Justice
Chicago Police Admission Exposes Loophole in the City’s Sanctuary Protection
A Guatemalan immigrant is facing deportation after his association with a city gang database. Except the police now concede they wrongly dubbed him in a gang.
Chicago prides itself on being a welcoming city for undocumented immigrants, and has challenged President Donald Trump’s efforts to withhold funds from so-called sanctuary cities. But even in Chicago, that sanctuary has significant limits.
A controversial database maintained by the city that purports to track gang membership has ensnared at least one immigrant who the city now admits was wrongly designated a gang member. Mere inclusion on the list can be reason for Chicago police to report an immigrant to federal immigration officials, even without any criminal charges or convictions. Wilmer Catalan-Ramirez is now facing deportation after he was allegedly flagged for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) based the database.