
Spotlight Politics: Johnson Criticizes Proposed 'Snap Curfews'
Clip: 6/17/2025 | 9m 39sVideo has Closed Captions
The WTTW News Spotlight Politics team on the day's biggest stories.
Chicago is bracing for expanded deportation efforts as Trump plans to ramp up ICE raids. City Council is also dealing with local safety concerns as it is set to vote on proposed curfews for teens. And rideshare drivers could get the power to unionize thanks to a new deal between Uber and state lawmakers.
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Spotlight Politics: Johnson Criticizes Proposed 'Snap Curfews'
Clip: 6/17/2025 | 9m 39sVideo has Closed Captions
Chicago is bracing for expanded deportation efforts as Trump plans to ramp up ICE raids. City Council is also dealing with local safety concerns as it is set to vote on proposed curfews for teens. And rideshare drivers could get the power to unionize thanks to a new deal between Uber and state lawmakers.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipis bracing for expanded deportation efforts as President Trump plans to ramp up ICE raids after Saturday's mass protests.
Meanwhile, City Council is set to vote tomorrow on proposed curfews for teens and rideshare drivers could get the power to unionize.
Thanks to a new deal between Uber and state lawmakers.
Here with all that and more is our spotlight politics team header, Sharon Lynn Burg.
Welcome So first, let's talk about Mayor Brandon Johnson's response to Trump's threats to ramp up ICE raids in the city.
>> What we're not in favor of is, you know, grandmothers.
And grandfathers and mothers and fathers ripped away from children.
Little girls being thrown in too.
Unmarked and taken off to God knows where.
That's that's just inhumane.
So we're going to continue to make sure that we're working with community-based organizations and the full force of government to do our part to ensure that people know their rights were doing it.
>> So Heather, after the new king's rallies across the country over the weekend, we know the president has repeatedly threatened to up the deportation efforts in cities like Chicago.
Our city officials prepared for raids like the kind that touched off what we saw in Los Angeles.
There's not really much they can do to prepare because it's not clear when these rates will happen, where they will happen or who they will target.
>> But the one thing city officials said this morning they can do is they can make sure Chicagoans know their rights and they're relaunching the campaign.
First sort of blanketed CTA stations in January to let people know what to do if they're stopped by federal immigration agents, what they can do if a loved one is detained and who they can reach out to support for support.
But both Mayor Johnson and Deputy Mayor Beatrice, Ponce de Leon said there's not much more they can do.
They acknowledge that people are afraid across the city and the only thing the city can do to help us to help them prepare.
Nic, remind us what that campaign looks like.
One of the ads say about immigrant rights.
That's right.
I mean, is Heather mentioned, you know, this is something that first got rolled out earlier this year.
It will now be on 400 digital screens across the entire CTA system.
>> It directs you to the city's website, you know, from where most of the information is, they got all sorts of resource guys.
This is put together in partnership with advocacy immigrants, rights and support groups.
But, you know, they've got all sorts of information in there about how to behave.
If you see immigration agents, what happens if you're an employer or an employee and they show up to your workplace information for new arrivals, you know, guidance on, you know, coming up with a plan, should, you know, should you or someone be detain?
You know, as we saw folks react to that sort snap mask tension earlier this month.
You know, there are folks who thought they were there for a routine meeting and didn't have anybody to say pick up their kids from school.
You some of the things we heard so as you know, is an effort to get people, you know, prepared for what might be coming.
clearly, I mean, by design, these are not anything that are predictable, something it's tough to prepare for.
If you don't know what's going to happen.
So.
>> City Council is set to vote on SNAP curfews for teens downtown.
Here again is what Mayor Johnson had to say about that proposal this morning.
>> You want to give the police the power to be able to issue a curfew as it wishes instead of giving the city of Chicago the power to X, to invest in people.
What sense does it make?
>> It doesn't make any sense.
>> Had to remind us what this proposal would do and why the mayor so opposed to it.
Well, it would allow Superintendent Larry Snelling to impose a curfew anywhere in the city with just 30 minutes.
Notice for everyone younger than 18.
Now, Mayor Johnson says this will not effectively stopped the large teen gatherings that we've seen every spring dating back many years.
And he says that it is the wrong approach to public safety, especially given the significant and sustained drop in homicides and shootings in Chicago.
So tomorrow the showdown is set.
It is unclear whether there is enough votes to pass this measure and specially considering that Superintendent Larry Snelling has said that he would not use it to declare a curfew that he would then enforce in 30 minutes.
So it's sort of unclear what's happening here.
And yeah, there are lots of concerns about how the police department, perhaps in an era where federal troops are being sent to cities, power can be used in sort of a new era of militarized law enforcement approach.
Okay.
moving on older people, they could also have the power to block short-term rentals like Airbnb in their ward with a new that measure that's being advanced by the City Council committee.
Heather, what are the details of this wine?
Well sense.
Homesharing came to Chicago all the way back in 2016.
Some people have used these to throw big parties in residential neighborhoods in Chicago.
And there are some older people who are fed up and they want more aldermanic power, which of course they love to prevent new home sharing rentals for coming on to those platforms.
You just named like Airbnb and for about.
>> Now, it's not clear whether this has a majority of votes to pass the city council because it could blow a multi-million dollar hole in the city's budget.
Because when you sort rent on Airbnb, you are charged 6% surcharge.
4 1% is used to help the victims of domestic violence.
Other money goes to help people who are unhoused and it's not clear sort of how the city could make up that deficit or if this is something that the city should do.
In an era where people sort of enjoyed this sort of flexibility and have a little bit of a side hustle.
It is opposed by the Chamber of Commerce our backers supporting it.
It just to avoid the parties to avoid the parties and to give them more control over what happens in their words, which the number one priority for all older people because it says they're homeless yes, because it's their offices that gets the complaints right about the noisy parties.
And there's not really they say much they can do.
There's a liaison.
There's a hotline.
You can call the police.
You can file a noise complaint, but that's all with, you know, sort of after the fact it doesn't the party from waking up your kids into string year calm Saturday night and that's what they want Nick, a Chicago Alderperson has also called off a vote on a measure aimed at boosting pay for rideshare drivers.
What's happening there?
That's right.
For the last couple of years, aldermen Michael Rodriguez has been backing this measure that would force rideshare companies, Uber and Lyft.
>> To pay their drivers anytime they are logged into the app.
Not just when they have a fair they have been using their bully pulpits their push notifications, their emails to push back against this idea.
>> Now, Rodriguez agreed to back off of this idea in exchange for Uber not standing in the way of a proposed state law.
Now, what that would do would allow drivers to unionize.
They said they're not going to oppose the bill and they're not going to oppose any unionization efforts.
All right.
So if this ordinance did move forward, what would that mean for drivers?
Will the state bill moves forward?
we're still waiting on final language to see what happens.
But the idea, you know, it wouldn't classify them as employees, but it would allow them to organize and collectively bargain.
You know, advocates say it's similar to a Massachusetts ballot referendum that recently passed allowing things along similar lines.
But of course, because we haven't seen exactly what that's going to be in there.
You know, those questions, for example, about, you know, how big of a threshold would have to be how many drivers would have to vote to unionize.
And of course, the National Labor Relations Act, which, you know, sort of governs a lot of collective bargaining and union action generally doesn't include independent contractors.
So there are questions about what's the enforcement mechanism going to be here?
Okay.
Heather City Council will consider of resolving 3 lawsuits alleging misconduct by Chicago police officers.
How could that impact the cost of police misconduct taxpayers?
Well, so far this year, the city has already agreed to pay 165 million dollars to resolve several dozen lawsuits, which is significantly more than the 82 million dollars that they set aside every year to resolve these lawsuits.
>> If these 3 lawsuits are settlements are approved tomorrow.
It would add another 24 million dollars to that tab.
The biggest settlement would go to James Gibson, who is one of the last people to alleged to have been tortured by detectives directly overseen by disgraced former commander Jon Burge.
He, of course the city has admitted tortured hundreds of black men in the 70's and 80's.
In his legacy of just really, of of sort of, you know, that legacy continues to be felt as we know it.
It continues to expensive.
couple seconds left.
local on local member of Congress, of was appeared in the writings of the man who's suspected in the shootings in >> lawmakers in Minnesota over the weekend.
We know very little.
That's right.
basically what we've heard is, you know, from authorities in Minnesota was that there were nearly 50 local, you know, state lawmakers, local lawmakers involved.
>> But there are also several from outside from other Midwestern states, including Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski.
Okay.
And learned tonight State Senator Laura Fine, who
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