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What To Know This Week: Trump is beta-testing his second-term deportation playbook on Chicago — and ICE is escalating fast. While city officials sue and stall, protestors are getting arrested, asylum seekers are vanishing, and federal agents are stonewalling Congress in broad daylight. Meanwhile, some Alders want emergency powers to kick teens out of public space, and Ald. Jim Gardiner just escaped consequences for retaliating against a constituent. Inspiring.

3 Headlines: ICE Continues Its Attacks, Youth Curfew, and Gardiner….

1. Chicago Is the Test For Trump’s ICE Crackdown

This week’s reporting confirms what organizers already know and see: Trump is using ICE raids as a political weapon in Chicago.

According to Rolling Stone, senior Trump officials are tracking protest activity here and prepping “mini-tanks” and tactical raids like those used in L.A. — a full-blown federal occupation aimed at criminalizing dissent and tearing apart immigrant communities. ICE has already begun detaining protesters at the Monroe immigration court (Block Club), and asylum seekers like Chao Zhou are being shuffled through multiple detention centers in Kentucky — despite following every legal procedure, including showing up to court (Block Club). ICE is moving fast, and federal agents aren’t waiting for legal review. They’re betting that chaos will let them disappear people.

There is an interconnected ecosystem of legal aid, public mobilization, direct resistance, and political pressure fighting ICE and Trump’s playbook from being implemented unopposed on Chicago soil. Sitting Congressmen — Reps. Krishnamoorthi and Jackson — daring to inspect a publicly funded ICE facility in the South Loop had masked ICE agents refused to identify themselves and got CPD called (same thing happened today with Reps Delia Ramirez and Chuy Garcia). Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has no such issues (from Capitol Fax).

Mayor Brandon Johnson has sued DHS over frozen counterterrorism funds (Politico), and called out ICE’s tactics as unconstitutional and depraved.

ICE is working overtime to make this feel normal — even sending masked agents who refuse to identify themselves, then whining to the press about “how hard their job is.”

Every elected official — especially those with national aspirations — have got to do more than rail against Trump in speeches.

Chicago can’t let ICE detain protestors, arrest citizens, stonewall Congress, and disappear people— all in public. This can’t set precedent.

Here’s what you can do, from the City Council’s Committee on Immigration & Refugee Rights chaired by Ald. Andre Vasquez:

Take Action:

📍 The federal budget reconciliation includes deep cuts to safety net programs that immigrant families rely on — while ramping up funding for mass detention and deportations.
📝 SIGN ON to the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and Detention Watch Network letter demanding Congress reject this cruelty: Sign here →

Demand NO Funding for Trump’s Deportation Machine

ICE doesn’t need more money — it needs accountability. Urge your Senators to oppose all new funding for enforcement and detention in the reconciliation bill.
📣 Tell Congress to shut it down: Take action →

End the Travel Ban — Permanently

The Trump-era travel bans are rooted in racist, Islamophobic fearmongering — and they’re still being normalized. Congress must pass the NO BAN Act and end discriminatory immigration policy for good.
📜 Sign the letter by June 18 at 5PM ET: Letter here | Sign-on form

2. SNAP Curfew Ordinance

Chicago City Council is set to vote today on a so-called “snap curfew” ordinance that would let CPD impose sudden, discretionary lockdowns on public spaces — explicitly targeting teens. It’s state-sanctioned profiling, pitched by the same aldermen who pretend to care about community violence prevention… when it’s convenient.
Despite vocal opposition from Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Progressive Caucus, and the youth who would be most impacted (including Good Kids Mad City, who, as they said in their post, “should have to fight this hard” to stop this ordinance), Ald. Brian Hopkins claims to have the 30 votes needed to pass this thing — and says CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling is on board. Prompting Snelling to release a statement declining to endorse it.

This ordinance would give CPD even broader discretionary power to decide who belongs in public space — and who needs to be removed. There is no public safety logic behind this, just lazy “tough on crime” politicking. Mayor Johnson says he’ll veto the ordinance if it passes — but a veto override only needs 34 votes. Which means if your alderperson isn’t fighting this, they’re helping it.

We shouldn’t have to drag teenagers to City Hall just to beg for the right to exist in public. But that’s what they did today — because they know what’s at stake. Safety doesn’t come from surveillance.

Ald. Brian Hopkins' ordinance to impose sudden, discretionary curfews in response to teen gatherings passed 27–22 — a narrow margin that falls well short of the 34 votes needed to override a mayoral veto. That means this fight isn’t over, and Mayor Brandon Johnson has a clear path to kill the ordinance. But the fact that 27 aldermen voted to expand CPD’s power to police teenagers with zero due process is concerning. We now have a police department that can declare a curfew with 30 minutes notice. This has to stop.

3. Ald. Jim Gardiner Continues to Gardiner

After four years, three interviews, a $20,000 ethics fine, and a scathing Inspector General investigation, Ald. Jim Gardiner has officially been cleared of retaliating against a constituent who criticized him on Facebook. The reversal came not because the facts changed, but because of a bureaucratic technicality: the city couldn’t fulfill discovery requirements in time. So Gardiner walks, prints out copies of the Tribune article and hands them out, and gave a really long speech.

• The city’s own IG found he misused public workers to punish a political enemy.

• The Ethics Board issued the largest fine of its kind against a sitting alder.

• The constituent got targeted with bogus rodent and weed tickets — and later won a settlement.

Quick reminder that Gardiner forced taxpayers to cover another $100K for a wrongful arrest claim and was caught sending misogynistic texts to colleagues.
“Happy to see the truth come to light,” he said, like none of this ever happened. A better rundown is also here from Heather Cherone at WTTW.

Listen: I'm not gonna be pretend to be an expert on the ethics proceedings in Chicago or what precisely happened here – – though I hope to talk to people who are in the next few days to give you a better rundown.

I’m mostly familiar with older Gardner for his creepy text messages, petty retaliation against constituents, deeply conservative votes, and misogynistic texts to colleagues. And, to be fair, his occasionally thoughtful stance on Palestine. You can take a quick walk through his Wikipedia here. I can’t in good conscience recommend you listen to the speech.

But anyone who wants to understand how the old school power system quietly sustains itself in this city should definitely take a look. 

1 Question: Why.

Can he… not.

2 Red Flags Stressing Me Out Today: Skremetti and Even More Opportunities for Disinformation

1. SCOTUS Just Legalized Medical Discrimination

From Erin Reed: In a 6–3 ruling today, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, giving red states a green light to gut trans healthcare by targeting “gender dysphoria” — while pretending they’re not discriminating at all. The case, United States v. Skrmetti, should’ve been about whether trans people are protected under the Constitution. Instead, the Court sidestepped that entirely and ruled that banning healthcare for trans youth is fine as long as you frame it as banning treatment for a diagnosis — not an identity.

Tennessee’s law literally says it exists to make kids “appreciate their sex.” It lets cis kids get hormones that align with their birth sex — but bans trans kids from doing the same. That’s textbook sex discrimination. The majority ignored it.

Worse, the ruling sets up a dangerous legal loophole: if states want to criminalize care for trans people, all they have to do is write the law without saying the word “trans.” They’re telling states: go ahead.

The Court didn’t strike down protections for trans people in bathrooms, schools, or employment (yet). But three justices — Alito, Thomas, and Barrett — said they wanted to. Here we go.

2. Americans Hate TV News

According to a new Reuters Institute report, more Americans now get their news from social media and video platforms than from TV, websites, or (lol) newspapers. No surprise there. 54% of Americans now say they got their news last week from social/video platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp. TV barely broke 50%. AI chatbots hit 7% overall. Even with Trump back in office, no “Trump Bump” materialized for legacy outlets. Why?

We’ve always been hooked on personality-led media — radio, TV talk, now YouTube and TikTok. And influencer culture made it easier to trust a person over a brand. But here’s the kicker: 73% of Americans say they’re unsure what’s true online. 

This is going to get worse….

That’s It This Week.

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_{All typos are intentional 4D chess.}