinvested communities. Before her election in 2022 to represent Illinois’ 4th District, she led the Fair Labor Standards Division, served as chief of staff to Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” García and directed the Illinois Office of Welcoming Centers, overseeing $200 million in community grants and refugee resettlement. In the Legislature, she focuses on housing, worker protections and community wealth building. 
