Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues to resist Trump’s immigration proposals. On Friday, he announced that the city would set up a legal protection fund to support immigrants and refugees at risk of deportation.
Emanuel cited popular “anxiety and uncertainty” after Trump’s election victory as the impetus for the creation of the fund. The fund is designed to provide immigrants access to legal guidance, which will help them stay in this country. Reportedly, roughly 150,000 Chicago residents are in the US illegally.
On the campaign trail Trump promised to cut federal funding to cities that protect immigrants from ICE agents, who are charged with deporting illegal aliens. However, the Chicago Sun Times quotes Emanuel as saying that the President will have “bigger fish to fry.” The mayor, who is a former White House chief of staff under Obama, said that Trump will be too busy – “they will make a choice that this is not the battle they want to take on.”
Following the results of the presidential election last month, a number of big city mayors, including Emanuel, vowed that they would resist Trump’s plan to deport as many as 3 million criminal illegal immigrants.