Chicago mayor urges unity amid immigration tension
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Rhyme Fest (left), Jaymal Green (center), and Vic Mensa. Photos: Jeremychanphotography/WireImage, Scott Olson/Getty Images and courtesy of Vic Mensa
Mayor Brandon Johnson is preaching a message of unity on immigration issues, putting him again at odds with some other leaders in the Black community.
Why it matters: President Trump's "Operation Midway Blitz" has resurfaced tensions between Chicago's Black and Brown communities that flared during the 2022-24 migrant crisis, when $300 million spent on new arrivals left resentment in underinvested Black communities.
The big picture: While some Black leaders are leaning into the divisions, others are urging cooperation. Johnson told the United Nations last week that Trump's immigration operation is an "assault on the dignity of all Chicagoans."
What they're saying: "We love [the ICE raids] because this is what we've been asking for," Chicago Flips Red co-founder Danielle Carter-Walters told the "Awake Illinois" podcast last week.
- Organizer and former mayoral candidate Jaymal Green said on Instagram, "All the Black people that are getting mad at ICE and Donald Trump alone — you got to get mad at the politicians right here locally … [They] decided to dump the migrant issue on the Black community like they do every single time."
The other side: "The divisions between Black and Latino people are significant and there are valid concerns, but at this moment, it's suicidal to not be unified," said actor and rapper Vic Mensa in a social post last month.
- "The same agents of the state are attacking, abducting and killing us both at the same time, and they're relying on our separation right now."
- Mensa also warned about the dangers of these divisions in an October essay for the New York Times.
Zoom out: "The sentiment in the Black community is extremely mixed," Cornel Darden, chair of the Greater Chicagoland Black Chamber of Commerce, told Axios.
- "We do know Jaymal Green very well and follow his views, which we think definitely represent a large segment of the Black community."
Yes, but: Black owners of landscaping, construction and food businesses are losing employees in the ICE raids, and Black real estate businesses have made money providing shelter to migrants, Darden said.
Between the lines: Rapper and Chicago School Board member Che "Rhymefest" Smith told Axios, "I see both sides of the debate, but at the end of it all, we have to stand on the side of humanity. We need to use this opportunity to all link arms, otherwise we're missing out on a chance to truly fight back in a robust, effective way."
The bottom line: Just as he did during the migrant crisis, Johnson finds himself fighting battles with outsiders and some inside the Black community. But he's not backing away.
- "An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us," Johnson told the United Nations Human Rights Council last week. "And in Chicago, we stand united to defend our shared dignity, our safety and our freedom."