Filling the seats, lining the walls and overflowing through the doorways, community members in St. Charles came to the City Council Monday to speak out for Latino neighbors who they say are scared to venture into public or have already been taken into custody.

Almost all the speakers called for the same thing: for the Council to declare city-owned property off limits to federal immigration enforcement agents. Neighboring towns of Batavia, Elgin and Aurora have taken measures to prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from using certain public-owned property during enforcement actions.

For nearly an hour and a half, speakers asked to know why St. Charles hasn’t taken a similar move to limit ICE activity. They claimed ICE agents are currently enjoying more of a safe haven in town than its own residents.

“ICE is operating in our community,” resident Sue Sanders said during the meeting. “They are sleeping in our hotels. They are eating in our restaurants. They are using city property and school grounds to stage operations. The result is fear – real, paralyzing fear among residents who live here, work here and send their children to school here.”

Sanders joined the other public speakers saying the city needs to take measures to ensure residents feel safe using public property and visiting public places.

“I personally witnessed two individuals taken into custody outside the Kane County courthouse,” Sanders said. “No warrants shown, no badge numbers provided, no names given, just heavily armed masked agents. That is not transparency. That is not accountability. It certainly is not an atmosphere of safety we expect in our city.”

Resident Heather Herrera claimed that since the beginning of “Operation Midway Blitz,” there have been 27 observed incidents of federal operations in St. Charles, including 19 documented people taken into custody, which Herrera called “abductions.” Those figures have not been independently confirmed.

“There are at least two incidents where the St. Charles Police Department facilities were reportedly used to interrogate those abducted by federal agents, which may challenge whether St. Charles is truly compliant with the TRUST Act,” Herrera said.

“Even more concerning, in this last week there was an incident on school property where armed agents used the parking lot to transfer a kidnapped person from one vehicle to another,” Herrera continued. “An observer was physically blocked-in by three vehicles all while school was in-session.”

St. Charles Police Chief Daniel Likens recently denied department involvement in response to a resident inquiry claiming police property was used after a father and son were obtained by ICE on Nov. 10. The teenage son reported he and his father were brought to the police station for interrogation, according to the Elgin Area Rapid Response Team, a group that tracks ICE enforcement activity, which said only the teenage son was released by ICE.

“St. Charles Police was not involved with that operation and had no knowledge of that operation,” Likens responded in an email. “Federal law enforcement contacted the St. Charles Police to report a traffic crash in-person at the police department. They were in a public entry point. No other subjects were brought inside the police department, and the federal officer left the police department prior to an officer arriving on scene.”

Likens wrote that the police will continue to “follow the Illinois TRUST Act and in no way participate in federal civil immigration enforcement.”

Across Illinois, local law enforcement is banned from assisting or participating in civil immigration enforcement under the state’s TRUST Act, signed into law in 2017 by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

During public comments Monday, a couple of Latino restaurant and business owners said they have experienced decreased business in town because both customers and workers are afraid to show up. Their stories mirrored others telling of Latino residents being too frightened to go grocery shopping.

Speaker Aaron Walsh urged the Council not to give in to the emotions of the stories told. He said “we are a nation of laws” and that immigrants need to come here legally. He said that if the Council “decides ultimately to go ahead and not let ICE stage on city grounds, civilians will take it into their own hand, because we’ve had enough.”

Although he was heckled from the audience, Mayor Clint Hull urged the crowd to let him speak and to engage in respectful discourse. Hull thanked all the speakers for bravely voicing their concerns.

“This is democracy at work,” Hull said during the meeting. “I’m very proud to be a part of the city where hundreds of people are coming and sharing their opinions. Your stories and the comments that you have made have been from the heart.”

After the meeting, Hull said the City Council will deliberate on the public comments and have to decide whether to propose an ordinance addressing federal immigration enforcement on city property. That would need to go through committee before a full City Council vote.

“We’ve been working very closely with our police department and very closely with our staff,” Hull said. “Our police department and staff has been in-touch with other municipalities. We’re trying to collect as much information as we can and share it with the Council. What our police department has always done and will continue to do is follow the laws in Illinois. The Illinois TRUST Act dictates what the local municipality can and can’t do.”