EMERGENCY EPISODE: How Chicago's Chinatown Is Responding to the ICE Raids and SNAP Benefits Crisis?

0:04 Hey everyone, this is Randy Kim from the Money Chronicles podcast. And today we are doing another emergency episode in what's been happening with the Chicago ICE raids and also now with the SNAP benefits being on hold. And so I decided to bring in Grace Chan McKibbin, who's been a friend of mine for the last several years, and she's a nonprofit leader in the Chinese American community. And also she was very kind enough to also bring Andrew Frangles, who's been helping her with the rapid response on the Ice Watch. So welcome, welcome, welcome. And I would like to have you be able to talk a little bit more about the work that you're doing so far in the Chicago Chinatown community.

0:53 Yeah, maybe I'll start. I think that when we first heard about potential immigration, increase in immigration enforcement, even as early as the middle of December, I thought that it would be important to form a response team in the Chinatown Bridgeport community because a lot of the residents being vaccinated new immigrants or immigrants that are limited in English speaking don't really know what's going on. So I think that's the impetus for starting the rapid response team that's connected with the general rapid response team that ICIR has been organizing.

1:40 And the rapid response teams are not new. They actually started during the first Trump administration with about five or six teams in different neighborhoods in Chicago and also in the suburbs. And then this time, I think very quickly, there were 10 or 12 teams that got formed. And then now there are several dozen in both the city and in the suburbs and um and it's important because it's really neighbors watching out for each other so even though you know we started out with a small team and it really grew organically because neighbors heard about it and want to have a way to participate to protect their neighbors.

2:25 And Andrew how did you get involved with this work? Yeah so I um I had worked with Grace and a couple other organizations around the Chinatown area on other organizing efforts over the years. And so I think it was around the summer that they pulled me in to see if I would help co-lead the team. And I had capacity at that time. And so I, yeah, got involved then. I think I'd been trained earlier. And so there's a few organizations around the city that have been leading trainings that are open to the public. So I just wanted to give that context too. Yeah. And also with the Chinatown community, what was the original response when the first waves of ice raids were happening?

3:11 What was in place at that time? And how have you been able to quickly respond to the constant movement of the ice in federal government? Yeah, so as I said, the rapid response team actually have been in place since December. And then in January, we had folks that are trained. And all the rapid response team members have a two-part training. One hour on know your rights, just knowing what the rights are of each person when they encounter law enforcement. And it's the same rights, whether it's federal agents, whether it's police, that you have the same rights to...

3:55 answer any questions, to request an attorney, to request search warrants and so on. So that's nothing new. And then the second part is to do this observation to when there are suspected acts to go outside and observe and take video and photographs as documentation. I think those are, so those trainings have been taking place and we've had this team since the beginning of January. And the first ICE reports of action on the street actually came in May and one of our team members observed it in May.

4:37 in progress. So that was reported in the local Chinese newspapers, as well as shared out on social media. And so there are Folks in the immediate community are, of course, interested in knowing what's going on because there had been this assumption that ICE action was happening only in Latinx communities. So I think that being able to share that this is happening in Asian-American communities as well is important. And with the Operation Midway Blitz that happened since, I want to say, September-ish, and I know October was definitely a month where it really escalated.

5:27 And today, the timestamp is like November 12th on Wednesday, and supposedly the ICE or Border Patrol chief, Greg Bovino, said that he's going to push... away from Chicago as of today. We don't know if this is official or not, so I want to be very mindful of that. But I think maybe something that I'm very curious about is have there been people, particularly the Chinese-American community, being detained during that particular wave? And what was that like for that community during this past month and a half?

6:12 Yeah, I could answer a little bit on that. So yeah, when we heard about the Operation Midway Blitz, when that was announced, and I think all the rapid response teams around Chicago were gearing up for it and preparing for it, we knew that we'd need more capacity and also to make sure that the neighborhood was really informed. I think with all the different languages in the Bridgeport Chinatown area, information doesn't always like travel in really quick ways or equal ways across different groups. And so the first thing we did in line with the rest of the city, city's rapid response teams was ramp up canvassing efforts.

6:52 And we have both, we've been doing both residential and business canvassing, and we have a sub team that's dedicated to canvassing that's grown a lot and developed a lot of resources. And with the help of CBCAC also like, you know, made sure that there's language access across cities, you know, Chinese, but also when we're going out and canvassing, we try to have Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. And we when we talk to businesses around Chinatown or when we're just knocking on doors or going around the community. So A lot of the time we run into people that are like, yeah, you know, I'm fine. I have a visa or I'm fine. I'm a citizen. And I think that there is still in some places around Chinatown, people that think that like they're not the target of it.

7:42 And, you know, at the same time, there's also business owners that are really eager for information. So when we talk to business owners, they want to keep their employees safe. And so they really want to know more about how to protect their employees. So we see kind of both types of reactions. But there have been a few detentions of people or kidnappings of people in Chinatown. And so I think the, you know, one of the first high profile ones that was part of the Operation Midway Blitz was in Bridgeport, right across the street from Minoso Elementary School about three weeks ago. And that person was a Chinese man who was a Mandarin speaker. And he seemed to just be in front of his house working on something in the front yard.

8:24 And some agents pulled up and took him. And we did have two rapid response team members present, one who works nearby and another one who lives very close by. And they recorded the whole interaction. And they were asking the ICE agents if they had a warrant or who they were looking for, if they knew the name of who they were looking for. And none of those questions were answered by the ICE agents. So that raises suspicions that they might not have. And they actually pushed one of the neighbors down during that interaction and then took that man. And I believe... I want to check with Grace on this, but I believe that that person is still being held in Michigan at a detention center.

9:10 And I think that that family had already been connected with the Chinese American Service League. You know, and so that organization has been connecting them to legal services and also other forms of support, because that was a family with a couple elementary school age children that was impacted by that. Mm hmm. Yeah. So I think that, you know, the pattern that we've seen is similar, that isolation seemed to focus on one neighborhood for a couple of days or a couple of neighborhoods for a couple of days and then move on to other neighborhoods. So we literally were able to see that there were two separate Bridgeport days in the course of the past few weeks.

9:52 And they were very intense. The day that Andrew mentioned was particularly intense because there were reports of ICE being seen questioning people or arresting people at several different places within Bridgeport in a very short amount of time. So there's very intense activity between like about 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Also with being in the Bridgeport and Armour Square neighborhood, it's also closer to some of the Black and Latinx neighborhoods with Pilsen and Little Village, not far from Little Village and Bridgeport and part of the South Side.

10:37 I'm very curious, have you been in communication with Black and Latinx communities around the Chinatown that are near the Chinatown area? Yeah, definitely more with the Latinx community because, you know, of the shared immigrant history and background. So and also geographically. So Archer Avenue. They've been targeted a lot as well. So they've had a lot of really intense activity, both in the southwest side and in the little village in Pilsen areas. For sure. Yeah. But I think in terms of communications, all the rapid response networks are linked.

11:18 And so if there's a general announcement that came out, folks would then... rebroadcasted within their own local groups for support for local support. And because Chinatown and Bridgeport is along Archer Avenue, you know, all the way to McKinley Park and Brighton Park. And then on the other side, close to Pilsen and Little Village, our team members have supported the rest of the southwest side and they have supported our team as well. So it's a pretty close connection. I'd love to just add one thing there, which is that there also are Latinx people and Black people who live in the greater, you know, the Bridgeport Chinatown area.

12:03 And I think like, you know, part of we have to view this type of work as like a chance to build, you know, connections across our community, because that's kind of the only upside to this is that It's bringing people together and resistance. And I just want to say like one, I have a friend who's part of the Pilsen team and the Pilsen team has like an open channel WhatsApp group just because they want to have a place where community concerns can be raised that they're aware of. And there was one day about, you know, sort of near the beginning of when the Operation Midway Blitz started, where there was a person in that public WhatsApp group who said, hey, you know, this was a message in Spanish.

12:44 And they were saying, I work at an elementary school in the Chinatown area, and I'm worried that the The people around me, the Asian American people around me don't have don't know what's going on. So I'm wondering where I can get like good information. So I'm aware of if there's ice activity in the area. Right. And to me, that sort of highlights just an issue when we have all these different language and cultural groups in one, you know, in one area that there are barriers between them. And so I thought it was really, you know, something that we want to like work to change is that feeling of like someone being in the neighborhood and thinking people don't have their back. Right. Just because they are a different racial identity or speak a different language.

13:25 And so I think, you know, lately we've been doing a lot of outreach to the elementary schools and the different schools in the area. And hopefully whoever that employee was now feels differently. But that's sort of something that we're working to build bridges around in our neighborhoods. I'm curious about, I was just going to ask you, like, I'm curious about the Asian-owned businesses too and organizations and what have they experienced with ICE raids, with ICE agents? Because oftentimes we have seen what ICE agents and CBP agents have gone through with Latinx businesses or Latini businesses. And And with Black-owned businesses or any people of color, any businesses owned by anyone of color.

14:08 So I'm very curious of what that has interactions been like. Have they been targeting like employees? Have they been... Have business owners been refusing to patronize ICE agents? I mean, obviously, there's been so much talk about what is the level of resistance and their role in trying to protect the community. Yeah, we, as part of the canvassing, we do some, we also do small business canvassing, talking to all the business owners. And we have not heard about any businesses that have been targeted specifically by ICE agents, but, but there is definitely a lot of openness from the business owners to learn about what they should do in case there are ICE agents present and they are very open to receiving the information that's given to them or talking about what it is that they should do.

15:15 All of our information, we have information in English and Spanish and Chinese. So we try to reach all of the businesses because as Andrew said, you know, like in Bridgeport, you have a mix of different racial groups and not all the businesses are Asian. Right. And there's a lot of businesses in that community overall that, because we have learned from Little Village, from Pilsen, Albany Park, and many of the Latinx heavy neighborhoods, a lot of their businesses have suffered as a result. Foot traffic has been reduced significantly because you have CBP agents and ICE agents throwing tear gas.

16:00 You have them like just... coming in unmarked vehicles and being very rogue. I wonder about the impact that it has on the Chinatown community so far from what you've observed and what have you been told so far? Yeah, we definitely have heard from businesses that foot traffic has been down, particularly since Operation Midway Bliss has started in September. So September, there's a fall off in foot traffic to businesses in October. And all the way, you know, the first few days of November definitely seem to be a lot of businesses reporting that they've lost people coming.

16:46 Yeah. And I mean, you know, given that we're so close to those neighborhoods, like I think usually I see a lot of people from those neighborhoods walking around Chinatown. And so, you know, I have some friends that are undocumented. And I know for anyone who even friends that are on visas. Right. Anyone who has anything but U.S. citizen and some U.S. citizens feel like they might be targeted, too, based on the way, you know, based on their racial identity. So I think just for a lot of people right now, like going out is a little bit scary, you know, because sometimes there's reports of ICE agents, you know, at L stations and sometimes you just don't know where they'll show up or where they might be stationed and things like that.

17:30 So I imagine that is affecting business in a lot of neighborhoods, but particularly in this very immigrant heavy part of Chicago. What has the involvement of, and I know I have had this conversation with Alderman Byron Sergio Lopez before, but I'm curious about what has Chicago Police Department and their involvement been in this community in the wake of these raids? Yeah. I think the role of CPD has always been very complicated because even though both Chicago Police and Cook County Police are not supposed to cooperate with ICE, what we've heard are some practices that may be a little marginally disruptive.

18:21 So, for example, one of our rapid response team members works closely with the Chicago 9th District Police District, which covers Chinatown, Bridgeport, all the way to McKinley Park, Brighton Park, and Back of the Yards. 9th District Police had told the police officers to ticket people that are driving erratically. And so the assumption was that, you know, there are rapid responders that are trying to follow ICE agents and so on, that the police would ticket them. And so our... volunteer asked the police department, does it mean that they will also ticket ICE agents that are driving erratically?

19:08 And the answer was, no, we're not going to ticket any federal agents. So, you know, I think that it's... Reports like this or practices like this make you wonder, even though the official policy is that local police, meaning Chicago and Cook County police, are not supposed to cooperate with federal agents. But if you're ticketing only civilians that drive erratically, but not federal agents that drive erratically, that does seem to be unfair. Yeah. And, you know, it's like also just to add to those questions, when these federal agents are driving unmarked vehicles, how do the how to CPD or, you know, the Cook County sheriffs, how do they know that those are federal agents?

19:51 Because that's something that we have been putting a lot of work into is figuring out, you know, who is a federal agent as we try to keep a watch and keep our neighborhood safe and informed, you know? So that, you know, that makes me wonder without cooperating and coordinating with each other, how do they know that that car is a federal agent? So I'm going to pull over the car that's behind them. Yeah. What support have the elected officials in this area provided to this community and what resources have they been able to share? Yeah, um, we've kept in close touch with the local elected officials that, you know, they cover this area.

20:34 So, um, all the women, Nicole Lee and, um, State Representative Trisama and State Senator Selena Villanueva all have, um, um been you know we we keep in contact our rapid response team keep in contact with them and with their staff and they've been uh very supportive whenever there are um reports of um people in the in their district being um taken by ice that they wanted to know and wanted to know how they can be helpful um and uh So last Sunday, there was a volunteer event of just volunteers coming together to pack whistle kits.

21:19 We have the whistles, and then we have zines, small instruction sheets that are in Chinese and in Spanish. So volunteers were packing the instructions and the whistles into a packet, and all the womanly instructions heard about the effort and she volunteered to supply pizza and that was well received. Yeah. And just to uplift that event that happened a little bit, which wasn't your question, I think we had two of those events to pack these kits with whistles over the past week and over 100 people from the Bridgeport Chinatown area came out and packed whistles, whistle kits for I think they packed like a thousand of them and have a whole plan to distribute them to different schools and businesses around and libraries as well.

22:11 around the area. And that's just a way for people to alert their neighbors if there's some suspicious activity to help raise awareness. As far as we are also talking about the ICE raids, we are also dealing with the SNAP crisis. And this also obviously affects the Chinese and immigrant communities in this area in particular. What has that looked like so far? And what has the response looked like in terms of mutual aid, food banks, and And I am coalescing with other nonprofit organizations in that area to help prepare for what would be a very uncertain time right now.

23:01 Yeah, so since the SNAP benefits have been suspended on November 1st, there have been a lot of different efforts, folks sharing more information about food pantries and about the love pictures. I know there's several social service organizations have shared these in their offices as well as on their social media. And then as far as mutual aid efforts are concerned, I know that there are different groups that are organizing different things. The rapid response, our rapid response team's care team also have folks that are interested in getting together to help.

23:42 to deliver groceries to families that might be impacted. So I think there's a pretty grassroots movement that is afoot, very similar to when we had the migrant crisis here two, three years ago and folks just wanting to pull together resources to help. So I think we have not heard, I mean, there's just general concern and anxiety among the Chinese or Asian American community about SNAP benefits. Most of the SNAP recipients in the Chinatown, Bridgeport area that are Asian are older adults.

24:29 And then there's some families, but by and large, they are older adults. And so there's a lot of murmuring among the older adults about how they're going to get their food resources. Fortunately, they're At Midwest Asian Health Association, they already have a food pantry that operates twice a week. So I don't know if they've seen an increase in people accessing that resource. I know that there are a lot of churches and so on that are also supplying food.

25:11 I know New Life is community center and New Life Church, which did a lot. They basically led most of the effort in preparing food for migrants during the migrant crisis they've offered to supply both hot meals and food for pickup. Yeah. And just to connect it a little more with the rapid response efforts, Like Grace said, so we have like a care sub team and they they help support members internally, you know, because after you see someone get kidnapped, it can be helpful to have like a mental health debrief with someone. But they are also trying to coordinate these external efforts and. At the same time as we're having this crisis with Snap, we also have people that, everyone has different levels of vulnerability.

25:56 And so people that are more vulnerable when it comes to ICE agents might be afraid to go and get food. And so part of what that team is trying to coordinate is helping to provide rides or drop offs for people that feel scared to go to the food pantry themselves. You know, just so we could make sure that they can stay safe and manage their own risk with the way that they're going about their lives. And then another thing that's also that crosses my mind is because of what's going on with Snap, this also affects Asian supermarkets in general, and especially with the tariffs on top of it.

26:41 I wonder what this looks like moving forward, because this is also very concerning because a lot of these businesses do rely on SNAP recipients and also folks that are above the lower income threshold, but also with food costs going high, especially with the tariffs going on. I wonder what that looks like as we move forward. Yeah, we're continuing to monitor. As I said, the general buzz among some of the seniors that we work with is that they worry about where food is going to come from. A lot of them even with the SNAP benefits are already accessing some of the food pantries because they are able to pick up additional groceries, especially raw ingredients for themselves for cooking.

27:35 So I would just imagine that the need for these places where they can get free food would be even higher. As far as this current administration has been doing, something that also sticks out to me is what the Asian American community went through, particularly with the anti-Asian violence that happened right after or during COVID, during the first two years of COVID. And I wonder how much of what has happened in that past has carried over in terms of the infrastructure. and how the current ICE raids and SAP benefits, how that's going to create newer challenges for the future to build better infrastructure.

28:26 Maybe if we could take it back to what happened with COVID and how this has been able to help in some ways create a more rapid response, more of a robust rapid response network. Yeah, I think during COVID, there was definitely a lot of needs for trying to get food to some of the older folks. So Chinese American Service League, for example, started delivering hot meals to senior housing buildings. I believe that that has continued even after COVID. So that's one of the systems that had continued.

29:06 And then this food pantry at Midwest Asian Health Association that I mentioned, definitely grew out of the need that they saw during COVID for people to pick up fresh vegetables and fruit and staples like rice and so on in order to cook for themselves because the grocery stores were closed. At that time, Chinese Christian Union Church organized weekly food pickups And in order to have culturally appropriate food, CBCC and Pui Tak Center and Chinese Christian Union Church pulled together money and then also solicited donations from some of the private companies in order to buy culturally appropriate food for some of the Asian seniors because the general food pantry offerings aren't always appropriate.

30:09 The food pantry that is offered at Midwest Asian Health Association Maha on Wednesdays and Thursdays every week is culturally appropriate. So they basically have a system with the Greater Chicago Food Depository where they would order particular items that they know would appeal to Chinese seniors. And then the seniors come in and instead of receiving a bag that's pre-packed, they actually come in and shop. off the shelves so so that they can say oh you know i want five apples and you know um two cans of peas and you know and not some other stuff so i think that's um a very good service that had really grown out of the need that was seen during the pandemic yeah I think I also just want to add that the, you know, I think during that rise in anti-Asian violence, a lot of people were attending like, you know, bystander intervention training, how to, you know, and this idea of like going to a training in order to know how best to like keep the people around you and keep your neighbors safe.

31:18 um i think we saw a lot of people like going out to try to learn how to be better members of their community during the you know aftermath of covid and that rise of anti-asian violence um and i think this is like another time where we're seeing that in a different context so it's you know i think it's important to note the way that things are building upon each other and um our communities getting stronger over time and i think like grace said before you know even this current effort for rapid response teams is learning from the migra watch efforts from the 2016 trump administration and those efforts learn from cop watch efforts in black neighborhoods that we're also looking out for situations in which law enforcement might be violating rules and you know not treating community members uh fairly or appropriately or enacting violence and so um the connections across time i think are really important because those are the threads that help us move forward in new ways you know and also like the second part of that question is um Because of what's been going on, what ways are you looking to improve the current infrastructure with the safety network?

32:31 And what do you see is still a big need right now? Because I know that I think anything could really happen the next year. I mean, ICE could leave like this week, but they might come back again in two months or three months. who knows but i'm very curious what um what do you feel like would be helpful in being able to prepare um to help better prepare this community and provide stronger protection yeah Could answer that if you want. With just a couple ideas that we have, you know. I mean, right now, we're still very much doing weekly canvassing on Sundays.

33:13 And last week, we had 20 volunteers come out to canvass and just knock door to door. The week before, we did it. targeted small business canvassing. But we want to make sure that like everyone who lives in the Bridgeport Chinatown area has at least had the opportunity for someone to explain what their rights are and how they might enact those rights if they encounter, you know, an ICE agent, because one thing that we like to point out is that, like, you have these rights being in the United States, but that doesn't mean law enforcement asserts your rights for you. You have to assert that you know what your rights are. Otherwise, you could be seen as willingly cooperating if you if you don't assert that that your rights are being violated.

33:59 So that's one thing that we're working on. And I think We also have a couple of communication channels when we canvas that we're promoting. So one is called Illinois Eyes on Ice and it's actually run by ICER. And whenever you know, so what happens in the broader system here is that if someone calls the Family Support Network hotline to report a potential ice sighting, there's a citywide chat that that goes into and it gets sent out to whatever local team is closest to that location. And then a member of our team goes to check to see what's happening, to see if anyone got kidnapped and things like that. And if we confirm that ICE has been seen, that message gets sent out.

34:44 So it's a text message based system and it's sent out in English and Spanish. But something that I think, you know, Grace and her team have been working on also is making sure that those are translated. And there's also a channel through WeChat that we can send out notifications in Chinese to. So We really want to make sure that community members are aware of those things because just knowing that, that ICE is in the area, and perhaps it'd be best if you go inside and lock your door, right? Because when you're inside, you don't have to open your door for a federal agent or police unless they have a warrant signed by a judge with your name on it, you know, saying that they have a reason to come into your home.

35:29 And so, you know, we just want to make sure that people know these things and can protect themselves and their loved ones, you know. So that's one effort. Do you have other ones you want to bring up, Grace? Yeah, I think I'm just very encouraged in seeing, you know, how much the team has grown organically and that, you know, that is a distributed leadership. Now we have sub-teams with sub-team mates and folks come up with ideas about, you know, what else to do to care for each other and the canvassing or like the whistle-packing. project was initiated by one of the team members who then was able to get access to the library to do the packing.

36:18 And then they quickly ran out of space at the library. ended up going to a community center across the street, right? So stuff like that that is very encouraging because as long as we have neighbors that would spontaneously come up with ways to care for each other, yeah, we have a team, we have a communication structure, we have ways to coordinate, but I think that it's really individual people being motivated, and individual people be energized and continuing this work that makes this project successful. Yeah, actually, you had taken away my, actually, my last question in regards to what are your hopes and what are you most encouraged about in this community?

37:05 But I wonder if you have any thoughts on that, Frank. Andrew, sorry, I don't know how I call you, Frank. Sorry. That's all good. It's been a long day. It's been a long day for all of us. Yeah, no worries at all. Yeah, you know, we also have like a training and onboarding team. And so we just had a meeting with that team today because we have so many people that want to get involved. And I've been doing a lot of those onboarding calls, you know, so that's why we're trying to get more people involved in helping with those. But all of those onboarding calls give me a lot of hope because every time I talk to someone who's gone through at least a two hour training and wants to be connected to be able to look out for their neighbors and connect people with more information and just be like a pair of eyes to help with this effort, that gives me a lot of hope.

37:58 And I think like Grace said, like having these sub teams where people can find spaces to connect with other people who might have common interests and then just start building a new network to make those things become a reality makes our community stronger. like if ICE does leave or, you know, if some percentage of the ICE agents leave this week or next, we're not going to stop because we know that this is like the first year of this presidential administration. And we kind of have seen, you know, they've showed us their cards and what they're trying to do. And we know that they're trying to harass immigrant neighborhoods. So we're going to continue to build the numbers and capacity so that we're ready for whatever comes our way.

38:42 And I think like, you know, one of our goals is that we have enough people involved that like there's a pair, you know, at least one or two people on every block in this area who are connected to the group and will get a notification if something is happening and be able to go check it out. And when that happens, that also means less burnout for everyone. Because when people, when a lot of people are connected, it doesn't have to be, you know, three to five people every day trying to keep track of all these things. So, yeah, so we're just going to keep getting more organized. And that, along with the growing number of people involved, gives me a lot of hope. What advice would you give to someone that or to communities that are outside of Chicago, like particularly in places that the ice raves haven't happened quite yet?

39:29 What advice would you give to these communities that are starting to wonder why? What's going on? Because I know, unfortunately, mainstream media, traditional media outlets have not really carried the story, even though it is an absolute crisis that Chicago has been dealing with in Portland and L.A. and New York. I wonder what could you tell folks in these communities in terms of, like, if they need to get started or what they need to look into doing to make sure that the ball gets rolling once ICE comes into town?

40:10 I know it's a very loaded question there, but yeah. Yeah. So there, so, so there are already other teams too. Let me just go back a little bit. So the rapid response teams, there were about five or six teams that started in 2016. And those were in Rogers Park in Pilsen and Little Village and in Aurora, Illinois, mostly because, you know, some of the immigrant communities were more active in those areas. And then, This time, as I said very quickly, we had 10, 12 teams, and then now we have teams in suburban areas as well as in, you know, towns downstate and elsewhere in Illinois.

40:51 And mostly it is just neighbors having seen some of the ICE kidnappings and wanting to be involved, you know, forming these teams. I would just say, you know, just start ��� somewhere anywhere to start and do something um we started out our team with only six people um when you know when i first started you know calling folks and now we have uh how many people do we have andrew 125 or something like that so you know so it's right it's it grows and then um other uh teams are uh similarly you know have grown a lot in the past few weeks.

41:32 So I think that what I would encourage folks to do is just start by gathering your neighbors and start doing something you may not be able to do very much at the beginning and maybe just small steps, but get the know your rights information, understand what rights you have as a resident of the United States, regardless of immigration status, get to know the family support network resources, know the family support network phone number and get all the information that you can and share them.

42:13 Some folks might want to participate in protests and use their voice that way. So just get involved in whatever way you can, wherever you can. Yeah, I'd say pointing, just highlighting that there's a lot of different ways to be involved and starting with whatever ways make sense for the city or community that you're in is what I advise people to do. Because the rapid response, the actual going out to videotape an interaction between an ICE agent is just one small part of what we do. And that might not be...

42:54 a part that a lot of people are comfortable doing, especially if they are vulnerable in some way. So I think it's important to look for those other ways of getting involved, helping connect people. Because it's like sometimes you have a protest that a bunch of people go to, but they have no way of actually connecting with new people there. Right. And so finding ways to tap into that and follow up and connect people with some kind of positive action, like going out and canvassing, which is a pretty safe activity to do, I think is great. And anytime we get people involved in new ways, it like builds our community's capacity as a whole. Mm hmm. I want to share any closing remarks that you have.

43:38 And also, like, before I get into that, I also want to say thank you so much for being on today and doing this hard, laborious, thankless work and protecting all of our community members. And I think one... One thing I wanted to highlight when I came back to the podcast was that because of what we're not seeing in the traditional media outlets, it's so important for me to showcase what is going on in Chicago and also in the surrounding areas, but also to show the resilience and the tenacity that Chicago has. This is a city that has been so civically engaged.

44:21 I've known so many great folks in the nonprofit and grassroots communities. And I think that this is just another example of how resilient this community is in trying to do its best to protect communities at the most urgent of times. So I was wondering if there's any closing remarks that you have or any suggestions or any lasting thoughts. Yeah, actually, I want to make sure that folks online know the ICER Family Support Network hotline, the FSN hotline, which is 855-435-7693. 855-435-7693. And that's where you can call in for any suspected ICE action or call to...

45:20 report any incidents. But yeah, as far as closing thoughts, I think, you know, we had Chicago is a complex city with a lot of big city problems just like any city. But I think that what connects all of us is the desire to help one another and to work together. And I think that the closing thought that I would have is keep doing that, keep caring for each other. And that's what makes Chicago great.

46:01 Yeah. Yeah. And I'd say like, you know, I love cities and it's really clear right now that cities and in particular, certain cities are under attack by the federal government. You know, like we've seen threats to cut, you know, and real cuts to like our public transit funding. And now with this snap thing, you know, these are things that make our cities run well. And a lot of people think, you know, that all these resources are going to cities and somehow this might make things more fair, but also like a lot of resources are generated by cities. So it's like the city of Chicago generates a lot more in tax revenues than come back to it through these different federal systems like SNAP.

46:44 And so I just think that's like important to be aware of. Um, and I think like Grace was saying, like there's, there are big city problems. We have so much diversity and so much density of different types of people. And whenever you have differences, there's the possibility of divides, you know, between groups forming. Um, but like, I think that, you know, what I'm heartened by is just that these attacks on our neighborhoods are bringing people together in new ways to, to create connections across those divides. And, um, And that makes cities even more beautiful. And I think that's something that Chicago is really good at. And so we're just building upon that, you know, work that I think has been going on for a long time.

47:25 Thank you so much for your time. And also, I just want to say thank you once again for doing this incredible work. And I really hope that people who are listening are going to hopefully take something away from this episode. And yes, wishing you all the safety and abundance for you and the community. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for making space for this conversation and highlighting it.