Brokers from the Division of Homeland Safety descended upon the Nationwide Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Tradition in Chicago on Tuesday, with no less than 15 DHS autos arriving within the museum’s parking zone, in accordance to the Chicago Solar Instances, which first reported on the information.
The autos have been within the parking zone for nearly two hours, Veronica Ocasio, the museum’s director of schooling and programming, advised the Solar Instances. Ocasio additionally mentioned that an agent, who didn’t determine what company he was with, was granted permission to make use of the lavatory on the museum.
Billy Ocasio, the museum’s president and CEO, advised Hyperallergic that the agent regarded across the museum as a substitute of utilizing the lavatory and didn’t depart the museum when requested to take action by employees. “Folks have been frightened. They didn’t know easy methods to reply and have been intimidated,” he mentioned.
“Homeland Safety introduced themselves in pressure, Gestapo-style intimidation to our employees, who was not prepared. We weren’t prepared. And we, as a employees, because the Nationwide Puerto Rican museum, is not going to enable this bullying and intimidation to occur right here,” Veronica Ocasio mentioned throughout a information briefing on Wednesday.
Consultant Delia Ramirez, whose district consists of Humboldt Park, the place the museum is situated, advised the Solar Instances that DHS brokers “ought to determine themselves, like each regulation enforcement official is required to do.”
In an announcement circulated to the press, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin mentioned, “FALSE. The Division of Homeland Safety DID NOT goal the Nationwide Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Tradition. On July 8, HSI Chicago’s Monetary Crimes Process Drive (FCTF) staged and held a fast briefing within the Museum’s parking zone prematurely of an enforcement motion associated to a narcotics investigation.”
Ramirez added, “All these techniques of authoritarianism are about management. It’s about suppressing dissent. It’s about attempting to dismantle resistance, and it’s about attempting to paralyze our communities. It’s about creating these loopy spectacles of violence to pit folks in opposition to one another after which justify their techniques once they get caught.”
Veronica Ocasio additionally mentioned that employees had heard the agent discussing the museum’s upcoming festivals, which incorporates the Barrio ArtsFest this weekend. The museum’s parking zone closes at 5 p.m. on Tuesdays when the museum closes. When a museum consultant advised this to the brokers, they requested to depart their autos in a single day, she mentioned. The museum refused and the brokers departed shortly earlier than 5 p.m.
