By Kevin Gosztola, Editor
For weeks, numerous residents had asked the village government in Elmwood Park to communicate more about ICE operations. Village President Angelo “Skip” Saviano avoided addressing many of the specific concerns. That is, until the monthly village board meeting on November 3.
“It’s terrible. It’s a terrible situation for all of us. We’re between a rock and a hard place, and it’s frustrating for me cause all the years I’ve been in government I was usually able to solve a problem. I can’t solve this one,” Saviano remarked.
Saviano candidly went back and forth with residents, including Meredith Zinanni, who raised the issue during public comment. Zinanni witnessed ICE agents as they arrested a roofer on the 1700 block of 76th Avenue on October 20.
“On October 20, ICE was in Elmwood Park and detained at least three people,” Zinanni recalled. “Rumors swirled on social media and between neighbors. The Elmwood Park Advocate promptly published a story informing the community about these actions.”
Zinanni continued, “ICE returned on October 29, detaining at least eight more people. Again, the Advocate published an article regarding these actions, including a witness account of an ICE vehicle exiting the public safety driveway used by the police department. Only then did the Village publish a statement [PDF] on its website titled ‘Elmwood Park Adheres to the Illinois Trust Act.’”
During her comment, Zinanni objected to the fact that the statement from Saviano was not shared on social media.
Zinanni contended, “[A]ssuring residents that the police—tasked with enforcing the law —follow the law themselves is not much of a statement, and leaves many questions unanswered. The statement is silent about whether the police have been in contact with ICE, or whether ICE has notified the Village about when they will be in Elmwood Park. Other municipal statements have made this clarification.”
“You represent—and I would argue, have a responsibility to—all residents of Elmwood Park, not just those who voted for you, think like you, or look like you,” Zinanni declared.
She further emphasized:
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, just under 40% of Elmwood Park residents are Hispanic or Latino, and approximately 25% of residents are foreign-born. Given that the Supreme Court’s recent order gives broader latitude for immigration officers to stop and question individuals based on their apparent ethnicity and English proficiency, people have reasons to be scared, regardless of their immigration status.
I’m a white U.S. citizen—and attorney to boot—but I certainly would be scared if approached by a masked man armed in full tactical gear. A significant percentage of Elmwood Park residents—and the people they invite to work on their homes—are at risk of being questioned based on nothing more than their looks and speech, yet you have provided virtually zero information that would help quell their fears. That is a failure in leadership.
Several attendees applauded Zinanni’s comment. Saviano declined to respond, even though there was only one more person who signed up for public comment. Instead, the village board quickly moved on to recognizing the winners of the Halloween house decorating contest.
‘We’re Putting A Bullseye On Our Backs’
The village board sped through approval of multiple real estate development and construction ordinances and resolutions. Then the meeting ended after 22 minutes, along with the livestream. However, a resident asked if the village board ever took questions at the end of meetings. She objected to the fact that Saviano had said nothing about ICE.
With plenty of people still in their seats, Saviano finally responded. He said he was in contact with the congressional offices of Representatives Delia Ramirez and Mike Quigley, who represent parts of Elmwood Park, and that he was “working” with local police departments.
”What I don’t like, and this happened last week—This is why people got to be careful what they put on social media,” Saviano said. “The Cook County Sheriff’s Department was in here, in our town executing a criminal warrant. It had nothing to do with ICE. Right away, everybody says ICE arresting residents. No one’s arrested any of our residents.” (It’s unclear what social media post(s) Saviano was specifically referencing.)
“I feel bad for the people who work in the village that are landscapers and tuck pointers. I was there—tuck pointers and roofers, who got detained. I don’t know what happened to them.”
“People have to understand something. I’ve been in government for 36 years. I’ve dealt with the federal government, and anything that I put out there as far as a statement—we’re putting a bullseye on our backs. We will work quietly to protect our residents. Our police department does not interact with ICE,” Saviano added.
"We follow the law. And we don’t want to open ourselves to any litigation because all these other mayors—we’re not Evanston. We’re not Oak Park. They’re bringing that upon themselves.”
“There’s not one thing that an ordinance we pass [can do],” Saviano argued. “Or a rule we put in, or a law that we pass can’t be enforced. Because you’re not going to take on the federal government. It’s got to happen from the federal courts, and you see some instances, it is.”
Both Evanston and Oak Park have adopted “ICE free zones” that prohibit ICE from using municipal property.
In Evanston, according to The Daily Northwestern, the “resolution directs staff to use physical barriers to limit access to City-owned properties as necessary. It also directs staff to print and disseminate signage for renters and private property owners to use to delineate non-public areas of property where civil immigration enforcement activities are restricted.”
The Wednesday Journal reported that Oak Park banned “federal immigration agents from operating on village-owned property. Such an ordinance would potentially include collaborations with other governmental agencies like the Oak Park Library, school districts, park district and Oak Park Township to adopt uniform policies.”
“[A]t the end of the day, we will be communicating with you with information that we we feel is important enough not to incite these agents to come in here,” Saviano said. “Now the other day when you said [ICE was] at our public safety building—yeah, they drove in, stopped in the back, and drove out. They didn’t contact us.”
Effectively, Saviano confirmed the witness account that the Elmwood Park Advocate first shared on October 29.
Residents Challenge The Village President
Saviano incorrectly said, “I have to protect my residents from being poster children for these ICE raids. Most of our Latinos in our community are Puerto Rican.”
People in the room laughed. A resident even scoffed at Saviano, “I’m sorry, what does that have to do?
“They’re citizens,” Saviano replied.
“And?” the resident asked. ICE doesn’t care. “They’re stopping anybody, whether you’re brown or anything.”
Elmwood Park has a population of 8,500 or more Hispanic residents. U.S. Census data from 2020 indicates there were only 656 Puerto Ricans living in the village. At least twice as many immigrants from Mexico call the village their home. They are the largest country represented in the Hispanic population.
”But have they detained one of our residents?” Saviano replied.
“And when the landscapers and construction workers are gone, who are they going to come for?” another resident asked.
“I have landscapers too, and when they’re out there working on my lawn, I stand out there,” Saviano defensively responded. “Not that I’m going to be able to do anything, but I need them to show up every week. I don’t know if they’re undocumented. I don’t know what they’re situation is, but at least they have a comfort level if I’m standing out there.”
Saviano called out Zinanni for demanding that the village provide more assurance that the police are not cooperating with ICE. “That’s baloney,” he said, referring to the part where she mentioned ICE had turned around on the public safety drive.
”I was provided a timeline of the information that I had, and I don’t appreciate you calling my public statement baloney,” Zinanni replied, rejecting the bitterness shown by Saviano.
Later, in the exchange, Saviano put Zinanni on the spot. “You might not be a municipal lawyer, but you’re a lawyer. What is it that we could do legally? Nothing.”
“They’re giving these people false sense of security by saying I’m passing this ordinance,” and, “You see that ICE agents are doing what they want anyway.”
Zinanni referred to statements put out by the Village of River Forest throughout October. In particular, she mentioned the local government posted a statement on October 20 that simply confirmed that ICE had been active in the community that day.
“When you look at your Facebook page or your Instagram page, there has not been a single statement published where residents have any idea about what Elmwood Park is doing,” Zinanni countered. “And I think that would be beneficial to you to make that information more available.”
“I’m on the street all day long. I come here, and then I drive to town every day. I watch everything. I witnessed, and [Village Manager Paul] Volpe will tell you, I was texting him that morning they got the tuck pointer on 79th and Bloomingdale, and then the roofer on 76th and Bloomingdale,” Saviano recalled.
“That’s my block,” Zinanni said.
“Yeah, I obviously kept a little bit of a distance cause I wasn’t interacting with them. I don’t want to unnecessarily scare residents either,” Saviano continued. “I’ve got to do it in such a way that it’s strictly informational. These posts on Facebook can scare the hell out of people. I mean, it’s crazy.”
‘Everybody’s Already Scared’
The person who nudged Saviano to address the issue after the meeting responded.
“Everybody’s already scared, and what you just said is just information. That’s all we want so that’s it’s not hearsay from this one and this one, like the telephone line thing that gets blown out of proportion and nobody really knows what is true. That’s all. Just information,” she emphasized.
"Listen, I was trying to keep it on the down low, not to hide anything,” Saviano contended. “It seems like the towns they’re targeting, like Melrose Park and Oak Park and Evanston and Berwyn are doing just that. And they’re looking at the social media too, and they’re like, we’re going to just mess with those people.
“I’m just as frustrated as anybody. I’m at the focal point here. We will do the right thing, and we will disseminate any information that we can at least confirm that it’s true.”
"If they detain somebody from out of town, like a landscaper, we don’t have any avenues,” Saviano added. “That’s what I was talking to the congressman about—any information about what they do with these people. If they were residents, god forbid, at least their family would probably have some contact. We could know where they went. I don’t know where these landscapers or tuck pointers went.”
Saviano ended his unplanned remarks by saying the village would “put something together” for residents.
