“Chicago-style homes” will be training ground for federal immigration officers: report

For its “new urban warfare” training, officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will run drills in hyper-realistic so-called Chicago-style homes.

The training facility is not in Chicago, or even Illinois. It is in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Strategic Operations Inc. will furnish each Chicago-style home for “combat conditions” like dishes on the table and toys in the yard, at a cost of $355,236.36 each, according to Newsweek. The information was obtained after the U.S. General Services Administration failed to redact a purchase request.

Chicago was one of 10 U.S. cities targeted in coordinated ICE raids for undocumented immigrants this summer. Chicago officials took steps to protect immigrants and refugees as a sanctuary city, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot instructed local law enforcement not to assist ICE officers.

In tweet about the news, Alderman Ramirez-Rosa called the Chicago-centered plan that targets undocumented immigrants, “unsettling, and a reminder that we must continue to protect and defend each other.”

Some analysts say that mass deportation could also threaten urban housing markets across the country, including cities like Chicago. [Curbed] — Sarah Paynter