City staff presented a brief update on its responses to federal immigration activity in Evanston at City Council’s Monday meeting. In addition to a commitment to respond to and record reports by residents, the city may see legislative proposals to mitigate federal immigration agents’ presence in the next two weeks, Mayor Daniel Biss said.

The Nov. 10 meeting was the first regular City Council meeting since at least three Evanston residents with citizenship status were arrested by federal immigration agents on Halloween, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed in an email to The Daily. One of the three residents, Jennifer Moriarty, spoke during public comment and said she felt that the Evanston Police Department’s response to the situation was insufficient. 

“I want to know what is the role of Evanston police in this community when their citizens are being attacked,” she said. “People were calling 911, and 911 was telling them they couldn’t respond. No time did a police officer ask a single one of those agents if they were acting under any lawful warrant or doing anything lawful.”

While the Village of Skokie encourages residents “concerned about the legitimacy of any observed law enforcement activity” to call 911, Evanston’s “Welcoming City Resources” page does not, Ald. Clare Kelly (1st) said. She said she would like the city to be more specific about  resources available to residents, including whether or not residents can call 911 if they believe they are witnessing potentially unlawful conduct from federal agents. 

At City Council’s Oct. 27 meeting, the Evanston Police Department announced it would send a supervisor to respond to reported incidents of federal immigration enforcement and attempt to obtain information about the agency conducting the enforcement.

In response to Kelly’s requests, Biss said that while local government and Evanston residents agree that federal immigration agents taking people is distressing, the actions must be determined unlawful for the city to take action. On Oct. 31, the federal agents involved in the collision and following detainments had identified themselves to EPD officers, he said.

“A normal person looking at the outrageous conduct portrayed by those monsters would not believe it to be lawful,” Biss said. “There’s a lot to work through here, but when they are representing themselves as a law enforcement entity doing law enforcement work, that does change the legal environment that our staff are operating under.” 

In addition to specifying the language online about resources, Kelly suggested the city implement a child endangerment ordinance. Her suggestion is modeled after an ordinance approved by Chicago’s City Council on Sept. 25 prohibiting child endangerment by federal immigration agents or law enforcement. 

Biss said city staff are working on drafting legislation based on Kelly’s suggestions, with the hope of presenting them at the next City Council meeting on Nov. 24.

“I would like to see our city making more effort to do our part, to do what we can, to protect,” Kelly said.

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