Happy Halloween: NPR -- In Chicago, a Halloween weekend of immigration arrests and violence
It was an amazing weekend. Halloween. Tricker treaters. The World Series. Beautiful fall weather. But the Halloween weekend was not so great for some members of our community.
As NPR reports, heightened immigration enforcement actions in and around Chicago put a damper on Halloween and Day of the Dead celebrations. The bottom line is that there were fewer celebrations.
At least one Halloween parade was canceled. "There were a lot less parades," Ernesto, a resident of a largely Latino Chicago neighborhood, told NPR. "The fear," he says, "has been more palpable with each passing day."
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called for federal agents to pause "Operation Midway Blitz" during the Halloween weekend. "If you are unwilling to cease operations and leave our city, can we at least agree that our children should not be victims, especially on Halloween?" Pritzker asked.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the request "shameful." "We're absolutely not willing to put on pause any work that we will do to keep communities safe," she said at a press conference.
