Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that she is forming a nonprofit organization called the “ICE Accountability Project,” designed to collect and publish identifying information about federal immigration enforcement agents operating in the Chicago area.
The initiative, Lightfoot said, is aimed at tracking agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as part of the ongoing Operation Midway Blitz.
In an interview with Fox 32 Chicago, Lightfoot said the organization will create “a centralized archive of all the purported criminal actions of ICE and CBP agents.”
She described the project as a transparency initiative that would allow the public to view alleged misconduct by federal officers in real time.
“We want to create a portal where what’s happening real time can be centralized and put out for the public to view,” Lightfoot said.
The former mayor explained that the database would include physical descriptions and vehicle details of agents operating in the region.
“They are on public property out in the open. We have an absolute right under our constitution to document what’s happening,” Lightfoot said, referring to ICE and CBP personnel working under President Trump’s immigration enforcement directive.
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According to Lightfoot, the database would list identifying information such as height, weight, hair color, clothing descriptions, and the types of vehicles agents use.
“We have a right to compile that information and put together a profile of each of these agents that’s alleged to have committed crime,” she said.
Lightfoot denied that the project’s purpose is to “dox” or endanger federal agents. “This is not about doxxing them, it’s not about putting them in danger, and I’m sure we’re going to hear that,” she said.
“But as residents of this city and the metropolitan area, we have a right to know who’s doing what in, supposedly in our name, but we believe they are committing crime and it needs to be investigated, and then let a grand jury, let the prosecutor make a determination.”
Lori Lightfoot wants to compile information about ICE agents so that legal information can be taken.
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Federal law enforcement officers are protected by qualified immunity, which shields them from civil liability for actions performed as part of their official duties unless they violate a “clearly established” constitutional right.
Critics of Lightfoot’s proposal argue that publishing personal or identifying information about federal agents could endanger officers and interfere with active operations.
Lightfoot said she expected the Department of Homeland Security and President Trump’s administration to respond to the project but maintained that she was acting within the law.
“I don’t shrink in fear of any person. I have the constitution and rule of law on my side,” she told Fox 32. “What I can’t do is sit on the sidelines and watch these crimes being committed on a regular basis and do nothing.”
The “ICE Accountability Project” comes amid a broader effort among House Democrats to increase public visibility into federal immigration enforcement activities.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) announced during a Tuesday press conference that the House Oversight Committee will launch a national “master ICE tracker” on its website.
The online portal will allow community members to report sightings or information about ICE operations, which the committee will compile into a publicly accessible database.
“Over the course of the next couple of weeks, the Oversight Committee will be launching on their website a master ICE tracker where we’re going to be essentially tracking every single instance that we can verify that the community will send, be able to send us the information on,” Garcia said.
“It’ll all be available in one central place.”
Both initiatives — Lightfoot’s local project and the congressional tracking effort — are part of an expanding movement among Democratic leaders to monitor and document federal immigration enforcement activity.
Federal officials have not yet publicly commented on Lightfoot’s announcement or the proposed database.
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