CHICAGO — In a new op-ed in Courier Newsroom, Anabel Mendoza, a lifelong Chicagoan and candidate for Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, lands an urgent message about how our communities can resist and survive the escalating political crises bearing down on us.

Her op-ed, titled ‘Trump’s War Is Already on Our Streets — We’re Building Power to Stop It,’  argues that the Trump Administration’s escalating war against Chicagoans –from militarized immigration raids to SNAP cuts– offers an opportunity we cannot miss to bring together historically divided communities on the city’s South and West sides and create a movement rooted in unity. 

“When the tools of war show up on our streets, no one is safe — not undocumented people, not families, not children, nor U.S. citizens. That’s the point. Trump’s war has never just been a threat; it’s a strategy to quell the rising power of working people. Little does he know, Chicago fights back,”  writes Anabel Mendoza. “Unity, in its most direct and effective application, must be the coalescing of Black, brown, immigrant, and working-class labor power. And it must be disciplined. Because in a country built on capitalism, labor is our most effective lever of power.”

As Anabel writes, Illinois’ 7th District tells a national story of overlapping crises hurting our most vulnerable communities. Black, brown, Asian and immigrant families on Chicago’s South and West sides have faced decades of deliberate disinvestment and pitted against one another to fight for scraps. Against this backdrop, Mendoza’s op-ed argues that the only way the 7th District can win the investments it deserves is by replicating the solidarity neighbors have demonstrated amidst violent ICE raids. 

“Every day, I see parents organizing corner watches so their kids can walk to school safely. I see neighbors raising money so detained street vendors can get legal help. I see tenants refusing to let militarized raids destroy their homes. Each of them is proof that unity can’t just be a hashtag. It must be our survival strategy. Closing the racial wealth and opportunity gap [plaguing the 7th district] won’t come from charity, it’ll come from justice: reparations, a real pathway to citizenship, universal health care, affordable housing, and stronger labor rights. None of this is winnable unless we recognize unity as our most strategic tool,” concluded Anabel.

This week, Anabel also authored a letter to the editor in the Chicago Sun-Times titled “Sticking together in turmoil,” in which she explains how  our struggles and futures are interconnected. 

“For generations, Black Chicagoans have carried the consequences of redlining, job discrimination and the legacies of Jim Crow and slavery. And as our present moment makes obvious, immigrant and working-class families are being denied the prosperity their own work builds. Winning reparations, a pathway to citizenship, universal health care and fair wages demands we fight together or swallow the hard truth that if we don’t, we all continue to lose,” Anabel wrote.

Read Anabel’s full op-ed in Courier Newsroom here. 

Read Anabel’s letter to the editor in the Chicago Sun-Times here.

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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