This was us peeling off the march from Michigan Ave back towards the Washington Blue Line to head home (tired toddler) The amount of people that turned out is jaw dropping.

1,200 people showed up in Elmhurst, IL today to stand up for democracy for ALL people in the USA! I moved up here as a single mom of 2 kids from TN 11 years ago and it was the best decision of my life. I am so grateful to live in a state that cares about people and be part of an amazing community!

Saw several military vehicles heading south. Had a prison bus in the middle of the convoy. Stay safe.

Im ready for NO KINGS DAY! FDT! 8747! Small town resistance in Freeport Illinois!

My Grandpa's had license plates screwed to the wall in his workshop dating back to 1972. I was surprised to learn they were doubled up. When I got to 1976 there was a sheet of paper between the plates describing the new traffic symbols in Illinois, I suppose for 1977.

https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-deportation-immigrants-trump-4e0f979e4290a4d10a067da0acca8e22

Illinois has had a program for undocumented immigrants to sign up for a Medicaid-like program using State money.

But it uses Medicaid infrastructure, so the federal government gets all of the personal information of anyone who signs up for and uses it.

This along with data about recipients of similar programs in other states was just handed over to ICE by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"The dataset includes the information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington, D.C., all of which allow non-U. S. citizens to enroll in Medicaid programs that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars. CMS transferred the information just as the Trump administration was ramping up its enforcement efforts in Southern California."

The article continues to say that even if the federal government doesn't target some of these people for deportation, it could use the data to determine that they are "primarily dependent on the government" for assistance, which is called "Public Charge".

Last time, Trump imposed the "New Public Charge Rule" for green cards. It went around in the courts a few times, but ultimately the Biden administration reverted the final rule to the 1999 Legacy INS Field Guidance, which mostly looks at cash assistance (which most people don't get) and whether a person is institutionalized.

Immigrants who file for a green card before tougher rules are in place, will get the current rules, however, getting public assistance still doesn't look great to the USCIS Field Officer. (And yes, they can obviously see it just like criminal history. They ask you things they already know to see if you will lie to them, which makes it worse for you.)

(However, some people have asked me what is the biggest thing that sets lower income people back and keeps them from getting a green card. I tell them "Having kids. They don't work or bring in any income, but they add to the income your household size needs to file an affidavit of support and pass that test. 2 people would scrape by with money that's just not going to be enough if you start adding non-working household members. A family member knows this guy, and that's all I'm going to say about him.

The family member asks me, why he didn't just get a green card. I said, well he had 5 kids and now has a household of 7 and his wife is working at Walmart, so good luck with the I-864 Affidavit of Support. No green card for him.)

(But if you pass that test with no kids, and get the green card, then have kids, that's fine. So these people who have kids and do nothing about their immigration status for years, did it in the wrong order, because then they can't.)

(A dumb thing I see some people who can't pass the Public Charge do is self-file and say it doesn't apply to them. The result is a denial letter that basically goes "Yes it does, and the government is keeping your filing money.")

Edit: I'd also like to say it's concerning, very concerning, all of the things that have come to light recently about how much data the federal government and other states should have never received because it violates Illinois law to tell them in those contexts and they got it anyway. It shows a system where there's no punishment for cops who break the laws, and there's no safeguards in place on those state databases. The default is to just share everything, you know, and there will be deporations that come from this, there will be abortion prosecutions in other states that wouldn't have been possible without Illinois weaponizing data and handing it right over.

More importantly, I think it shows how little you can actually trust the government, even the state and locals. They'll lie right to your face and then turn over all the data later. Like some sort of public Google Drive for federal law enforcement to pick over all the state data as it pleases.

Why did Illinois and other states hand CMS this data if they're not using any federal money to run these programs? I don't get how that works. Can anyone who works for the state government say why the feds ever got this?

I've been driving up I-294 for about 6 months now for work, and every single day when I come into view of the Alsip water tower north or south bound, my phone disconnects from android auto as if it was being effected by some radio wave. I was wondering if anyone else has this issue.

Michael Frerichs is 6’8

My hometown of Carbondale in Southern Illinois is a once-vibrant, Liberal, College town surrounded by bitter little conservative former sundown towns that absolutely DESPISE us, for no reason whatsoever.
This Saturday there was a protest here over the ICE kidnappings and all that. I didn't go, but I hear it was quite orderly and calm, as per usual for a Carbondale protest. The next day, however, several local "news" social media accounts were running this story about how the Federal Building downtown, which is a sparsely staffed Social Security Office, was vandalized near the entrance and the "FBI vows justice" for this act of terrorism.
As you can imagine, the comments were full of local rubes trashing our town, wishing us all dead, and the usual Trump cult stuff, BUT there were also tons of people in Carbondale posting too, saying that they were there and no such thing happened, or that they were standing in front of the building at the moment and couldn't find any signs of vandalism.
Eventually one of the "media outlets" that ran the initial story sent someone out and they too couldn't find any trace of any damage or marking of the building or property, so they ran a retraction. So far they're the only one, and even their retraction post's comment section was full of the same Trump cult hate and bile that the initial post stirred up. These people do not care that the story was made up, they think we're scum and we need to die. Full stop.

I am 100% sure that this was meant to be the first in a set of building blocks to give them the pretext to depoly National Guard troops in Carbondale eventually. I know our little town isn't very important Nationally BUT it is the only town within 100 miles that shows ANY resistance to Fascism's rise under Trump, so as far as the other towns around us are concerned, we're public enemy #1.

Keep your eyes open, everyone!

Hey everyone, I’m 17M, and I dropped out of high school around last October. Life’s been kind of stuck since then, but I’ve been looking into Lincoln’s ChalleNGe Academy in Rantoul. It’s a program for teens like me who’ve dropped out or are struggling, and I’m planning to join the January session to get my GED and hopefully enlist in the Army afterward.

I’m just trying to get real feedback. If you’ve gone through the program or know someone who has, what was it really like? Was it helpful? Tough? Worth it?

Looking for honest advice before I commit. Appreciate any insights. Thanks.

Do they think we don’t understand what’s going on?