 See two previous posts, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/my-daughter-lives-in-a-war-zone and https://www.ailantha.com/blog/my-daughter-lives-in-a-war-zone Almost every day I communicate with my daughter, Claire, who lives in Chicago with her husband Miguel in the ethnically diverse and once peaceful Logan Square neighborhood.   My daughter and son-in-law's neighborhood, along with other nearby neighborhoods with Latino populations, have been turned into war zones by brutal marauding bands of ICE agents in SUVs who seize, gas, flash bang and otherwise terrorize the residents.    ICE is likewise decimating the local businesses because people are afraid to go out to shop or eat.   People who live in the targeted areas have been attempting to peacefully resist the ICE agents by patrolling their neighborhoods and keeping an eye out for the caravans of black-tinted-window SUV's or any ICE activity, for which they will give warning by blowing whistles, documenting with their phones, and calling rapid response teams.    But it's one thing to read about this brutality on the news and quite another to receive first hand accounts of it from one's child who lives in the middle of it, hears flash bangs and helicopters and smells the flash grenade powder from her house and fears for the safety of her neighbors and loved ones. Here are some of Claire's recent Facebook posts:    I asked Claire if I should share some of our texts and our family texts. She thought it would be fine because people need to know what's going on. Here's our conversation from last Friday, October 24:    Here's what we wrote Tuesday, October 28, the day before yesterday. Claire had been out biking:  And this is from yesterday, October 29, on our family text thread. Claire was having a quiet morning at home, making coffee, doing laundry, and otherwise enjoying her day off, when she heard some neighborhood activity. She went outside and hopped on her bike to see what was going on. She witnessed one ICE vehicle smash into a parked car while speeding the wrong way on a one-way street, and she saw another ICE drive up onto the sidewalk. 
 If only it would stop happening.  If, perchance, you would like to donate to some ICE peaceful Chicago resistance group, my son-in-law Miguel made up a list of organizations for me to share: •Belmont-Cragin United is a community organization that has taken on a growing role in the proliferation of whistle kits for residents of the neighborhoods being heavily hit by ICE terror (Belmont-Cragin, Hermosa, Austin, Logan Square, Humboldt Park) Belmont Cragin Amazon Whistle and Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2FW2BNE89APG1?ref_=wl_share&fbclid=IwY2xjawNbZ-lleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFtVGF5UDlyVkQ4TVEzdDRIAR5ghc9X5pU1eFr88RKYA3HvwU8VafNsOxSNhDGn4BRYCFRzxaH7keWdzl9cag_aem_p-ldYqqb1yDdaf5Zfv5Yvg Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/belmontcraginunited?fbclid=IwY2xjawNbq9JleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF1NmxZSEV0OGJtdnhCY0F6AR7y_jEhp11hZft_CcpR3kFKYbcGM9BxXrmLP76JWko0c08EVvddeqGrIX0UDw_aem_S3rkhgnJHM5nwej7PWSr4Q • Chicago Street Vendor Relief Fund Fund that pays street vendors lost wages so they don't have to risk being out while ICE terrorizes their neighborhoods. https://www.gofundme.com/f/chicago-street-vendor-relief-fund-protecting-vendors-suppo • llinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (ICIRR) Statewide org that runs the Family Support Network. Money goes to printing and providing legal resources to people kidnapped by ICE https://illinoiscoalitionforimmigrantandrefugeerights-bloom.kindful.com/?campaign=1242232 Podcast interview with Diego of ICIRR & Pilsen Rapid Response https://chicago.citycast.fm/podcasts/how-to-spot-ice-in-chicago •Latin Union of Chicago Chicago org focusing protecting day laborers (think workers at Home Depot parking lots). Money goes to printing and legal workshops at their worker hall. https://latinounion.nationbuilder.com/ •Pilsen PUÑO Coalition of community orgs based in the predominantly Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen. Hosts ICE Watch trainings regularly at the Chicago Liberation Center. Money goes to printing materials and the ICE Bond Fund for people released from detainment. https://pilsenunidos.org/#get-involved
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 Masked and unrestrained Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents dressed in getups that look like they're extras in "Terminator 3 War of the Machines,"  ...continue to terrorize and tear gas the brown-skinned people of Chicago,    ...and sometimes even the white- and Black-skinned people, like this jounalist who was by-standing when she was thrown to the ground and hand-cuffed;  ...or this young priest who was drenched in pepper spray by laughing ICE agents while praying on the sidewalk during a peaceful demonstration;  ...or this stunned young guy who just happened to exit Walgreen's at the wrong moment while his sister-in-law kept screaming, "He's a citizen! He's a citizen! He's my brother-in-law!"  But Chicagoans have started to fight back against ICE - with whistles! My daughter Claire and her husband Miguel,  ...live in Logan Square, a Chicago neighborhood that has been a frequent target of ICE raids (See previous post: https://www.ailantha.com/blog/my-daughter-lives-in-a-war-zone). In fact, just yesterday morning I received this text from Claire (IMC stands for International Medical Corps, one of the disaster relief organizations she works for. The helicopters are the ICE Blackhawks that circle the targeted neighborhoods. See previous post):  One neighborhood over from Logan Square is the mostly Latinx Belmont Cragin neighborhood, where librarian Alonso Zaragoza started Belmont Craigin United.  BCU, as it is known, is a community group that sponsors neighborhood events, such as health fairs,  ...a restaurant crawl,  ...an upcoming Halloween Trunk or Treat,  ...and now, the distribution of ICE warning whistles.  Seems that Chicagoans have taken to carrying whistles to blow if they spot any ICE activity, such as the convoys of SUV's with black-tinted windows that trawl select Chicago neighborhoods looking for people to pepper spray or throw tear gas at,  ...or for someone to grab and drag off into their SUV.  The whistles are a warning for people to either run, or form a crowd and start taking pictures and call the ICE response team, (the number of which is on a card included in the whistle packets) to document any incidents.  As it turns out, though, it's not just the people in the vulnerable neighborhoods who are carrying whistles. Yesterday Claire was biking around the city and she saw pedestrians everywhere with whistles around their necks! They were even wearing their whistles on upscale, touristy Michigan Avenue, where, of course, ICE never goes.  But the people were wearing their whistles anyway. Perhaps in a show of solidarity. The upshot of this has been that Chicago is now out of whistles. It's well nigh impossible to find a whistle anywhere in the city. While Claire was riding through one largely Hispanic neighborhood yesterday she saw a man standing on a street corner with a trumpet. When she asked him about his trumpet he said that he couldn't find a whistle so he decided to bring his trumpet to blow in case he saw ICE. He said that his brother was guarding the next street corner over and the trumpet would warn him to start blowing, too (It wasn't clear whether the brother had a whistle or was also blowing his trumpet). It's pleasing irony that the ICE vehicles that have been hunting on Chicago's streets are now themselves being hunted by vigilant Chicagoans with whistles. Or trumpets. So, what the Chicago ICE resistance movement needs right now is whistles and a few other supplies. Belmont Cragin United is making whistle and information packets to hand out in batches to folks for them to pass out all around the city: inside the little sidewalk library boxes, at the grocery stores and food vendors' stands, to anyone they know or see. But Belmont Cragin United needs whistles, lanyards, paper on which to print information, even printer ink and toner. So BCU has set up an Amazon Wish List where people can pick out a package of whistles or some other needed supplies to donate to the cause of peaceful whistle resistance in Chicago. If you feel that you'd like to do something to help Chicago, here' the link to the Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2FW2BNE89APG1?ref_=wl The page looks like this:  And on the purchase page the address to which your item will be sent is at the top of the page:  I bought a package of whistles, and also some lanyards. If you want you can leave a message for the BCU folks.  If, perchance, you would like to donate to some other ICE peaceful resistance group, my son-in-law Miguel made up a list of organizations for me to share: •Belmont-Cragin United Community org that has taken on a growing role in the proliferation of whistle kits for residents of the neighborhoods being heavily hit by ICE terror (Belmont-Cragin, Hermosa, Austin, Logan Square, Humboldt Park) Amazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2FW2BNE89APG1?ref_=wl_share&fbclid=IwY2xjawNbZ-lleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFtVGF5UDlyVkQ4TVEzdDRIAR5ghc9X5pU1eFr88RKYA3HvwU8VafNsOxSNhDGn4BRYCFRzxaH7keWdzl9cag_aem_p-ldYqqb1yDdaf5Zfv5Yvg Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/belmontcraginunited?fbclid=IwY2xjawNbq9JleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF1NmxZSEV0OGJtdnhCY0F6AR7y_jEhp11hZft_CcpR3kFKYbcGM9BxXrmLP76JWko0c08EVvddeqGrIX0UDw_aem_S3rkhgnJHM5nwej7PWSr4Q •Chicago Liberation Center Community Center based in the predominantly Mexican neighborhood of Little Village. The CLC hosts weekly organizing meetings to help attendees get plugged into the various tactics to fight back against ICE. Money goes towards printing materials, meals, and keeping the lights on in the space. https://chicago-liberation-center.square.site/ • Chicago Street Vendor Relief Fund Fund that pays street vendors lost wages so they don't have to risk being out while ICE terrorizes their neighborhoods. https://www.gofundme.com/f/chicago-street-vendor-relief-fund-protecting-vendors-suppo • llinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (ICIRR) Statewide org that runs the Family Support Network. Money goes to printing and providing legal resources to people kidnapped by ICE https://illinoiscoalitionforimmigrantandrefugeerights-bloom.kindful.com/?campaign=1242232 Podcast interview with Diego of ICIRR & Pilsen Rapid Response https://chicago.citycast.fm/podcasts/how-to-spot-ice-in-chicago •Latin Union of Chicago Chicago org focusing protecting day laborers (think workers at Home Depot parking lots). Money goes to printing and legal workshops at their worker hall. https://latinounion.nationbuilder.com/ •Pilsen PUÑO Coalition of community orgs based in the predominantly Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen. Hosts ICE Watch trainings regularly at the Chicago Liberation Center. Money goes to printing materials and the ICE Bond Fund for people released from detainment. https://pilsenunidos.org/#get-involved Belmont Cragin United hosted its first "Whistlemania" whistle packet-making event last night. I especially loved the bottom line:  "Luchadores" are Mexican wrestlers.  Claire and Miguel attended the Whistlemania event at their neighborhood location last night and today sent me this text:  If you'd like to help, now you can, too.
 This is my daughter, Claire, with her husband, Miguel.  Miguel and Claire live in Chicago in the formerly pleasant, quiet, diverse Logan Square neighborhood,     ...in a cozy little house that they share with their two kitties, Frank,  ...and Rosie.  In the summer their backyard is filled with sunflowers,    ...and morning glories.   Claire is an emergency disaster nurse,  ...who was an Ebola fighter in Sierra Leone,   ...has worked in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh,    ...and has given training seminars in a hospital in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.     Claire has worked in medical clinics and orphanages in Haiti,   ...sometimes with Miguel,     ...and she has worked in a Haitian refugee camp located in a landfill in the Dominican Republic,   ...a homeless encampment in that country, and before going to nursing school she spent a year of service work in Nicaragua,  ...and she did several service trips to El Salvador. Claire has been on post-hurricane disaster teams in Texas, Florida, North Carolina and the Bahamas.   Whenever Claire has been away on one of her medical missions I've been asked if I was worried for her safety. But in truth, I never have been worried about her. After all, she was in disaster zones, but never in a war zone. Until now. Now my daughter and her husband are living in a war zone in Chicago created by roving bands of Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, armed masked thugs decked out like storm troopers who have been terrorizing the once peaceful streets of Logan Square, as well as other heavily Hispanic Chicago neighborhoods.  These goons in tactical gear have been sicced upon Chicago by Donald Trump, supposedly part of his anti-undocumented immigrant campaign, though, Chicago being 1,500 miles from the U.S. southern border, this is in truth just another act in his revenge circuit against his enemies. Evidently he considers the whole city of Chicago his enemy. According to Claire, ICE agents don't patrol her neighborhood on foot, but rather in SUV's with dark-tinted windows from which they'll throw tear gas or flash bang grenades at brown-skinned people, as they've done several times at the Rico Fresh Market a few blocks from Miguel and Claire's house.    ...and also around the neighborhood school. Claire says she's also seen the ICE SUV's circling the Cermak Fresh, the Mexican market where she and Miguel shop, and where the walls are whimsically painted to look like houses.  The agents' other tactic is to jump out of their vehicles en masse, grab, assault, or otherwise go after their intended target whom they'll throw into their SUV's. Then they whisk off. Claire calls it Flash Terror. She sees the SUV's circling her own block. She hears the flash bangs and smells the gun powder. She sees and hears the Blackhawk helicopters flying overhead, another tactic purely to stir up more terror. And Claire worries and worries about Miguel - who is an American citizen - that he might be scooped up while riding his bike to or from work by an ICE patrol out looking for another target, undocumented, documented, American citizen, it doesn't matter. Claire and Miguel don't own a car, they usually bike to their jobs and anywhere else they need to go.  A new verb has been added to the American English lexicon: to be disappeared by ICE agents. I means to be made to vanish without a word of notification to one's loved ones. One could be missing for days or weeks. Last week I received this text from Claire:  And a few days ago she posted this:  And so now, right here in the United States of America, in the heartland of the American Midwest, I have to worry everyday about my daughter and son-in-law. I have to text my daughter every morning to make sure she and Miguel arrived safely to work and every night make sure they've arrived home safely. And I have to worry that they might be arrested by vindictive ICE agents while doing their school watches.
And I can't stop worrying about my my loved ones or wrap my head around why I have to worry about them now.   Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon: "Equal And Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888 "Tropical Depression" https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY An Ode To What We Americans All Have In Common Oh, some of us are proudly MAGA,  And some of us fly a different flag-a.  Some are Red State through and through, While others stand up for the Blue.  Some exalted Charlie Kirk, But others thought him a piece of work. As distant as the sun and moon, we're polarized as can be,  And yet, in one thing we're the same, from sea to shining sea.  For, all Americans everywhere,    ...own folding chairs,  ...which we're glad to share. Our chairs are old,  ...our chairs are new,  Some are almost rusted through.  Some folks own six chairs, some own two, But if you're having a big to-do, (as I recently did, so I know it's still true), Just ask a friend, a neighbor or two, and folding chairs will rain down on you!   They won't all match, but, really, who cares? That's nature of folding chairs.  For we all have our chairs, and often a table,  ...which we'll gladly lend out, whenever we're able. And though our creeds set us apart, I believe we're mostly good at heart. And if I can't swallow the views you hold, And if my belief system leaves you cold, We're all still Americans, with chairs stored away, That we're ready to lend out on any old day, To our neighbors who live cross the street or the aisle, So they'll have enough seats to use for a while. So if you need folding chairs, come, borrow mine, And yours I'll likewise someday borrow.
And though today we don't agree, Who knows? We may tomorrow.   Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon: "Equal And Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888 "Tropical Depression" https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY
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"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY Archives
November 2025
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