CHICAGO— Residents across Chicago and Oak Park, including families, organizers, and community advocates, gathered Tuesday night at the Oak Park Public Library for a packed town hall hosted by IL-07 congressional candidate Anabel Mendoza. The evening featured a panel and Q&A session with the audience, focused on protecting immigrant neighbors and defending the 7th District’s local economy from threats posed by increased federal enforcement under Donald Trump. 

The event, held on December 2, came at a moment of heightened urgency, with reports that up to 1,000 federal agents could be deployed to Chicago again, threatening families across the city, small businesses, and neighborhood stability. Anabel, an immigrant-rights organizer running for Congress, convened an expert panel and community testimony to equip residents with strategies to deepen neighborhood-level solidarity and keep families safe.

“This moment demands leaders who are going to confront the status quo and won’t back down when it matters the most,” Anabel told attendees. “I understand the consequences of losing at this moment; it’s parents going hungry, families being ripped apart. Those are consequences I'm not comfortable sitting on the sidelines and accepting,” Anabel shared with attendees.

Anabel was joined by panelists —community leaders rooted in building grassroots power and with a proven track record of standing up against Trump’s escalated attacks— to deliver a blunt and urgent warning about the legal, economic, and human costs of what’s ahead if we do not elect a true champion to Congress who can face this administration’s brutality head-on. 

Kelly Albinak Kribs, immigration attorney who supports unaccompanied immigrant children, described the escalating legal challenges families forcibly separated are now faced with. She stressed the immediate need “for communities to engage in rights education, rapid-response networks, and mutual aid and to be ready to mobilize the moment families are threatened.”

Tara Goodarzi, community organizer, attorney, and parent at Rayito del Sol, delivered an emotional testimony about the ICE raid that rattled her child’s daycare early last month and how her community came together to fight back as a result. Speaking of the detained teacher’s eventual release, she said “one silver lining of this terror has been the spotlight that has been placed on collective action. We’ve been able to show our children examples of what we can achieve when we come together.”

At the end of the night, audience members engaged in a Q&A with Congressional candidate Anabel Mendoza, raising questions about her top priorities if elected, ways neighbors can deepen their efforts to show up for immigrants, and how to build long-term leverage in Congress against establishment leaders who –as many at the town hall acknowledged– have failed to take a bold stance against ICE and Border Patrol’s unfettered violence and aggression on our streets.

The Anabel for Congress campaign will incorporate insights from the town hall into its forthcoming federal policy platform on immigration and community safety. 

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Anabel Mendoza is a community organizer, immigrant advocate, and the youngest candidate running for Congress in Illinois’ 7th District. A lifelong Chicagoan and the proud daughter and granddaughter of immigrants, she has dedicated her career to fighting for working families, immigrant rights, and a government that serves people, not corporations. She’s running to bring unity, honesty, and courage to Washington. For more information, visit www.anabelforcongress.com