With ICE raids on the horizon, Brandon Johnson says “rise up” (but not like that). Reports indicate that Chicago will be among the next wave of cities targeted for ICE kidnappings. With that horrific possibility looming, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson suggested that Chicagoans should “rise up in this moment” against Donald Trump. He made this audacious statement just one day after protesters at an anti-ICE march were attacked by the police, resulting in several injuries and 17 arrests. There are simple questions that Brandon and his supporters (including supposed immigrant activists and police reformers) have no answers for: If you are against ICE raids, why do the police, who work directly for you, attack anti-ICE protesters? Why does the CPD allow ICE to openly kidnap people and brutalize elected officials in Chicago?

Repressive policing of protests has been a key feature of the Johnson administration since he took office. While proclaiming support for free speech, his police destroyed the Palestine encampment at DePaul University and attacked the encampment at SAIC within hours of its establishment. Brandon, who opposes the genocide in Gaza but is happy to associate with its architects, celebrated “constitutional policing” during the DNC and has held it up as a model for future demonstrations. That “constitutional policing” included incidents where protesters required hospitalization, the arrest of journalists, and dozens of politically motivated arrests at a Behind Enemy Lines protest. The charges were so flimsy that not a single person was found guilty, even of a simple city ordinance violation.

With Donald Trump’s ICE thugs on the way, is Brandon Johnson an ally that anyone should want? All of the double-talk, the good-protester/bad-protester divide-and-conquer tactics, and his cover for an out-of-control police department while defending genociders prove beyond a doubt what side he’s on: the side of the ruling class. Instead of taking measures to protect his residents from ICE kidnappers, he is preemptively trying to keep protests within acceptable limits. It is precisely because the rebels of LA defined those acceptable limits that they have become a source of inspiration for people who oppose ICE abductions. Anyone who wants to get serious about dismantling the deportation machine needs to be clear about the role of Brandon Johnson: he is on the other side.