Chicago faith leaders brace for mass deportations, cease hosting in-person Spanish services: report

Lincoln United Methodist Church was once a "sanctuary" for undocumented immigrants. Now, services accommodating Spanish speakers will occur "virtually every Sunday from now on," the Tribune reported.

"... Not even that holy space feels safe," Francisca Lino told the Tribune.

Lino, a weekly visitor to Lincoln, the wife of a U.S. citizen and mother of six, said that her family will now gather for services in front of a computer. She reportedly has "no criminal record" and has been in the U.S. for 25 years while maintaining employment, her lawyer told the Tribune. 

Lino had previously been arrested while crossing the southern border in 1999 and then deported back to Mexico. In 2001, she crossed the border again. Eventually, she "settled in Bolingbrook, where she married her husband the same year."

According to the Tribune, Brandon Lee of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said that the "organization is preparing for Chicago and Illinois to be targeted by creating a plan to connect community members to local rapid-response teams."

"After the threats from the incoming Trump administration that Chicago will be the epicenter of mass deportations, Emma Lozano, an activist and pastor at Lincoln United Methodist, decided to move its Spanish services online as the church prepares to protect its undocumented immigrant community. The services in English will remain in-person," the Tribune reported.

Mexicans make up the largest share of immigrants in the U.S. 

Chicago leaders stated that the Mexican community would be the most affected. Chicago also has a large Venezuelan community, who reportedly make up a large portion of the approximately 50,000 migrants who have crossed the southern U.S. border in the last two years.

Speaking at a Northwest Side GOP holiday party last month, Homan detailed his plan, vowing to verify the status of asylum seekers and arrest anyone providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants. 

"Chicago is in trouble because your mayor sucks and your governor sucks," Homan said at the party.

He also invited Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson to meet with him and negotiate over a plan.

A statement from Pritzker's office, obtained by a local Fox affiliate, reads as follows: "It's no secret that Illinois will face countless, baseless attacks over the next four years from the Trump Administration. Rather than responding to every ridiculous boast from Trump lackeys, Governor Pritzker is focused on what he was focused on during the first Trump term: leading our state with competence instead of chaos."

Neither Johnson nor Pritzker's office immediately responded to a request for comment.