DeKalb County faith, school leaders react to immigration in Trump’s new era

DeKalb County education, law enforcement and faith leaders weighed in this week on policy changes from President Donald Trump’s new administration that could bring federal immigration agents into schools and places of worship.

Some expressed worry about how it could affect those they’re charged with keeping safe. Others expressed anger about what they felt was government overreach.

Executive orders signed by Trump made good on his frequent campaign trail promises to enact widespread deportations his first week in office. Earlier this week, he announced plans to target Chicago and other U.S. cities. On Tuesday, the Trump administration threw out a federal policy dating back to 2011 that restricted where federal immigration agents could go, enabling them to go into schools and churches to make arrests.

Although federal agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection still need a warrant signed by a judge before they can make arrests in those places, church and school leaders told Shaw Local that they’ve had to make plans for potential raids if they happen in DeKalb County.

DeKalb Migrant Aid coordinator Frankie DiCiaccio said they believe people who work in areas that could now be targeted, such as schools, should prepare themselves just in case.

“I think that if you work in a school or a hospital or a church or somewhere that previously could focus on the work at hand, you now have to add to that what to do if suddenly there’s an immigration raid,” DiCiaccio said.

The change in U.S. policy means federal immigration agents now can make criminal immigration arrests inside schools, hospitals or churches.

“I believe that churches should remain safe spaces – literally sanctuaries – for people who are in need. It’s really a violation, in my opinion, of the separation between church and state for somebody to enforce that kind of regulation by entering a peaceful place like a church.”

—  The Rev. Jonathan Crail

Faith leaders say churches should remain safe place for congregants

The Rev. Jonathan Crail, lead pastor of First United Methodist Church of DeKalb, said he is opposed to the federal order.

“I believe that churches should remain safe spaces – literally sanctuaries – for people who are in need,” Crail said. “It’s really a violation, in my opinion, of the separation between church and state for somebody to enforce that kind of regulation by entering a peaceful place like a church.”

Crail noted that although he doesn’t see his congregants as targets, he said he fears how more could become targets.

“If you look at parallels to the 1930s Germany, I think there is concern for a slippery slope over time where you say you’re silent about these sort of violations of sacred space,” Crail said. “What’s to stop the government from violating it from future laws that they decide to pass?”

The Rev. Joe Mitchell, lead pastor at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb, said he believes the president is in for a legal fight over his immigration policies.

“He’s going to have a constitutional fight on his hands because that’s part of the Constitution and, secondly, because of the separation of church and state, churches are not going to be forced to abide by any federal executive order that violates the Constitution,” Mitchell said. “As far as I’m concerned, churches are not going to be forced to participate.”

Mitchell said the way the president is approaching the issue is not helpful.

“Like most Americans, I agree with criminals, violent felons – especially violent felons – being deported from this country,” Mitchell said. “What I don’t agree with is innocent, hardworking, tax-paying and undocumented people being caught up in this political nonsense by the ... president.”

Lead pastor of the First Congregational United Church of Christ in DeKalb, the Rev. John Dorhauer, said he believes churches have always been judicious about carving safe spaces to protect people.

“And that Donald Trump would issue an edict giving the federal government permission to enter our churches to take into custody people that we are safeguarding for their own and their family’s good is horrifying to me,” Dorhauer said.

Dorhauer said he would feel more comfortable if DeKalb declared itself a sanctuary city.

“I do think so, but I’m not going to place that on them,” Dorhauer said. “I’m very happy with what the city manager made public earlier this week that the law enforcement would not support federal agents in the dispensation of their duties. I wrote to him this morning and let him know how pleased I was and the members of my church are.”

DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas on Monday issued a public statement declaring that local police wouldn’t help enforce federal immigration laws. Nicklas said his statement was in response to multiple citizen inquiries and concerns.

Federated Church of Sycamore’s lead pastor, the Rev. Eric Ogi, said he believes the rapid changes in federal policy by the Trump administration were done partly to sow discord.

“It’s meant to create that kind of chaotic environment that is an effective breeding ground for fear tactics, which this administration has been known for and is no doubt setting itself up for,” Ogi said.

Like Crail, Ogi also brought up atrocities committed by the Nazi Party and its followers in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, noting that they were legal under their own laws and outlawed aiding and comforting a person of Jewish faith.

School officials react

Sycamore School District 427 Superintendent Steve Wilder told Shaw Local that he and other administrators have been in touch with district attorneys to converse over possible effects that Trump’s orders could have on students and employees.

“We also understand that the state of Illinois has challenged those orders by filing a lawsuit challenging those orders,” Wilder wrote in an email. “The eventual outcome in Illinois isn’t clear yet, and in the meantime, our greatest concern will continue to be the safety and well-being of our students and staff.”

Wilder said he has communicated guidance to his staff and other district leaders.

“Our hope is that we can avoid any confrontation on school grounds,” Wilder wrote.

In a letter to district parents and families Wednesday, DeKalb School District 428 Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez sought to address community concerns.

“The district’s leaders and all applicable staff are being provided resources and detailed guidance about student rights and protections while interacting with law enforcement agencies such as [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and [Customs and Border Protection],” Garcia-Sanchez wrote Wednesday.

Garcia-Sanchez said the district intends to maintain its position as a welcoming institution.

In 2019, the DeKalb school board adopted a welcoming resolution that said district staff aren’t allowed to share information about students regardless of citizenship status. The resolution remains in effect.

“The district does not inquire about immigration status or request a family to produce documentation regarding immigration status for purposes of enrollment,“ Garcia-Sanchez said.

Northern Illinois University, as a part of its division of academic diversity, equity and inclusion, has an Undocumented Student Resource Center dedicated to providing resources for undocumented students.

University spokesperson Jami Kunzer told Shaw Local that university officials continue to monitor the situation.

“The Undocumented Student Resource Center is focused on supporting students,” Kunzer wrote in an email. “That’s where their time really needs to be spent right now.”

On Jan. 18, NIU Executive Vice President and Provost Laurie Elish-Piper sent an email to university faculty to share resources for undocumented student support. A similar email, shared with Shaw Local, went out to students from the division of student affairs on the same day.

DeKalb County sheriff says he’ll comply with state laws, which prohibit aiding feds

Although federal agents were empowered to make criminal immigration arrests at schools and places of worship, don’t expect Illinois State Police or local law enforcement to assist the operations.

The TRUST Act, passed by Illinois legislators in 2017, prohibits state or local law enforcement from stopping, arresting, searching, detaining or continuing to detain a person solely based on their citizenship or immigration status.

DeKalb County Sheriff Andy Sullivan said that although he was aware of Trump’s changing of federal regulations this week, he knows his office is prohibited under state law from participating in noncriminal immigration arrests.

“The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office will comply with the state law regarding immigration enforcement,” Sullivan said, “unless there is a clear and specific circumstance where a federal law legally has been determined to prevail.”

A memo published Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Justice authorized state and local police to make immigration-related arrests.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul argued that state law supercedes that directive, however.

“The 10th Amendment gives Illinois the right to opt out of federal civil immigration enforcement, as courts have repeatedly said,” a spokesperson for Raoul’s office told Shaw Local on Wednesday.

Raoul’s office published clearer directives Thursday morning: Illinois law enforcement can’t participate, assist or support federal immigration agents unless they have a criminal warrant.

“We are issuing this guidance to remind law enforcement agencies of their responsibilities under the law, and that the TRUST Act and VOICES Act do not limit them from executing their duties in criminal investigations,” Raoul said in a news release.

Will DeKalb County sheriff’s deputies start asking people for identification without cause?

“No,” Sullivan said. “We currently don’t do that, and we’ve never done that.”

What’s next?

The DOJ memo also directed department prosecutors, as well as their counterparts in U.S. attorneys offices, to “charge and pursue the most serious readily provable offenses” in criminal immigration cases.

Federal prosecutors also were directed to investigate anyone who stands in the way of immigration enforcement.

DiCiaccio said DeKalb Migrant Aid, which was created when Southern lawmakers began sending migrants in buses to northern cities such as Chicago, does not interfere with criminal immigration enforcement.

But DiCiaccio said they believe immigration policies often are more civil.

“A criminal investigation affords the investigators certain rights,” DiCiaccio said. “However, immigration is a civil matter.”

DiCiaccio said they believe there’s nothing wrong with helping people understand how to protect themselves, such as by ensuring people know their legal rights. On Tuesday, DiCaccio sent a digital resource packet to multiple local government agencies and nonprofits.

Late Thursday, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order overturning birthright citizenship, the policy that makes anyone born on U.S. soil a citizen, regardless of their mother’s documentation status. DiCiaccio said they believe Trump’s flurry of executive orders was a way for the president to set a tone for the next four years.

“I think that a lot of these executive orders are messaging more than substance,” DiCiaccio said.

Ogi, who is a leader of a church that has its roots intertwined with the Underground Railroad, said he believes churches remain places of sanctuary and refuge.

“I will not be bullied into complying with unjust laws, nor will I bow before threats to desecrate God’s name by invading our sanctuaries,” Ogi said. “I would go to jail before I make a butchery of my conscience and betray my vows as a minister of the gospel of life.”