March 2025 — Moving the Needle // Woods Fund Chicago

“What do I do? What is my legal responsibility protecting my employees? What is actually lawful if ICE comes to my door?”

Earlier this month, Woods Fund Chicago grantee partners Centro de Trabajadores Unidos and Immigrant Solidarity Dupage announced a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to maintain taxpayer privacy and prohibit unlawful disclosure of tax records to immigration enforcement agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Co-counsel for this lawsuit (and subsequent temporary restraining order) includes Raise the Floor Alliance, a non-profit organization and legal clinic founded by eight WFC grantee partners, including plaintiff Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, as well as Arise Chicago, Chicago Community and Workers’ Rights, Chicago Workers Collaborative, Latino Union of Chicago, Warehouse Workers for Justice, and the Workers Center for Racial Justice. This collaborative effort to protect immigrant workers — who are required to pay taxes regardless of documentation status, despite misconceptions — demonstrates the close relationship between labor movements and immigrant justice.

The relationship between immigration and labor is familiar enoughto inspire the Hamilton lyric, “Immigrants: We get the job done,” — but in 2025 and under the federal administration’s aggressive enforcement tactics and fearmongering, how are Woods Fund Chicago grantee partners organizing to protect immigrant workers?

“Day laborers are crucial to the functioning of the building and the beauty of our city,” Latino Union Executive Director Miguel Alvelo Rivera told City Bureau in December. Latino Union was key to passing Chicago’s first Day Labor Ordinance in 2002 and continues to organize in coalition with day laborers and other contracted workers (such as household workers and caregivers) for protections and regulations. In 2024, Latino Union, Raise the Floor Alliance, and the People’s Law Office filed a lawsuit in response to incidents of alleged harassment and physical assault by security and Chicago police officers against migrants seeking day labor at a southwest side Home Depot.

Arise Chicago’s organizing includes public education on labor rights for workers, their employers, and community members. The organization regularly holds workshops that address worker and immigrant rights in anticipation of ICE crackdowns in Chicago. Restaurants have felt particular pressure under the new administration. Shelly Ruzicka, Arise’s communications director, told the Chicago Tribune that the organization ensures both workers and employers know which spaces are private and which are public. “That’s something we are making sure restaurant workers and owners know because they might be like, ‘What do I do? What is my legal responsibility protecting my employees? What is actually lawful if ICE comes to my door?’”

A key program that is possibly at risk under the new administration is Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE), which protects undocumented workers from retaliation (including deportation) for speaking up about labor violations. Warehouse Workers for Justice Executive Director Marcos Ceniceros spoke in a Q&A with City Bureau about the vital importance of DALE: “For so long, companies have taken advantage of and exploited undocumented workers. This program addresses those issues. It’s important because labor is at the center of these people’s lives.”

Woods Fund Chicago supports community organizing embodied by our grantee partners that recognizes systems-change as an all-encompassing effort at the intersection of several issues. We stand by our grantee partners working on the ground within their communities. Labor and immigration do not operate in siloes, and protections for our neighbors means further justice for us all.

Explore Know-Your-Rights toolkits and resources from our grantee partners:

Know Your Rights: Day Labor, co-written by Latino Union for City Bureau, available in English and Spanish

Arise Chicago’s Workers Rights Manual, available in English, Spanish, and Polish

Arise Chicago’s Immigrant Worker Toolkit, available in English and Spanish

Woods Fund Chicago President Michelle Morales was featured in Inside Philanthropy discussing the foundation’s decision to increase our annual payout, advocating for funders to consider how the sector can strengthen its support of the nonprofit community.

“I have been challenging our sector to rethink our role as funders during a time in which federal funding is being weaponized and pulled from nonprofits doing the critical work in our communities. Do we sit aside and allow these nonprofits to close their doors or decrease their impact? Or do we release more funds — increase our payouts — so that they, and in turn our communities, continue to thrive during these unprecedented attacks?”

Read more about Woods Fund Chicago’s 14% payout in Inside Philanthropy.

For further reading, Michelle wrote last summer about why we’re increasing our payout.

Woods Fund Chicago will be accepting applications from returning grantee partners for the 2025 grantmaking cycle Tuesday, April 1 through Wednesday, April 30. Returning grantee partners will receive a direct link to their application portal.

Please note: The new applicant deadline has passed and this application window is for returning grantee partners only.

Learn more about our grants, what we're looking for, and how to apply at woodsfund.org/our-grants. Questions or trouble accessing the link? Reach out to the Director of Grants Management and Assistant Corporate Secretary Deborah Clark at dclark@woodsfund.org.

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The TRiiBE // Chicago organizers mourn the loss of Ronald ‘Kowboy’ Jackson

Block Club Chicago // Remembering Tuyet Le, A Champion Of Civil Rights, Community Empowerment — And Laughter

New report to outline policy recommendations for reparations and what it means for Chicagoans

Why We’re Watching It: WFC grantee partner BlackRoots Alliance, released the new report Reinvest2Repair, outlining how the city could implement reparations for Black Chicagoans, prioritizing the lived experiences of residents, their relationship to the city, and how those experiences should inform policy design. Executive Director Katelyn Johnson discusses the findings and recommendations.

WGN Chicago // Watch now