Chicago, Illinois — On September 2, Chicago police responded to a 911 call alleging that 32 members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua (TDA), had taken over a city building and were displaying firearms, according to NBC Chicago. 

“There weren’t 32 armed people here last night. That’s a lie,” Anderson Gutierrez, a resident of the building in South King Drive, told the Chicago Tribune. 

The 911 call comes amid Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Transportation Program, which has bussed nearly 49,000 asylum seekers to Chicago since August 2022. Since then, reports of alleged TDA gang activity in Chicago and anti-immigrant sentiment among long-time residents have increased, according to The New York Post. 

“If Abbott’s goal was to incite anti-immigrant sentiment, he certainly accomplished his goal,” says Nell Salzman, a Chicago Tribune reporter. 

Earlier this month at a Las Vegas rally, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump announced his plans to establish a task force to control foreign gang activity. Last week, Abbott announced a Texas-wide operation to crack down on TDA, according to a press release. “We are seeking them, we will find them, we will put them behind bars,” Abbott said in an interview with Fox News. 

But allegations of TDA activity have largely been unfounded. Trump’s announcement was based on false information alleging a TDA take-over of a Colorado building, according to The New York Times. The 911 call in Chicago generated no police report—a fact released only after the allegations went viral on social media, according to NBC Chicago. 

Salzman says that the rise in alleged TDA activity signals a broader issue: Chicago’s long-time residents living in neighborhoods with historic disinvestment are now witnessing immigrants receive state-subsidized resources.

Salzman recalls a conversation she had while standing in line at a food pantry on the West Side. The woman blamed immigrants for Chicago’s disinvestment in technology to monitor gun violence. “They’re taking all the resources—the Mayor is helping them with everything,” Salzman recalls the woman telling her.

Currently, newly arrived immigrants are given subsidized transportation, temporary shelter, meals, and healthcare screenings, according to Chicago’s New Arrivals Timeline. Since August 2022, Chicago has spent over $464 million on newly arrived immigrants.

But the subsidized housing for new arrivals is located in some of the poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Chicago. 20 shelters are located next to Englewood, where violent crime is 330% higher than the national average, according to a property rating service.

Salzman calls it a “paradox.” “Immigrants from Venezuela seeking protection from violence and crime,” she says, “find themselves in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago.” 

“These neighborhoods end up being the dumping grounds.”

“Chicago is a very segregated city, and there are a lot of neighborhoods that are disenfranchised,” Salzman adds. “People are angry—who have felt like they’ve been forgotten about.”

One of those people is Tyrone Muhammad, founder of ExCons for Trump. “It’s not so much Trump himself, it’s that the Democrats are selling us down the river,” he said in an interview with The New York Post. “The boujee Blacks might like Kamala Harris but she isn’t going to do anything for us.”

“When the Black gangs here get fed up with the illegalities and criminal activities of these migrants or non-citizens, the city of Chicago is going to go up in flames and there will be nothing the National Guard or the government can do about it when the bloodshed hits the streets,” he says. 

“It’ll be Blacks against migrants.”

But Salzman says the story is more complicated. “There are some really beautiful moments playing out too,” she adds. 

One of those moments happens in a South King living complex occupied by newly arrived immigrants. “They’re living in harmony on one of the worst blocks in Chicago, I would say, for crime,” Salzman explains. 

The immigrants and residents that live in this subsidized housing complex don’t speak the same language, but at dinner, their conversations flow through Google Translate. “They are coexisting and sharing food, plates, and finding community,” says Salzman. 

“There are moments of connection,” she says recalling the time she accompanied a Venezuelan family on a bus ride to a doctor’s appointment. The children hadn’t eaten in days. A Black resident on the bus took notice. “She just gave the little girl a bag of chips,” Salzman recalls. 

“There’s a lot of little moments like those that are probably more common than feelings of resentment,” she says. 

“They are coexisting,” repeats Salzman. “Even though they don’t speak the same language.”

 




Sources:
1. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/texas-cracks-down-on-violent-venezuelan-gang-tren-de-aragua
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yxqmPaepqI
3. https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/texas-new-arrivals/home/Dashboard.html
4. https://40thward.org/city-council/new-arrivals/
5. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/cpd-addresses-viral-social-media-posts-on-911-call-about-armed-venezuelan-gang-at-chicago-building/3538949/
6. https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/texas-new-arrivals/home/cost-dashboard.html
7. https://nypost.com/2024/09/22/us-news/chicago-gangbangers-face-off-against-venezuelans/
8. https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/texas-new-arrivals/home/faqs.html
9. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1iM2h_tzxmOCHp5Im2Epswg-FqpzdrTw&femb=1&ll=41.834070779557166%2C-87.8405682&z=10
10. https://www.areavibes.com/chicago-il/englewood/crime/
11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZeuqp5e3mA

12. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/09/03/experts-say-anti-immigrant-rhetoric-led-to-viral-and-incorrect-allegations-of-a-migrant-takeover/
13. Nell Salzman, 312-882-8609