100 signatures reached
To: Mayor Emanuel and Alderman Raymond Lopez
Chicago's Latino Alderman Raymond Lopez Takes Money from Detention Centers for Immigrants
Alderman Lopez should return all the money donated to him by GEO group, the company that owns private detention centers throughout the country, profiting from detaining immigrant parents victims of Trump's "zero tolerance" policies at the U.S. border.
Mayor Emanuel should remove Alderman Lopez as co-chair from the Human Relations Commission, the committee in City Council that rules over immigrant rights policies, including whether the Chicago police collaborate with ICE.
Why is this important?
Lopez has been a staunch supporter of criminalization of immigrants and communities of color, consistently advocating in favor of increasing policing, increasing jail time, and opposing changes to Chicago's Sanctuary city policy, the Welcoming City Ordinance.
Today it was revealed that for several years he has been taking thousands of dollars from GEO group, the private corporation that owns immigrant detention centers around the country, including where parents of the children separated at the border are housed.
Lopez is the Alderman for Chicago's 15th ward, a mixed ward with many Latinx and Black residents, who are constantly over-policed and criminalized. His ward is also the site of several immigration raids targeting residents based on the faulty Chicago Gang Database.