Fall 2025 Newsletter
Welcome to the Chicago Alliance newsletter! Here you'll find updates on all of the work we have going out in the field with our campaigns.
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NAARPR CONFERENCE
We were proud to host the 52nd anniversary conference of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression in Chicago from November 14 through the 16th. This National Conference is the fourth of its kind since our national organization’s refounding in 2019. NAARPR has seen significant growth since our 50th anniversary conference two years ago, marked by an increase in registrants, attendees, and the formation of new NAARPR branches and affiliate organizations.
The importance of coordination and unified action among all of NAARPR’s branches and affiliates has never been more important, as Trump continues to occupy our cities and terrorize our communities with ICE raids and devastating economic cuts. The message from the conference was clear: our organization will fight til the end to oppose Trump’s racist and reactionary agenda and win community control of the police.
To read more about the conference, visit fightbacknews.org and search “NAARPR conference.”
The Referendum for Community Power Over Policing
The Chicago Alliance has been fighting hard to defend and expand the system of accountability that we helped create in the summer of 2021 with the passage of the ECPS ordinance. The next phase of our struggle is to win the Referendum for Community Power Over Policing (CPOP) to give Chicagoans a directly elected body with the power to hire and fire the police superintendent, negotiate the police "union" contract, and set the budget for CPD.
The CPOP Referendum has officially been introduced in Chicago city hall! In late September, with Jeanette Taylor and Anthony Quezada as our two leading co-sponsors. The ordinance was introduced into a joint committee of Public Safety and Police & Fire where it will later be voted on by all Chicago alder people. Now begins the work to make sure our alder people stand with the people on giving all Chicagoans a democratic say in police accountability. This means, we the people develop a pathway to power to determine how police are held accountable and how our communities organize around our public safety.
Join us in the work to demand that all Chicago alder people support and vote YES for the CPOP Referendum. When we receive the support of 26 or more alders, we the people as all Chicagoans will get the option to vote whether we want to enforce the Community Power Over Policing Ordinance (CPOP).
Our field organizers have been collecting signatures at rallies and through tabling every weekend on the south, west and north sides. You can join us in canvassing for CPOP by attending one of our Monday night SPC meetings or keeping an eye on our social media or org calendar (CAARPR.ORG) on when and where canvassing meet ups are happening. You can also utilize our CPOP Toolkit to help spread the word both digitally and in your neighborhood. Print out some literature to keep on you as you go. Post about it online or send it to folks who also want community power over police! Pass it out on your block, leave some at a local business, hang a poster in your window. There are a number of ways to participate and help organize this victory for the people!
Keep an eye out for winter initiatives and updates on the fight for the CPOP!
Let’s win community power over the police!
Coalition Against the Trump Agenda
Since below zero temperatures on Inauguration Day, the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA) has been fighting back against Trump. As a coalition that was built off the March on the DNC in August 2024, we are united in not only fighting back against Trump and those in his orbit, but the entire reactionary agenda of the ruling class. Attacks by Trump to our communities will not withstand the growing momentum and solidarity of the fight back.The CATA coalition is building a front of over 100 organizations united in the struggle to:
Fight the Racist & Reactionary Republican Agenda, Defend & Expand Immigrant Rights, Stand with Palestine and end all U.S aid to Israel, Defend the Right to Unionize & Strike, Stop Police Crimes, Defend Women’s LGBTQIA+ & Reproductive Rights, and Defend Education & Academic Freedom. It is only by uniting the combined forces of our movements to fight for all of our demands that we can defend our communities and win greater power.
Under the banner of our coalition, this year we have mobilized a number of times throughout the Spring to make our demands known, create visible resistance and grow our solidarity and unity in the path to victory. In May, we joined with the Consejo de Resistencia en Defensa del Imigrante @consejoderesistencia for a May Day March in Union Park for Workers and Immigrant Rights. We followed up May Day with a week of action and On May 2nd, student organizers led the call for a walk-out at high-schools and colleges across the country. On May 3rd, we hosted a Black and Brown Unity March that coalesced with leading organizations in the fight for Immigrants Rights, the movement to Stop Police Crimes and ending wrongful convictions, the Palestinian Liberation Movement, and the movement for solidarity with the National Democratic struggle in the Philippines. While Trump and his reactionary agenda tries to divide our communities, we are committed to fight racism with solidarity and vigor!
On June 14th we joined Indivisible Chicago for the first NO KINGS of the summer. The coalition gathered before the NO KINGS action and held a short program where we heard from leaders in the Immigrant Rights and Palestinian liberation struggles. Our contingent marched to join the NO KINGS march with our banners and chants echoing in the streets. After NO KINGS, CAARPR and other allied organizations joined the Coalition for Justice in Palestine and USPCN at Michigan and Chicago Ave to protest Israel’s attacks on Iran and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
Later in June, the CATA coalition joined Organizing Communities Against Deportations and the Gay Liberation Network at the official Chicago Pride Parade with a goal to bring the protest back to pride. This meant protesting ICE attacks on immigrant communities and calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and an end to US aid to Israel. CAARPR, Anti-War Committee and others also brought and carried the banner of the call to drop the charges on Alejandro Orrellana, an organizer in Los Angeles who was wrongfully targeted for protesting against ICE in his community. We are excited to share that his charges were successfully dropped on July 29th.
On July 4th, we went off with a bang and held the People’s Independence Day, reclaiming and exercising the power and determination of the people in the face of a white-supremacist, imperialist country. Thousands of people flooded the streets as we marched to a federal detention center downtown before ending our protest at Trump Tower.
In August we protested in Lombard against Kristi Noem, Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, who held a racist press conference boasting about ICE’s brutal attacks on our communities and calling for state partnerships with ICE to expand detention space. Together with ICIRR, CATA, Casa DuPage Workers Center and other allies, we showed up to say: ICE Out of our communities! No More Deportations! Legalization for All! Close the Broadview ICE Facility! Shortly after on August 14th, we mobilized an emergency action to oppose Trump attacks on DC and oppose any pathway to martial law and more racist policing.
On Labor Day, we marched with our union siblings in the Chicago Teachers Union, the Chicago Federation of Labor and more for a workers over billionaires protest that brought over 10,000 to the streets to defend the rights of workers and unite in our struggles.
As Trump’s threats of federal occupation escalated, CATA joined forces with ICIRR and organized two emergency mass demonstrations on September 6th and 9th to demand no Trump, no troops and no ICE in Chicago. These marches drew thousands on 24-hours notice, and by September 10th, it was reported that Trump walked back his threats of sending in the National Guard.
On September 27th, we expanded on our demands to yet again say ICE OUT OF CHICAGO with ICIRR. We called on the Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke, to do her job and uphold justice by closing the illegal and inhumane Broadview detention center, for justice for Silverio Gonzales, a man and a father who was murdered in cold blood by an ICE agent shortly after dropping his child off at school. We demanded to free all survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction, a pattern and practice Burke is well aware of and has the power to free these innocent loved ones.
We closed out the month on the 30th with another emergency protest to keep the pressure on in resisting ICE and the troops after another announcement from Trump that he would be sending in federal troops. 1500 people took to the streets on a Tuesday evening to continue to resist Trump's agenda. Our coalition remains steadfast in turning out consistently to oppose the racist and reactionary agenda of Trump.
In early October we continued the fight by turning out thousands again to resist the rampant ICE attacks in our neighborhoods as well as the threat of the National Guard yet again coming into Chicago. Although they were deployed, they were forced by court order to leave just hours later. On October 18th, we marched alongside 250,000 Chicagoans for NO KINGS day, organized by the Indivisible Institute. We met the masses there and tried to unite all that could be united through flyering, chanting, canvassing and more. We held the banner and flag high for Palestine, for immigrants, for all those murdered by police, for workers, for LBGTQIA+, for women and all oppressed peoples.
In November we protested on Black Friday alongside CTU, CAARPR and ICIRR to boycott the billionaire corporations supporting Trump’s racist attacks and demand a budget in Chicago that taxes the rich to fund our communities.
As ICE prepares for a new wave of attacks bolstered by Trump’s spending bill, CAARPR is ready to throw down with CATA to keep fighting against Trump, his racist agenda, and the entire U.S. imperialist system that exploits workers and oppressed people.
Follow CATA online at @coalitionagainsttrump on Instagram, and visit bit.ly/CATAalert to sign up for text alerts today!
The Campaign to Free the Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture (CFIST)
In the words of our co-chair Jasmine Smith, We’ve had a “busy, freedom-fighting-ass summer” in the campaign to free incarcerated survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction. In addition to mobilizing our forces weekly for court support in cases of wrongful conviction, our focus has been building pressure on Governor J.B. Pritzker to make a decision on the 2,000+ clemency petitions that have been sitting on his desk for years, and to grant clemency to all survivors of police torture, especially those whose cases have been deemed credible by the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (TIRC).
To build a mass campaign capable of pushing the Governor to act, we’ve been tabling and organizing protests to engage our community around the demand to end police torture. During our weekly field operations, we’ve gathered thousands of signatures for our petition to the Governor demanding he grant clemency for torture survivors. Please visit CFIST.org to sign and share the petition today!
Our actions targeting the governor continue to draw in new forces and provide an opportunity for survivors and their family members to call out Pritzker, State’s Attorney Eileen Burke, and the whole system of corrupt judges and detectives that upholds and perpetuates the crisis of wrongful convictions and police torture in our city. Pressure busts pipes!
On Saturday, June 21, we protested in the Gold Coast neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side, near Governor Pritzker’s newly purchased luxury condo by Washington Square Park (did we mention Pritzker is the billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotel company?). Survivors and family members of torture survivors described their steadfast battles against the criminal legal system, as some passersby paused their daily walks to listen. On Friday, September 19, we protested outside of a Gala hosted by the Illinois Humanities nonprofit, for which Pritzker had been named an honorary co-chair and was scheduled to be in attendance.
In addition to Pritzker, the other primary target of our campaign is Cook County States Attorney Eileen Burke. Burke has made herself an enemy of the people’s movements since her first day in office in December 2024, when she dropped the charges on Oak Lawn Police Officer Patrick O’Donnell, who, along with two other OLPD officers, beat 17-year-old Arab Youth Hadi Abuatelah within an inch of his life. Since then, Burke has continued to allow her office to fight to keep innocent survivors of wrongful conviction and police torture behind bars, and has defunded and understaffed the conviction integrity and wrongful conviction units within the Sates Attorneys Office.
With ICE’s attacks escalating under Trump’s direction, Burke has come under even greater pressure from movement forces as she has done nothing to prosecute or obstruct ICE’s violent, illegal, and at times deadly behavior. CFIST was proud to unite with the CAARPR Immigrant Rights Working Committee and other forces targeting Burke for a protest outside the Cook County Jail on November 1st.
The conditions have never been better for solidarity between the Black Liberation movement, the Immigrants Rights movement, and all those opposed to Trump’s racist attacks.
Immigrant Rights Working Committee
May Day 2025: On May 1st, the IRWC joined the Consejo de Resistencia in a mass rally with over 35,000 immigrants and their supporters to demand an end to Trump's attacks on immigrants and workers. Members of the community played a huge role in marshalling and stage managing the event, which had 36 speakers and spanned across the West Loop and Central Business District.
ICE out of our city: As ICE continues to ruthlessly attack and raid our schools, churches, celebrations, and neighborhood, the IRWC has aligned with Palenque Liberating Spaces through Neighborhood Action (Palenque LSNA) and other members of the Rapid Response Network to fight back against these inhumane, racist terror tactics.
Further, on June 3rd, the IRWC, alongside the 22nd Ward IPO, and the 25th Ward IPO responded to reports of ICE presence in La Villita and successfully chased ICE out of the neighborhood!
The New Campaign to Close the Broadview ICE Facility: On July 22nd, 2025, the IRWC began its new campaign to close the Broadview ICE Facility with a press conference and letter delivery to State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke. The Broadview Processing Center, which has no beds or showers, is designed to hold detainees for no more than 12 hours. ICE's continued escalation of attacks has resulted in a massive influx of detainees, and the facility now functions as a de facto detention center with inhumane living standards. Read the letter here!
As Trump continues to advance his racist and reactionary attacks against our immigrant neighbors and communities, it is increasingly vital that we strengthen Chicago's resistance against oppression of all oppressed peoples. Trump’s mega bill allocates an additional $45 billion dollars to ICE’s detention budget; ICE raids and detentions will undoubtedly escalate in the coming weeks and months. In a large show of unity, the IRWC, in coalition with the Immigrant Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Healthcare Workers for Palestine, the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Tanggol Migrante, the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Casa DuPage Worker's Center, the Chicago Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (CCHRP), the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), Anakbayan Chicago, Anakbayan UIC, and Indivisible Chicago, demands immediate transparency in the facility's operations and its ultimate closure.
Migrawatch and Community Response: Throughout the summer and fall, our committee hosted several trainings for documenting and responding to sightings or ICE and federal agents. Over 200 community members have attended these workshops to learn more about keeping their community safe and resisting the racist kidnappings and occupation of our neighborhoods. As the Trump administration led a siege on our city with Operation Midway Blitz, our members took to the streets with their neighbors to respond to urgent needs of our community who have continued facing the terror of ICE and Border Patrol.
The people, united, will never be defeated! El pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido!
This month, on El Dia de La Virgen de Guadalupe, we responded to the national call from the Legalization for All Network to protest the ongoing ICE attacks and demand legalization for all! Our rally drew over 50 people in the freezing cold under the historic Little Village Arch.
As Trump and ICE prepare for a fresh wave of attacks in the new year, we are committed to raising our level of struggle in return. The Chicano and Latino immigrant community in Chicago will fight back until we have legalization for all and ICE out of Chicago!
Public Health and Safety Coalition
CAARPR is a proud member of the Public Health and Safety Coalition (PHS) fighting for a budget that invests in working and oppressed people, not the police and large corporations. PHS has been fighting all year for a budget that funds youth jobs, mental health clinics, non-police crisis response, expand the Chicago Department of Public Health and more, by cutting vacant CPD positions and taxing large corporations.
Mayor Johnson listened to the demands of Chicagoans and has put forward a bold budget plan, called the Protecting Chicago Budget, which includes almost all the original PHS demands and even calls for a cap on police overtime, for the first time in our city’s history.
The fight to pass the Protecting Chicago budget is heating up. Reactionary alders are pushing for alternatives that don’t tax rich corporations, but we’re fighting back hard. Visit bit.ly/fightforfunds to sign up for phone banking and canvassing opportunities to ensure we win a budget that invests in working and oppressed Chicagoans!
