>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

Donald Trump counting on your silence.

We are counting on your courage.

State officials create a new commission to document alleged abuse of power by federal agents as immigration raids ramp up across the Chicago area.

>> Some Illinois sheriff's offices have contracts to detain people for ICE.

Is that break Illinois law?

And one on one with Stacy Davis.

Gates on her new role as the head of the state's teachers union.

>> Daley's midnight Caper became a textbook example of mayoral clout and makes field the and how makes field became a public park.

In tonight's edition of WT Tw News explains >> First, a new state commission will document what Governor JB Pritzker is calling countless acts of harassment, intimidation, brutality and abuses of power by federal immigration agents.

>> It comes as immigration raids are ramping up across the Chicago area, including for the second straight day in Little Village.

Here's the governor.

Just before he signed the executive order forming the Illinois Accountability Commission.

Donald Trump.

>> Stephen Miller, Christine O Tom Home and Greg Bovino have failed their oaths of office and allowed agents under their command to act unconscionably under the color of law.

They have given the impression that their actions are immune from investigation or accountability.

They are not.

Donald Trump is counting on your silence.

We are counting on your courage.

>> Our Heather Sharon joins us now with more about the latest in the Trump administration's operation Midway Blitz.

Heather, what exactly will this new commission do?

What Pritzker left?

No doubt this morning that he believes that federal agents have brazenly defied the law out on the streets of Chicago and that the Trump administration has neither the time nor the inclination to hold them accountable for those offenses.

So he said this new commission will do that in part by taking in video taken by the people of Chicago on the streets, preserving it investigating it in the hopes that one day after Trump has left office, there can be legal proceedings based on this evidence to hold these agents and their supervisors accountable for the second day in a row federal agents have conducted aggressive immigration raids in Little Village, which is, of course, the heart of Chicago's Mexican American community.

Do we know how many people were detained?

We don't.

There are reports that a 16 year-old student at Benito Juarez High School was taken.

He is a U.S.

citizen.

However, the federal government has been very closed mouth about the number of people detained in this week.

These raids there were videos of somebody detained at a bus stop, which is really ratcheting up the level of concern in Little Village and Pilsen another Chicago neighborhood making simply going to work or school.

Just very, very scary proposition.

So a Chicago Alderman Byron Lopez whose ward includes Pilsen.

He was in the middle of a tense situation this morning.

What did he tell you happened?

He said federal agents deployed tear gas against the crowd that gathered to protest the agents conducting these raids without warning.

Now he said that he didn't hear anybody say anything about an order to disperse or that tear gas was imminent.

That's what is required by a federal judge's order.

Today marks the 5th time since the beginning of the month that federal agents deployed tear gas.

Another chemical agents against crowds of protesters in Chicago, federal judge ordered federal agents to stop using tear gas against crowds of protestors unless they posed a threat against the agents.

As you as you mentioned, was that order violated today?

Well, the plaintiffs in that case, which includes the Chicago Headline Club and other media organizations say it was and just less than an hour ago, they told the judge that that was, in fact what happened and they included a picture of Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino himself firing a can of tear gas at the crowd.

They are asking the judge to take action immediately saying they believe the federal government is, quote, it simply ignoring her order, OK?

So these raids are happening, of course, as we're waiting to see whether or not the U.S.

Supreme Court will allow President Trump to deploy 300 Illinois National Guard members.

400.

>> Members from the Texas National Guard to Chicago.

What is the latest on that case?

We are all waiting for the Supreme Court to act.

They could act.

>> Today they could act tomorrow.

They could act next week.

Now the temporary restraining order preventing that troop deployment will remain in effect indefinitely.

Now on the order of Judge Perry, however, that order could be overturned by a decision of the Supreme Court or it could be upheld or it could be a pilot who we will all wait to see what the Supreme Court decides.

Heather.

Sharon, thank you so much.

Thanks.

Brandis.

And you can read Heather's coverage on the new commission and today's Immigration Action in Little Village on our website.

>> It is all at W T Tw Dot com slash news.

And we're back with more right after this.

>> Reflecting the people perspectives that make can This story is part of Chicago tonight.

Not the >> Also tonight, heartbreaking news about the family of Republican candidate for Governor Darren Bailey.

The campaign has shared that Bailey son, Zachary daughter-in-law, Kelsey and 2 of Bailey's grandchildren, grandchildren were killed in a helicopter crash in Montana yesterday in a social media post.

The campaign says, quote, Darren and Cindy are heartbroken by this unimaginable loss.

They're finding comfort in their faith, their family and the prayers of so many who love and care for them.

The Bailey is deeply appreciate the kindness and support they've received and ask for privacy as they grieve and hold their loves loved ones close during this difficult time.

The children were 12 year-old Vader Rose and 7 year-old Samuel.

The campaign confirms the couple's 3rd child.

10 year-old Finn was not on the helicopter and is safe.

Governor Pritzker reacted to the tragic news.

And >> I cannot imagine.

Losing a child.

Losing 2 grandchildren.

And what they must be going through.

That's all I can Just I and I have expressed publicly already my condolences.

My wife's condolences that when we're devastated.

>> Low-income seniors could get a bit of property tax relief under 2 bills in Springfield, champions by Cook County Assessor.

Fritz KD.

>> Right now we have more than 100 thousands in your house holes that all, we there are exemptions every to get the >> Automating process with help a large number of households by reducing barriers to entry and eliminating annual for that can turn into panic.

When you forgot to renew the exemption.

>> The senior freeze KD is referring to freezes the taxable value of a property for low income eligible seniors.

One bill would raise the income threshold to receive the senior free shun higher than the current $65,000.

Expanding the number of people eligible another bill would automatically renew the exemption for those already enrolled.

The Chicago Fire Department's Fire Prevention bureau has been coming up short, according to a recent investigation from the city's Office of Inspector General, specifically Deborah Woods.

Berg's office found that only 17% of buildings in the SPD's database had received its required annual fire code inspection in a 12 month period.

And half of those buildings hadn't been inspected for 5 or more years.

The bureau also mistakenly thought the city's Department of buildings was responsible for inspecting mid and high rise residential buildings, meaning been an inspected for decades.

The OIG recommends the bureau work with relevant city departments to complete and maintain accurate inventory of all building subject to fire code inspections.

>> Among other suggestions.

>> Up next, some Illinois sheriff's offices have contracts to detain people for ICE.

How that might be breaking state law right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part why the Alexandria and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support these don't.

>> A number of Illinois counties might be violating the state's trust act.

That's the state's sanctuary law.

Part of which prohibits Illinois law enforcement agencies from detaining people over their immigration status.

But it W T Tw News analysis found more than a dozen sheriff's offices have agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for that very reason.

Our reporter Blair Paddock joins us now with more Blair.

What are these agreements?

So these agreements are U.S.

marshals, service agreements.

And so those agreements are to detain people on behalf of the marshals.

The marshals don't have their own bed space.

They need somewhere to house federal detainees.

So they contract with local jails, prisons, private facilities, most contracts other agencies can authorize them self's to also detain people at a local jail.

So what I found are jails sheriff's departments in Illinois that have these checked off for ice.

So they have ice able to detain people at their own trails.

To these constitute constitute a violation of the state sanctuary Yeah.

According to a lawyer that I spoke to that's been looking into trust act violations.

So there's 2 laws going on here.

There's that all my trust act and Illinois Way Forward Act.

Both sanctuary laws and they say, you know, a local law enforcement agency or official cannot enter into contract to detain are house people on behalf of federal immigration authorities for civil immigration enforcement, which these contracts would do.

>> It's unclear how exactly these are being used, but either way, the lawyer I spoke to said it's concerning because ICE could come knocking out of local sheriff store and say, you know, we want to detain someone and they have a contract that says that they could.

So what has the reaction been, especially from those counties that have these contracts?

>> Yeah.

So for 4 of them, they said that they would get rid of these contracts.

The ice writer specifically on these contracts.

one of them.

Got back to me 4 days later saying, hey, we got rid of this.

Where within the bounds of the state log on another 6 said that they would they're within the bounds of the state law that they're not currently housing people on behalf of ICE.

I didn't hear back from the rest, I also didn't hear back from the Illinois attorney general they oversee the implementation of these laws.

If these laws are being followed.

And I didn't hear back on whether or not looking into this or what they make of Okay.

Interesting product.

Thank you so much reporting.

Thank you.

And you can read Blair's full story on our website.

That's at W T Tw Dot com Slash news.

>> And we're back with more right after this.

Teachers across Illinois are getting a new leader and it's a familiar face to educators in Chicago, Chicago Teachers, Union president Stacy Davis.

Gates has been unanimously elected president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers representing 103,000 members across the state.

And while it's not the first time the head of CTU has held the job of IFT leader at the same time, it has been a long time in decades.

Joining us now is the new president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Chicago Teachers, Union president Stacy Davis.

Gates, welcome back.

Congrats on this new position.

Thank you.

This is as we mentioned, it's the first time in 20 years that the CTU president has held both positions as president of I F T. And we know that you were previously executive vice president of the organization, Karen Lewis, several years ago, also served as executive vice president.

But why the separation 20 years ago?

Well, 20 years I think what the leadership of the Chicago teachers Union believed >> was that we could concentrate our time in Chicago, professionalize education.

>> And that their attention to the state wide.

>> Portions of that with take their attention away.

So they made that decision.

However, what we found lately, especially as it relates to funding for education.

Is that the Chicago teachers union has to the power to amplify what's going on all over the state right now.

There is a local in West Frankfort.

They're preparing for a strike.

Nearly 100% of their members say yes to a strike.

And they say yes to a strike because there are school clerks and teachers, assistants who are only working so they can pay for health insurance.

So the issues plaguing school districts Chicago in the Chicagoland area are the same ones playing school districts in the south.

>> So how do you see sort merging the 2 positions in balancing the priorities?

Because I think we all know that sometimes the priorities of an urban district like Chicago might be very different from some of the rural districts downstate.

We're in the process of figuring out what we unify on a practice solidarity with.

>> And so as I mentioned, the lack of revenue a few years back, the state of Illinois passed a bill into law that said that the minimum amount of money teachers could be paid in the state is $40,000.

And guess what?

School districts struggle to do that.

So when you hear that the state of Illinois owes the Chicago public Schools, 1.6, 6, 6 billion dollars, you should also hear that all of the school district's combined outside of Chicago, 3 billion dollars.

So we're in a deficit, quite frankly.

And manifests in different ways in the suburban areas.

You have property tax owners complaining because school districts are over-reliance on those receipts what you have the same conversation happening in the South too.

What we've said is that there's a way to pivot from that that Donald Trump just gave the largest tax break in the history of this country to billionaires.

We have billionaires and Chicago and in the state of Illinois.

What if the increment that they were given, which was taken from public education, the Department of Education has been dismantled.

So what if we put a tax on those people to be cool, what we've lost because of that big tax bill, you know, our young people won't even have snap benefits next month.

So children will be coming to school, hungry or then they are already.

And of course, that can be the case.

Both big district like Chicago lower income, rural poor districts as well.

>> You know, folks who don't follow education every day may not be familiar with IFT.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers and what you all actually do.

They may be much more familiar with what's at home CTU course.

Illinois Federation of Teachers is a state-wide umbrella organization for local unions.

Just like the Chicago Teachers Union.

We represent school, school teachers school clinicians paraprofessionals who Pre-K through 12.

They can teach 50 kids in a district or they can teach hundreds of thousands of kids in the district.

We also represents state workers.

We have workers in the attorney general's office.

Those people are doing God's work in this moment because they're helping to protect our democracy.

We also represent skews me higher education.

especially those workers at Eastern or Western just last week.

We suffered layoffs at both institutions are regional universities are really up under the gun because of the same funding issues that we're talking about as it relates to K 12.

And of course, when you talk about the funding as it relates to K 12, you talk about funding to reach adequacy.

So when you say Cpss, you know, still owed 1.6 billion dollars from the state.

You're from that that state funding formula that allocates those dollars, which we know the state is falling behind on and we don't even have an adequacy target, quite frankly, in higher education right now.

And adequacy is being met by students taking on the burden of debt and families taking on the burden of debt.

The state's contribution to public education, both K 12 and higher at has been abysmal.

If we will.

And we're going to have to come to some sort moment here in Illinois to find a and now we have to do it under the restrictions of the Trump administration.

We've heard repeatedly from from Governor Pritzker and his administration, of course, that the state is short on dollars.

They've got a budget deficit as well.

But in a separate statement, a different statement.

Illinois House Republican Leader Tony Macomb be said, quote, Stacy Davis, Gates is bad news for Illinois students.

States is a left-wing radical who runs local one with the corrupt political machine instead of a force for student achievement and educational excellence under her leadership, CTU, political spending has skyrocketed while educational outcomes of Chicago.

Public schools have deteriorated.

We cannot allow Gates to export her far left Chicago agenda to suburban and downstate school districts.

Tough words from the minority leader in the House there, the Republican leader in the House.

What do you say to those who are concerned about the increased amount I guess, power or influence by sea to you?

Well, I think that the teachers, educators, state workers of the Illinois Federation of Teachers elected me unanimously this past weekend.

I think that the state of Illinois needs leadership in this moment to create united front just today, a 16 year-old American born student at one of our high schools here in the Chicago Public Schools was detained.

Detained by we have bigger fish to fry.

We have to keep young people safe.

This young man was on his way to school.

What does this say when 16 year-old boys are detained on their way to school for being an American?

So I would challenge every elected leader in the state of Illinois to rally around the flag because the president of the United States has declared all of us enemies.

To that point, you know, we're talking about ICE raids ramping up in the city.

Federal agents arresting people today in Pilsen little village yesterday.

And I think there's tear gas thrown today in the past.

Ctu has pushed for remote learning for CPS in order to protect those students and their parents.

The district has rebuffed that notion.

Are you continuing to push for it?

I'm continuing to push for that and everything that can help a family in this moment at least some idoc home of their everyday regular life.

Schools are some of the safest spaces in our city right now and all over this country as they should be.

And it is a fact that ice is harassing and detaining or young people as they are on their way to school.

So we have to figure out a better safe passage, which is why my members are applauding.

Mayor Johnson in this moment because he a surplus the billion dollars to schools to libraries and to parks.

And those are places that all of our young people safe spaces.

And so in this moment, we're safe passage is being challenged.

I would say, again, all of us have one thing to do.

And that is to protect our young people.

And we get to do that because grown-ups get to figure out how to work together to make ends meet.

So young people have what they need.

Also speculation about whether you've got your eye on the position of president of American Federation of Teachers somewhere down the road.

Randi Weingarten currently holds that position.

What do you think?

>> I think there, Randi Weingarten is that teacher in charge of our union that we need, Randi, is teaching all of America had a fife ashes.

As you know, she's a New York Times bestseller.

>> And as you know, they she's the right type of person to unite all corners of our country right now.

Look, I'm not looking for less leadership.

I'm looking for more leadership and I'm looking for both wise and bold leadership in this moment.

The only way we get through this leaders step up and we don't need us and then we need more.

Federation of Teachers and Chicago Teachers, Union president leader Stacey Davis.

Gates, I know you all are heading to Springfield to lobby day next week during veto session.

Some listen out for that.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Very good.

Thank you.

>> Up next, how an airport became a park right on the Chicago lakefront.

Chicago has a magnificent park.

You may not know about.

And as the fall colors emerge in the days, get shorter.

It's a good time to check out this natural resource.

It's on northerly island between the Old McCormick Place and Soldier Field.

And it used to be an airport.

So what happened?

Our Eunice Office on has the story in tonight's edition of WT TW News explains.

>> We all know O'Hare and but along the lakefront near Soldier Field in the other planetarium is a little strip of land that was once home to a small airport.

makes field.

That was until one march morning, a little over 20 years ago when the city will to find Mayor Richard Daley had the airport bulldozed in the middle of the daisha's covert bulldozing operation was the conclusion to years long political battle to the airport into what it is now Northerly Island park.

>> So how is this even possible?

First, let's back >> By the Mid 20th Century makes field was the busiest single runway airport in the country.

It was primarily used by politicians and business elites to jet in and out of downtown.

But Mayor Richard Daley had other plans for the land, the many peninsula that next we'll on was owned by the Chicago Park District.

>> And for years, some Chicagoans daily included argues Lakefront Land should instead be used as a park open to all residents.

But a series of political deals and pushback from aviation and business advocates kept the airport open so daily hatched a plan.

>> By cover of night in March 2003, the mayor's demolition crew arrived at the airport in car giant X's into the runway rendering it unusable.

And all of this was done without telling the City Council the state or the Federal Aviation Administration.

The surprise move left several planes stranded daily defended this time as unnecessary post 9.11 security measure to prevent planes from flying near downtown Chicago.

But critics and condensate the mayor was merely dodging a pro long and expensive legal battle with various groups fighting to keep their open.

No matter the purpose of the plot, Chicago had to pay the $33,000 fine and an additional 1 million dollars to repay grant funding.

Daley's midnight Caper became a textbook example of mayoral clout and makes field became Northerly Island Park.

>> Home to an outdoor concert venue Urban Nature.

Sanctuary.

>> And you can watch our series of explainers on our website.

Everything from how the city's grid system works to watch goes pension debt is so high.

Just go to www dot com slash explains.

And that's our show for this Thursday night.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Instagram at W T Tw Chicago and join us tomorrow night at 5.37, for the week in review.

>> Now for all of us here at Chicago Bridges, Friedman, thanks for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good thing.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Robert with and Clifford law, offices personal