“We are seeing the fact that these raids are impacting our local economy immensely…”

CHICAGO — The youngest Congressional Candidate in Illinois’ 7th district, Anabel Mendoza, joined the MeidasTouch Network for an extensive interview on Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” During the interview, Anabel, highlighted how this operation is not only hurting immigrants, but also having an impact on Chicago’s small businesses and economy. 

The high profile interview was broadcast across MeidasTouch’s over 5 million subscribers, and marked the first interview of its magnitude for any candidate in this crowded primary.

You can watch and listen to the entire interview here.

Here are some excerpts for the over 10 minute long conversation:

“What we are seeing unfold in the streets of Chicago, a city that I love dearly, is extremely personal to me, as I know it is for so many of my neighbors. Immigrants make not only Chicago strong, but our entire country. And what we are seeing right now, is absolutely atrocious. We are seeing a total overreach by the Trump administration, blatantly unlawful actions by ICE agents and CBP agents who are arresting people without warrants and without due process.”

“These are our neighbors. These are restaurant workers, daycare workers, who they are with impunity, going after, detaining, and throwing into detention camps like Broadview [ICE Facility], where the windows are boarded up, where there is zero oversight. And it is enraging…”

“I know that it is our taxpayer dollars, billions of our taxpayer dollars, that are going to fund ICE and CBP, and they're not going to the things that our working communities actually need, funding health care, making our schools stronger. This is taking an impact on all of us, but [...] Chicago is united, and through all of this terror, I have seen deep solidarity between neighbors looking after one another.”

“This is unAmerican, and it's not what we stand for. This is the reason why I'm running for Congress, [...] We need to make sure that we elect leaders into Congress who are going to fight for working families every hour of every day, and make sure that we are focused on not only making our health care system stronger, making our schools stronger and safer [but] bringing investment back into our neighborhoods. That is not what's happening. Every dime that is spent on immigration enforcement is money that doesn't make it to our communities.”

“The Trump administration wants to pit working people against each other. They want working families to fight over scraps while people can't pay their rent, can't pay for groceries, their health care premiums are going to go up in the next year exponentially. And when we're fighting against each other, we're not looking at the fact that they continue to get richer off of our expense.

“We need to elect leaders who are going to fight. That's why I'm running, because I have been extremely disheartened by the Democratic establishment that, to me, has ceded the issue of immigration completely to Republicans, has allowed them to define the issue. And the reality is, immigration is not just an immigrant issue, it is all of our issues.

“We are seeing the fact that these raids are impacting our local economy immensely, not only with workers being detained, but small businesses are feeling the impact of that. Less customers coming into their small businesses because they're afraid to go out of their homes. That also means less workers.

“So this has a ripple effect on all of us, and that is the thing that I really want people to understand in this moment, is that as we take action, as we stand in solidarity with immigrant communities, it's because immigrants are inherently part of the city of Chicago and our country.”