Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has urged people to rise up against the “disease” of immigration enforcement.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Johnson was asked during a public meeting on Wednesday about whether he would be joining protests against the Trump administration’s policy of mass deportations.
“This is a necessary fight for all of us to be able to push back,” Johnson said.
”Whether we use the courts or whether we continue to protest and raise our voices, dissent matters in this moment.”
“It’s a war on our culture. It’s a war on our democracy. It’s a war on our humanity.”
“I am counting on all of Chicago to resist in this moment because, whatever particular vulnerable group is being targeted today, another group will be next.”
”None of us are immune from this disease,” he added.
Earlier this week, Johnson argued that the Trump administration represents “what our country would look like had the Confederacy won” and that immigration enforcement amounted to a form of terrorism.
CHICAGO MAYOR: “This is what our country would look like had the Confederacy won.” pic.twitter.com/wJHwqlkZAF
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 11, 2025
Last month, the Department of Justice announced that they would be launching an investigation into Johnson for racial discrimination after he boasted about hiring black people over whites.
In her letter to Johnson, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon asked for an explanation about his broader hiring practices.
“If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions,” Dhillon wrote.
The mayor responded to the investigation by denouncing Trump as a racist “monster” who is threatened by black people in positions of power.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has a public mental breakdown over the DOJ probing his racially-based hiring
“TRUMP IS A MONSTER” pic.twitter.com/CH6FkdiuHl
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 22, 2025
Johnson recently compared the Trump administration to Nazi Germany and suggested they are carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against black people.
“He’s doing it right here in this country, erasing Black folks from museums and the history and the culture,” he said at the time.
“So, when you ask how we balance that, you have to fight it and resist it with everything that’s in you.”
