>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

One-on-one with Mayor Brandon Johnson as he marks 2 years in office, we discussed funding threats from the Trump administration.

Crime prevention efforts building more affordable housing and more.

>> But first, some of today's top stories.

Illinois joins 20 other states in suing the Trump administration over immigration conditions placed on federal funding.

The lawsuit claims the administration is attempting to illegally coerced states into enacting sweeping immigration enforcement.

If states don't comply, the administration has threatened to withhold billions in federal funding for emergency services and infrastructure.

The lawsuit comes as Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is set to testify before Congress next month.

Laws designed to protect undocumented immigrants.

We have more background on this story on our website.

Former alderperson Carrie Austin could withstand a federal corruption trial.

If given access to medical care during the day.

That's the testimony of a northwestern medicine pulmonologist to a federal judge today in a hearing over whether Austin is too sick to stand trial Dr. Susan Russell confirmed that Austin is under increased risk of her obstructive, pulmonary disorder, worsening during the trial, but still would not meet the legal standard for calling the trial off.

The 75 year-old has had a history of heart problems, cancer and other illnesses over her years.

A judge is set to rule on this issue.

June 13th revenue in hand.

Cook County officials are celebrating the grand opening of a community law office in Roseland.

The Freedom Defense Center is partnering with 4 local organizations to provide services like legal representation and expungement assistance as well as mental health, support, housing and arts programming.

The center is open weekdays by appointment only.

Early childhood workers in Chicago are set to get a pay bump.

Officials say about 3,000 early childhood care and early education workers.

We'll get a salary increase after a 7 million dollar investment from the city.

Citi says the money aims to bring early childhood workers pay closer to the broader K through 12 education workforce workers at 86 agencies funded by the city will see a cost per child increase in their salaries starting in July city officials say that averages to a 5 to 10% increase in wages.

Up-next Mayor Johnson at the two-year mark.

He joins us right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part by the Alexander and John Nichols family, the gym and K maybe family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation and the support of these donors.

>> Mayor Brandon Johnson is marking 2 years in office.

He took the reins of Chicago government at a time when the city was still recovering from a global pandemic.

Local crime rates were making national headlines and police stations were filling up with asylum seekers.

And while the city has made moves to address those issues, other challenges have emerged like a worsening financial picture and federal funding threats from the Trump administration.

Joining us now with more is the mayor Brandon Johnson.

Mayor, welcome back.

Thanks for joining Thanks for having me.

Brand so you told reporters that you were elected to disrupt the status quo.

Have you done that?

We have.

>> You know, as you mentioned in your intro, we were faced with the global international crisis, quite frankly, that the federal government really left cities in peril.

We responded to that crisis as we've had, you know, in the past with the full force of government asylum seekers, sleeping on floors and police districts.

We were able to rectify that situation, create a one system initiative will be built in incredible shelter space.

We're now we have 126% increase in our shelter beds.

And for the first time the decade, not a single families on the waiting list.

Violent crime is down in the city of Chicago.

In fact, the month of April was the fewest amount of homicides since 1962. and we increased our youth employment and workforce.

Something that I promised that I would do.

We've also opened reopen mental health clinics, something that hasn't been done since Mayor Harold Washington.

And again, all of this is the culmination of U.S. transforming the city of Chicago.

Now, is it moving at the pace in which I want?

Of course not.

would like to see things move with more expediency, but we are certainly headed in the right direction.

>> When you took office 2 years ago, Chicago was in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, as we've mentioned, caused by the arrival of the 50,000 asylum seekers, hoping to build a new life here in Chicago.

Instead, many of them found what was already sort of a tattered social safety and deep fissures between the black and Latino communities.

How do you repair the breach between black and Latino communities?

>> Well, first of all, we have to acknowledge right for Black Chicago particular, on the West and south sides of our beloved city.

This investment has been the prevailing former governance school closures, shuttering of public housing, the lack the loss of jobs, the attack on public education as a whole right.

These are, you know, systemic challenges that have been embraced by previous administrations.

And so what I've done to rectify that, of course, we just settled a teacher's contract.

One of the most, significant contracts that we've settled in the history of our public schools, protecting veteran teachers, making sure that we're lowering class sizes protecting black history, ensuring that there's pay equity across the board.

The other thing that we're the thing that we're doing is we're building more affordable homes.

This is the way in which we actually repopulate the West and south sides of city of Chicago, but really repopulate the city with working people.

bill for 1000 of them, 1800 under construction.

Another 4600 within the 18 months.

Right?

And so between building more affordable homes, invest in our public schools, increasing opportunities for workforce.

We have to show up for the people of Chicago.

And that's exactly what I've All that said, mayor, obviously the number of migrants who are arriving largely, of course, being from South America, Spanish-speaking nations.

There Latino.

The black communities in the city felt like by spending time and money on setting these folks up.

>> When black communities had largely experienced so much disinvestment felt like they were being ignored during that time of crisis.

That that sort that relationship seemed to fray between those 2 communities.

What can be done to, but those to sort of back together or to to bridge divide.

>> Well, again, as I've said, that frustration is something that I feel, you know, over decades in this city where previous administrations have ignored the West and south sides of the city.

We didn't do that.

We responded to a global crisis.

Our city was attacked by the governor of Texas where he spent over 200 million dollars to send asylum seekers to cities like Chicago.

He was very intentional about that.

But we rose above that attack.

We had the faith community, the philanthropic community, the business community, the full force of government that responded to that crises.

But we did We did not ignore the West and South sides of the city of Chicago.

We continue to build affordable homes, our workforce, particularly with our youth employment.

We expanded that, you know, our community colleges, investing in our community colleges, the number one subgroup of registrants in our city colleges are young black men.

Right?

Those investments did not stop now again, our city was attacked by the governor of Texas and the federal government left us to fend for ourselves and we were able to break through that in the way we actually repair those relationships that we have to continue to show up for working people.

And that's exactly what my administration has done in that crisis.

Looking back, would you have done anything differently?

Of course, right?

I mean, there are, you know, you know, challenges, of course, that I had to respond to in that moment that, you know, coming into this office, you know, it's not something that we were anticipating but here's what we were able to do.

We took a crisis and build a one system initiative out of it.

70% of those individuals that are on house are black families.

We've increased our shelter beds year to year by 126%.

So even in the midst of that crisis, our city was under attack.

I meant is that crisis without the support of the federal government and even through that crisis again, our shelter beds for families that we've increased.

We are creating pathways for long-term sustainability by building more affordable homes.

The 1.2 5 billion dollar investment for housing and economic development to respond to the needs on the West and South sides of Chicago.

It's the largest investment in the history of Chicago.

So we we did not lose our way because of this crisis and fact we strengthened our way because we proved that you can respond to an international global crisis without the help of the federal government being attacked by a right-wing Republican governor in Texas while still making critical investments on the south and west sides.

>> Moving on, Governor JB Pritzker is appearing next month before the U.S. House oversight and Government Reform Committee.

As you did about Illinois, Sanctuary City sanctuary policy and laws as you appeared, of course, about the city's status have you and the governor, have you discussed your experience and what advice would you give him?

>> What we did talk about it in.

You know, I think it's important that the people of the city of Chicago come to appreciate that.

You know, the policy that was signed.

The 4th in the state of Illinois was signed by the Republican Governor Bruce Rauner.

Right?

And so the sanctuary state or the welcoming city had operation that we hold to in city and this state simply states that we do behave.

Our local law enforcement, we do that forced them to behave as federal agents.

Right.

It's important that local law enforcement build community trust and so I shared with them.

You know that it's important for us reiterate our values and not fully expect him to do that.

Chicago in Illinois are, as we know, both in President Trump's crosshairs.

Are you concerned that any strife between you and the governor might weaken the city and the state when it comes to the attention that they're both getting from the president.

Look me, the governor have worked hard over the 2 years that I've been in office to build a one system initiative.

He added to his budget this year.

I was in Springfield.

We've received assurances that he's committed to that structure.

We responded to an international global crises.

think both of us understand that in order for this country to get on the right track, it's going to require clear vision from Democratic leadership because we're clearly not getting that from the Republican Party.

And so I've built stronger relationships between the Senate.

President, the speaker of the House, the Cook County Board, president Governor Pritzker and leaders across this state to ensure that our value system standing up and fighting for working people that we never lose sight of our ultimate objective, which is to protect working people.

>> Chicago facing another crisis.

Of course, this one caused by yeah.

We mentioned there's several crises, mayor and this was caused by the looming budget gap of nearly a billion dollars caused by, you know, the city's longstanding financial woes of President Donald Trump, again, attempting to yank 3.5 billion dollars in federal aid.

That's from the city alone.

Let alone what is expected to go to CTA and CPS.

What did you learn from those incredibly tough negotiations?

This previous budget go around.

>> Well, here's the important thing here is no one will be surprised right by the fact that, you know, government across the country is dealing with deficit, right?

It's not just a city of Chicago or the state of Illinois were talking about local and state government across this country.

And what I've done is put together this working group through this executive order to bring people to the table.

One of the things that I did learn not just during this budget process, but as mayor of one of the largest economies in the world that I have to do a much better job communicating to the people of this city.

What we're doing and why we're doing it.

And I have to engage people earlier, right?

We've had engagement, but we need to do it earlier.

We have to do it more frequent and that's what we're doing in this working group is bringing together business leaders, civic leaders, political leaders, labor leaders, community-based organizations.

>> So forth and so on, bringing all of the experts to the table so that we can have an open dialogue about how we can move forward.

We're not going to solve this in isolation is going to take all of us.

And that's the experience that I'm bringing to this conversation to ensure a pathway for last month.

He warns that the city will have to do more with it the budget deficit more than a billion dollars this year and >> Trump, as we mentioned, threatening to withhold money.

What will that look like?

What will it look like to do more with less wealth?

First of all, I mean, I think we have to just make this point very clear is that we have to do everything in our power to protect working people and we cannot have a conversation that starts with cuts and furloughs and layoffs right?

What?

is important in this moment is that there are multiple options that we do have considerations that all of us have to battled through to ensure that we're finding ways in which we can expand revenue in the city of Chicago while also finding ways in which we can create more product productivity.

There are some areas in government that I've paid closer attention to.

Of course, as mayor, much different when I was a Cook County commissioner and organizer.

But he'd much closer attention to how we find more productivity within government.

We saw it last year.

We had 3% cuts across the board without cutting services or laying people off.

So what's going to be required in this moment and what we're going to do differently again, as we're bringing all of our stakeholders to the table to have substantive conversations about all the options that we have to consider as a city.

Your touted the drop in the number of homicides.

You just mentioned them.

Also the number of shootings since you've taken office to.

What do you attribute that decrease and how do you keep up that kind of progress?

>> Well, one of the first things that I when I became mayor brought all of our our leadership in within our police department.

And we begin to look at where the most violent deeds in the entire city of Chicago.

There's about 35 of them because my rationale was if we can come together with the strategy and an understanding of what's happening in those particular beats, if we can do that in those beads, we can apply it everywhere in the city of Chicago.

So we looked at beach where violence was high.

Schools were closed unemployment was high and we begin to take the full force of government in those particular beats.

And we've seen a precipitous decline in violence and those 35 beats.

And so the TSA and will force of government CPD is happening.

Thank you for that question.

And so what that means is we we had to show up with job opportunities.

We have to with city services just to make sure that the blocks were clean.

So we were trimming trees boarding up abandoned buildings.

These are conditions or the environment that sometimes leads to greater violence.

Right?

So creating job opportunities, making sure that city services were available in those spaces.

And again, going back to building more affordable homes and invest in our young people.

On the west side of Chicago.

You know, I'm raising my family in Austin, my wife and I we love the the Austin neighborhood.

And, you know, there's no debate.

Everybody knows the West Side is the blessed side.

But it has been a side of town that has been neglected for decades.

Now.

We hired young people for summer jobs created 29,000 of them for this summer.

Last year there was a decline in violence in the 15 police district, which is the Austin neighborhood.

But it was also the same neighborhood that hired the most amount of young people.

Almost 1700 youth jobs.

So there's a direct correlation between summer youth jobs building more affordable homes showing up with the full force of government to make sure that there's cleanliness in the community that people know that we care and that's the heart of my my administration that I care deeply for the people of the city and the way you do that is you short with city services.

All that said there is still concern about the so-called teen trends or takeovers and the debate about.

>> The curfew should changes be made to the curfew in order to reduce to reduce some of that activity if and when it gets out of hand.

What?

Where are you on that?

what would you like to see done keeping people safe is my top priority.

I just want to lean into this a little bit more is because many people said when we when I was running for office, you know, Mayor Johnson, you have to prioritize community safety and we've done that.

And that's why there's been a decline in homicides and shootings.

A robbery strategy when it comes to young people.

We have to ensure that there's accountability, but that there's also opportunity.

There's nowhere.

Anywhere with any sort of research that indicates lorene curfew.

He's going to create safer communities.

And so what we are ultimately working to do is to prevent these teen trends in these gatherings from happening in the first place.

One of the things that we're doing is that we're working community violence, Interrupters.

We're working with community organizations were working with the Chicago Police Department.

Again, the full force of government showing up to make sure that we're course correcting a give you one.

>> Testimony, there was a young person who was promoting these these gatherings online.

Talk to him.

One of our alders actually employed him and now he's no longer participating in that type of activity.

He's actually showing up to provide productive safe spaces for young people together.

No one in this city cares more about young people.

Then a mayor who has the responsibility to keep everyone safe as a former public school teacher as a father of 3 beautiful children, 10 even just turned 13 yesterday.

My oldest is 17.

He's preparing to leave for college in a couple of years is a junior and what I want for my children.

I one for every single child.

And so that's why creating these spaces with young people to activate them to find spaces where they can be safe, but also preventing these gatherings from happening.

That's where I stand on this issue.

>> Happy birthday to Ethan.

shake ups Chicago.

Public schools in part, those have also define your first term.

And I know that you you are celebrating, of course, of the CTU contract.

But the district meet the CEO.

what is your understanding of how that new CEO is chosen?

>> The CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, the future CEO has to share my values.

Fully funding and supporting our neighborhood schools.

That's why this contract was so important because is setting us up for the type of transformation that the school district has long for for decades.

Now, we have lower class sizes that's good for the 5, 6 year-olds were going into our classrooms.

We also have, you know, added more support to protect our veteran teachers at a time in which the federal government is attacking public employees.

>> We're protecting them.

And so the new someone, you know, has to share that value system of know Michael, in this city, your current chief of staff, Christine, a process known as I as perhaps well, look, I have not made an ultimate decision.

Here's what I can assure people.

Is that the next CEO?

We'll share the value system that Iran as a public school teacher as a beneficiary of public education.

Someone who sends my children to the Chicago public schools know the mayor has that record.

And so I'm going to have someone in position who understands that I was elected to transform this school district.

And that's exactly what we're doing.

And that's what we're going to do moving forward.

You mentioned your family several times.

How are they?

one is going to college.

We we know that much.

Yeah.

A couple of years right?

Well, first of all, I will say that, you know, my wife tonight with this is this is so humbling for us to be able to serve the working people of this city has been the joy in honor of our of our of of our life and the family as You know, I can't express how grateful I am for the village that has surrounded by family and provided support.

You know, my oldest son fact is is it a varsity game right now over at Lane, Texas?

is that leave.

I'm going to check him out.

just turned 13 in brayton.

She is, you know, the apple of my eye, my wife and I are so honored and privileged to have such beautiful children who who have their own lives.

And we have so many people who look out for us, talked about this.

But we also know, you know, current public discourse.

We hear from Michelle Obama and her new relationship with the public and how she's no longer doing the things that >> you would think she's obligated to do the way she had to do for 8 plus And we know that your wife is is a largely private woman.

And I don't know if she'd had her druthers.

If you be here right now.

for was how is she handling the spotlight?

That searches for her?

>> She is the rock of our family, you know, and 26 years of love she is to leave the dream of of of what I wanted in a wife.

I think what's something that most people don't know about her is that she has been working quietly around environmental justice.

She's been working quietly around making sure that maternal health is protected.

She was a do love before.

You know, I kind of disrupted that a little bit.

>> quietly?

Why not use her position and her platform to get loud about the issues that are important or important to her.

>> So to my wife is someone who seeks results and not attention.

You know that.

think that's the beauty of her.

And, you know, you mention, you know, for first Lady Michelle Obama, she talked about how important it was to protect her children.

My wife has that same sentiment and I will say this, though, you know, she advises me.

She supports me.

She loves this city and you know her work around environmental justice and making sure that maternal health is something that the city of Chicago he's closer attention to and particularly for doulas who need so much support as women who are, you know, I'm preparing for for for motherhood to have that type of support in again, you know, she's just someone that I've relied upon for for a very long period of time.

You know what?

I think that what's most important is that her love for me and her love for our children.

That's her primary responsibility right now that she is taking hold of and the work that continue to do with.

All right.

Commissioner stated Sustainability Officer Angela Tova run some of the work that she's doing again to bring more attention to maternal health.

That work will continue on side of town.

Mayor, how do you want your next 2 years to be defined?

>> Yeah.

So I'm grateful that we're moving in the right direction.

That violent crime is down in the city of Chicago moving forward.

I think it's important that we build the safest most affordable city in America.

You know, to have a safe city.

But you can't afford to live here.

What good does it do or to be able to afford to live in the city.

But you don't feel safe.

And so I'm going to do a much better job.

It's something that I've learned these first couple of years that I can't just expect people to know the good work that we're doing.

I got to get out more have conversations with people as we think about not just police scene but policing and housing policing and that schools may going his own road show to tell people of Chicago what he's doing.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, congrats on 2 years.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you for having.

Of course.

>> And that is our show for this Tuesday night.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Instagram at W T Tw Chicago and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10.

>> Need a West side team helping to tackle her classmates, hair emergencies right out of school restroom.

>> Now for all of us here at Chicago Brandis Friedman, thanks for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed caption reads May pass by Robert a cliff and Clifford law offices, Chicago, personal injury and wrongful death that supports