FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 16, 2025
CONTACTS: Deana Rutherford, deana@thepeopleslobbyusa.org, 773-230-8112 (15 S. Halsted action)
Marie Rowley, mrowleyopc@gmail.com, 312-612-0812 (4000 N. Lincoln Ave action)
People’s Action, press@peoplesaction.org, 512.516.5067 (All other actions)
Corporation Profits from Agreements with Agencies Running Mass Detention and Deportation Policies, as well as from Tax Cuts in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill
Chicago, Illinois – Customers, churches and community organizations across Greater Chicago and Illinois, including The People’s Lobby, ONE People’s Campaign, People’s Action, and the Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois on Sunday held nonviolent demonstrations outside AT&T storefronts throughout the city and around the state to urge the telecom giant to cancel its contracts with the federal agencies running Trump’s deportation machine.
At 17 sites across the Chicago area and around Illinois, roughly 1,000 attendees of the demonstrations called on members of the public to not buy or upgrade any AT&T products or plans this holiday season until AT&T drops these contracts. Photos from today’s events can be found here.
“No one can reach their full potential while corporations like AT&T profit from contracting with these agencies, gobble up tax breaks, and push for policies that also cut public programs that serve all of us,” People’s Action’s Sulma Arias said outside AT&T’s 15 S. Halsted location in Chicago. “No corporation should have this much power. If AT&T and their peers want our money, they have to act in the interest of our communities.”
“AT&T has the nerve to air ads in Spanish while ICE and DHS are terrorizing our communities,” Lina Avalos, a member of The People’s Lobby, said. “We are here today, using our constitutional rights, to talk about how AT&T is selling out our communities to ICE and DHS–for more cash in their pockets.” Avalos also spoke at the Halsted location.
AT&T has had multimillion-dollar contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These agencies have not only been terrorizing immigrants; they have also targeted Black communities with violence and violations of their constitutional and civil rights. Even as the corporation profits from contracts with these agencies, it also benefits from the tax cuts in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill and publicly supported it despite the deep cuts to funding for health, housing, and nutrition programs.
“None of us are safe when masked, armed, and badgeless agents of the state can drive armored vehicles around our neighborhoods, taking people off the street and from front yards, childcare centers, and off school grounds, sometimes throwing tear gas canisters in our neighborhoods,” State Sen. Robert Peters said. “AT&T is contracting with the agencies targeting our neighbors. Corporations who take part in this unconstitutional attack on our freedoms will be held to account. AT&T should drop these contracts and support their most reliable customers–the American people, not those violating their rights at DHS, ICE, and CBP.”
“By targeting people based on appearance and seeking to get rid of them, this administration is violating the American promise of liberty and justice for all,” Rev. Scott Aaseng, executive co-director of Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois, said. “And AT&T is helping them do it. As a communications company, AT&T should be helping bring people together, not helping ICE separate families and communities. I call on AT&T to do the right thing and end its contracts with ICE, CPB, and DHS now.”
“AT&T sells us services that keep our families connected,” ONE People’s Campaign Executive Director Jesse Hoyt said. “They do not need to sell us out by doing business with the villain that is tearing our families apart. ICE’s aggressive actions have hurt good people just trying to live our lives. AT&T’s contract with DHS and ICE feels like a gut punch. Ending that contract would make it clear to AT&T’s customers, workers, and everyone in our communities that this corporation knows it’s well past time to put people above profit.”
Representatives of local unions demanded that the corporation start acting like a good citizen in Chicago.
“Big corporations like AT&T get massive tax breaks, sign government contracts with agencies terrorizing our communities, and reap record profits,” CTU Vice President Jackson Potter said. “We cannot continue to subsidize our own oppression. AT&T should pay the corporate head tax and fund city services and anti-violence initiatives instead of using their record tax breaks to stack profits and support ICE’s reign of terror.”
AT&T will save $8 billion in tax cuts over three years thanks to extensions of the 2017 tax cuts at the same time that the Trump Administration is backing off of a crackdown on a tax shelter being used by the corporation that’s worth billions more.
An online tool unveiled at the events in English and Spanish to tell AT&T CEO John Stankey that they pledge to not buy or upgrade new AT&T products or plans until the corporation commits to stop contracting with DHS, ICE, and CBP.
“Whether it’s AT&T making millions from servicing the agencies running Trump’s deportation machine or fossil fuel billionaires buying out politicians to block clean energy, young people will not stand by and let our communities and futures be ripped apart,” Sunrise Movement’s Paul Campion said. “We are angry. We say, no upgrades, no new contracts…until AT&T walks away from ICE, CBP, and DHS.”
Organizations participating in today’s events included:
- Beverly Unitarian Church
- Center For Racial and Gender Equity
- Chicago Teachers Union
- DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church
- Gamaliel Faith in Democracy
- Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
- Illinois National Organization for Women
- Immigrant Justice Team
- Indivisible Chicago Alliance
- Indivisible Evanston
- Indivisible Fighting 9
- Indivisible West Suburban Chicago
- Latinos United for Change and Immigrant Rights
- May Day Strong
- NAKASEC Action Fund
- North Shore Unitarian Church
- ONE People’s Campaign
- People’s Action
- The People’s Lobby
- Second Unitarian Church
- Sunrise Movement Chicago
- Unitarian Church of Evanston
- Unitarian Church of Hinsdale
- Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois
- Unitarian Universalist Association
- Unitarian Universalist Bloomington Social Justice Team
- Unitarian Universalist Church of Joliet
- Unitarian Universalist Church, Rockford
- Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign
- Unitarian Universalist Congregation of DeKalb
- Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva
Other organizations across the country endorsing this effort and sharing the pledge include:
- 350 Action
- Advancement Project Action Fund
- Asian American Midwest Progressives
- Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
- Catholics Vote Common Good
- Citizen Action of Wisconsin
- Community Voices Heard Power
- Connecticut Citizen Action Group
- Fourth Branch Action
- Iowa CCI Action Fund
- Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
- Organized Power in Numbers
- Pennsylvania Stands Up, Inc.
- People Power United
- Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Action Fund
- #ResistTrump Campaign
- Right to the City Action
- Showing Up For Racial Justice
- SURJ-KC
- UE Western Region
- VOCAL Action Fund
- West Virginia Citizen Action
- and growing!
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About The People’s Lobby:
The People’s Lobby is a membership-driven organization devoted to organizing widespread support for legislation and candidates that put the needs of people and the planet before the interests of big corporations and the very rich.
About ONE People’s Campaign:
ONE People’s Campaign endorses and supports progressive candidates and policies that put the interests of regular people before the profits of corporations and the super rich. OPC organizes people who live on the front lines of the many crises plaguing our society in Chicago and Central Illinois.
About People’s Action:
People’s Action is a proud national network of 38 member-based, power-building organizations in 29 states with more than a million members and tens of thousands of national volunteers. We are from every background, speak many languages, and live in small towns, cities and rural areas. We are all of us!