ICE hits Chicago

 Immigrastion Impact -   There is no information yet on how many people detained by ICE  [in Chicago] included those who are actually dangerous and pose a public safety threat, the stated target of the sweeps.  We do know, however, that the draconian manner of the current ICE crackdowns is generating fear in a city where undocumented immigrants are vital to the economy, and in a country where undocumented immigrants are no more likely to behave as criminals than are U.S. citizens.

“People are scared,” resident Alvarez Vasquez told the Chicago Tribune. “They don’t want to go out. They don’t even go to work much because they’re afraid of being caught or deported.”

This fear has devastating impacts that extend to Chicago’s workforce. An analysis by the American Immigration Council shows that about 90% of the undocumented immigrants in the Chicago metro area were of working age in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available from the American Community Survey. Undocumented immigrants made up nearly one-third of maids and housekeeping cleaners (32.9%), construction laborers (30.5%), cooks (30%), and painters and paper hangers (30%). Among landscaping and groundskeeping workers, 42.1% were undocumented immigrants.

In fact, 15.6% of Chicago’s entire construction industry labor force—or nearly one in every six workers—was made up of undocumented immigrants that year. Similarly, undocumented immigrants made up 13.5% of the manufacturing workforce; 11.8% of the workforce in the hospitality industry, including hotels and restaurants; 8.9% of wholesale trade workers; and 8.8% of workers employed in general services, including auto repair, barber shops, and laundry services.