“You don’t have to be a purple-haired, bleeding-heart liberal to help people.” That’s the declaration that Aleah Arundale, a Trump-voting mom in Chicago, lives by. When Free Press reporters Frannie Block and Tanya Lukyanova learned about Arundale and how she’s been helping immigrants in her city find jobs, build community, and stay safe amid increasingly frequent ICE raids, they headed to Chicago to spend the day with her. They came back with a surprising story about the characters on the front lines of the fight over the most contentious issue in America right now.
To watch the documentary they made about Arundale and her work, hit the play button above. And read their story below about the Venezuelan immigrants grappling with the rapid changes to immigration enforcement—and their chances of being able to stay in the country.
—The Editors
Aleah Arundale voted for Donald Trump, supports his decision to close the border, and may as well have introduced herself by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” when we met at her front door in Chicago last month. She was wearing a white sweatshirt with “USA” plastered on the front, a sequined American flag skirt, heart-shaped red glasses, and bedazzled red and white sneakers.
She also has spent the last three years helping Venezuelan immigrants. It began when buses from Texas started dropping off people at a street corner near where Arundale’s daughter went to dance class, as part of Governor Greg Abbott’s expulsion of thousands of immigrants to sanctuary cities across the country.
She started with basic needs: helping newcomers find work, clothes, diapers, and housing. Now that Chicago is the target of an immigration crackdown, Arundale spends her days helping people evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She answers the phone when ICE agents are outside the door, helps immigrants slip away in an Uber or her own car, and even gives them disguises—like medical scrubs and Amazon delivery vests—so that it is easier to blend in and harder to be targeted.
Despite all that, some of the people that Arundale, 46, has helped over the years have since been rounded up, locked in detention facilities, and deported. Little Village, a heavily Hispanic neighborhood southwest of the city’s downtown, has been hit especially hard by ICE raids during the past few months.
She calls the roundups and deportations “America’s broken promise.”
