Chicago —Following reports that ICE plans to waste nearly $40 billion in taxpayer dollars to convert industrial warehouses into large-scale immigrant detention facilities, Anabel Mendoza, a lifelong Chicagoan, immigrant rights organizer, and the youngest candidate running for Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, released the following statement: 

“While families across Chicago’s South and West Sides are being crushed by spiking property taxes, soaring grocery bills, and skyrocketing health care costs, Donald Trump’s regime is preparing to waste tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on turning warehouses into detention centers.” 

“Let’s be clear: this is about cruelty, political theater, and greed by an administration that sees immigrant families not as human beings, but as numbers to detain and bodies to warehouse. It is both morally bankrupt and completely antithetical to the true needs of our communities.” 

“Our families deserve deep, sustained investment in affordable housing, strong public schools, good-paying jobs, and economic opportunity. Instead, our government is wasting billions of dollars to treat our neighbors like cargo. For nearly a decade, I have been on the frontlines of this fight to demand justice for all working families and the release of our neighbors from these detention centers. That is exactly the experience I will bring to Congress. I refuse to stop fighting until we dismantle DHS, abolish ICE, and reinvest our tax dollars into the public resources that truly keep our communities safe.”

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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