A City Council member had to be escorted by police out of an unruly crowd Thursday morning that was protesting against the tentative plan by Mayor Brandon Johnson to erect winterized tents to house migrants in an empty parking lot in Brighton Park.
Hundreds of residents had gathered on Chicago’s Southwest Side near 38th Street and California Avenue, the site of the proposed encampment where construction crews have been seeing cutting down trees, flattening the land and laying down infrastructure.
Ald. Julia Ramirez, 12th, arrived at the scene quietly with an aide, but after residents recognized her, she was abruptly approached by some of the protesters who began to yell and aggressively demand answers from her. Dozens of people surrounded her, shouting angrily and pushing toward her.
As she attempted to leave, some grabbed toward her, angrily holding their signs. Police intervened and escorted Ramirez into a squad car and left.
Ramirez released a statement afterward saying that she attended the protest because she wanted to engage directly with the community “to address misinformation being spread” about her involvement in the plan and to talk about how to “move forward as a community.”
“After a few conversations, it became clear that most of the protesters did not want to engage in a peaceful dialogue with me,” Ramirez wrote. “As I was leaving the protest, a group of protestors surrounded me and my staffer and began assaulting us.”
Ramirez said she was OK. Her aide was taken to the hospital and is in good condition.
Both Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Johnson released statements condemning the “attack.” Johnson said Chicago police are investigating.
The protesters, mostly Latino and Asian, had been holding signs in English and in their native languages with messages for the mayor and Ramirez, demanding that the construction in the area cease immediately.
“Protect our community,” one read. Many said they are worried that moving an untold number of migrants into the neighborhood could increase crime and lower property values. They said they also worry about their safety.
“It is inhumane to house people in tents and it is unsafe for us, the residents here and for them too,” said William Desparrois, a property owner of a house in front of the lot. “Put them in real buildings in the North Side.”
With winter looming, the city is scrambling to find more permanent housing solutions for the nearly 19,000 asylum-seekers who have been bused to Chicago from the southern border since August 2022. More than 11,000 are in city-run shelters and almost 4,000 are staying in police stations, O’Hare and Midway airports awaiting shelter.
The city is contracting with the private security firm GardaWorld Federal Services to build and run the base camps.
GardaWorld and its subsidiary Aegis Defense Services signed a one-year agreement for $29.4 million with the city on Sept. 12. The contract calls for GardaWorld to provide “emergency logistics management and operation services that will set up shelter … and other necessary services (also called ‘a base camp’ or ‘solution’)” for the new arrivals.
“The city is at an increasingly critical point in the new arrival mission. With colder weather upon us, we continue to look at all options to provide temporary shelter, and this includes a privately owned lot at 38th and California as a potential location,” city spokeswoman Mary May said in a statement.
Residents at the protest said they began to organize last week after they noticed construction activity happening in the lot, which has been unused since 2020.
Despite the ongoing construction, neither Ramirez nor the Johnson administration have confirmed that the tents will be erected there.
“You can’t tell me they’re still deciding if they’ve already begun construction,” said Nity Garcia, who has lived in her home on 38th Street — right in front of the lot — for 25 years.
At the protest, a group of people, many who live in the houses surrounding the lot, blocked the entrances to the lot, preventing trucks and other city workers from entering.
In her statement, Ramirez called on the mayor’s office for more “transparency, accountability, and more local involvement in the decision making process, to explore more options for establishing permanent shelters, and reevaluate if tents are an appropriate soliton at this site.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to Ramirez’s letter and questions from the Tribune about whether today’s events will affect the city’s plans for the site. And the office made no comment on other potential locations for base camps.
“Right now, our thoughts are with Ald. Ramirez and her assistant,” spokesman Ronnie Reese said in an email. “Any other details around the potential site at 38th and California will be discussed at next week’s community meeting.”
The city and Ramirez are scheduled to host a meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Kelly High School about the proposal.
In his statement, Johnson said, “Any violent act against an elected official in our city is unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
“My administration supports the right to peaceful protest and free speech, but this type of action against a public servant is unconscionable,” he wrote. “Any violent act against an elected official in our city is unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
The Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, which has provided social services for residents, released a statement saying that “misinformation has spread across the ward, fueling anti-immigrant and racist remarks.”
While the group acknowledged that the encampment development is not ideal, it said that “violence is never a solution.”
Brighton Park is a predominantly Latino immigrant neighborhood with a growing Asian population, according to the group’s latest reports.
“Everyone has the right to seek asylum in the United States, and Brighton Park has historically been a welcoming neighborhood for immigrant families,” the statement said.
The group said that it is “our responsibility to welcome these new families into our city, support them as they recover from their journey, connect them to resources and services, and help them resettle.”
Ramirez said that she understands that residents are fearful and have concerns about the city’s plan.
“I have the same concerns. I’m born and raised resident of Brighton Park. I ran for Alderwoman so that I could be in a position to address the years of disinvestment in my community,” she wrote in her statement. “I hear my residents and want them to know I will always advocate for their safety and ensure our communities have resources they deserve.”
Garcia said that it angers her that the Johnson administration is “ignoring” the community’s concerns regarding migrants and where they chose to erect shelters.
“They are putting people against each other,” Garcia said in Spanish.
She said that as an immigrant herself, she worries about the conditions in which people will live there, but also how it can affect the neighborhood by putting so many people in a single space.
“It’s not fair for them, for us. For anyone,” she said.
Chicago Tribune’s A.D. Quig contributed.
![After weeks of area college students protesting the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as part of a nationwide movement, leaders of Chicago’s Jewish community responded Wednesday by demanding action against hate speech as a group of Northwestern students filed suit against their school for allowing protests there to become “increasingly hostile to Jews.” Meanwhile, seven members of Northwestern’s President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate stepped down to protest the university’s agreement with protesters. The agreement outlined a plan intended to allow demonstrations to continue while preventing the chaos and occasional violence that has engulfed other campuses across the country. […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CTC-L-cps-sit-in-response02_189144560.jpg?w=525 "After weeks of area college students protesting the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as part of a nationwide movement, leaders of Chicago’s Jewish community responded Wednesday by demanding action against hate speech as a group of Northwestern students filed suit against their school for allowing protests there to become “increasingly hostile to Jews.” Meanwhile, seven members of Northwestern’s President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate stepped down to protest the university’s agreement with protesters. The agreement outlined a plan intended to allow demonstrations to continue while preventing the chaos and occasional violence that has engulfed other campuses across the country. […]")