Officials in Brookfield approved a resolution on Monday, March 23, ratifying the village’s commitment against working with federal immigration enforcement agents.
The resolution affirms that Brookfield police and all other village personnel, unless required by federal law, will not participate in federal immigration enforcement activity; village property and resources cannot be used to support immigration enforcement; and village staff and residents can document federal immigration activity in town by calling the police, whose body-worn cameras will capture footage of the incident.
The village board voted 7-0 to approve the resolution, with Village President Michael Garvey marking the seventh ‘aye’ vote. Normally, the village president only votes in the event of a tie.
The resolution builds on guidance Brookfield issued in November, when officials invoked the Illinois TRUST Act of 2021, which bars local law enforcement from assisting with or intervening in federal immigration activity.
Additionally, it specifies that federal immigration agents may not use Brookfield’s facilities, equipment or internal databases for investigative or enforcement purposes and that village employees may not provide information to federal immigration agents that is not already publicly available.
At the meeting last Monday, Trustee Kyle Whitehead thanked village staffers, including Police Chief Michael Kuruvilla, Village Manager Tim Wiberg and Village Attorney Adam Durkin for their collaboration in bringing forth the resolution for a board vote while Trustee Julie Narimatsu thanked Whitehead for his leadership on the issue.
In an interview with the Landmark, Whitehead said he was less involved in but “comfortable with” the village’s initial approach to the issue in the fall, but after hearing from residents and speaking with some fellow trustees, he reached out to staff about bringing the resolution forward.
“Since the fall, the surge has calmed down in the Chicago area, but the issue has not gone away, I think, for our residents and for people across the country. We consistently over the last several months heard from residents,” he said. “People were calling and emailing us; people were talking to us in the community at school drop-off and in the park, saying, ‘Look, what can we do as a community to make sure we’re protecting our neighbors?’”
First, he said, he reached out to Kuruvilla to hear how a resolution could affect police’s ability to operate before working with Durkin to put the resolution together correctly from a legal standpoint, taking inspiration from similar ordinances passed by other municipalities in the region.
“I have young kids myself. We’re living in difficult times. Life is hard for everybody, but life is even harder for people who are most vulnerable, who don’t have the resources and support and protection that families like mine have,” Whitehead said.
“There’s nothing more basic than personal safety and the safety of your family, the safety of your children, the safety of your mother and father,” he added. “When I think about how that would affect a family to have a federal agency come in and take somebody, or take the whole family, it’s terrifying. I don’t think that’s what anyone in this community wants to see.”
In a written statement issued to the Landmark, a group of Brookfield residents who had advocated for the passage of an ordinance restricting the abilities of federal immigration agents praised the board’s unanimous vote and thanked Trustee Jennifer Hendricks, who they said acted as a liaison to the committee.
Residents Jonathan Platt, Beth Berendsen, Carrie Felix, Ana Alvarez-Lundvick, Chris Meier and Katie Vina, who comprise the group, “would like to thank the community of Brookfield for its support through letters and emails to the village board, public comments at board meetings and expressions of opinions to board members individually,” they said in the statement. “We also thank the village board for the implementation and passage of this resolution.”
Multiple members of the group have attended village board meetings since last year to ask the village board to approve a resolution much like this one during its public comment periods.
