>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

>> Their number one mission there as the president said, it's so TSA which security.

>> The Trump administration deploys ICE agents at 14 airport security lines grow amid the partial government shutdown.

>> We will continue to stand with working people across the city.

>> And the mayor pledged to veto an effort to stop the phase out of the tipped minimum wage.

What it all means for workers and businesses.

First off tonight, members of the country's highest court heard arguments in a case about mail-in ballots today.

>> In the ruling could have implications for November's midterm elections.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority sounded skeptical of state laws that allowed the counting of mail ballots that arrive after Election Day.

The Trump administration and other parties are asking justices to side with a lower court ruling that struck down a Mississippi law allowing ballots to be counted if they arrive within 5 business days of the election and are postmarked by Election Day, Illinois and 12 other states have similar laws President Trump has claimed widespread voter fraud associated with mail-in voting.

Despite evidence to the contrary, the court's ruling is expected by late June 27 year-old man accused of settling setting the fire that killed a Chicago firefighter last week is being held in Cook County Jail facing murder and arson charges.

Prosecutors say she Sleet had been a resident of the 3 floor apartment building in the 1700 block of west North Shore previously.

But he had a history of squatting in the building and acting erratically on March 16th.

They say he allegedly used a handheld lighter to set fire to a mattress in the building's boiler room.

Then left the building without calling 9-1-1 or telling anyone when he realized he couldn't put out the flames while responding to the blaze.

4th generation firefighter Mont Michael Altman fell through the first floor into the basement level which had been engulfed.

He died the next day.

32 year-old Altman is the grandson of Edward Altman, who served a Chicago fire commissioner in the late 90's.

A local high school is remembering James Gracie, the Illinois College student who died in Barcelona last week.

Gracie was a 2023 graduate of Saint Ignatius College Prep where the community held a memorial Mass for him today.

The school says he was a 3rd generation along as his mother, grandfather and great uncles all attended.

Gracie was a member of both the National Honor Society and Latin Honor Society as well as the lacrosse and hockey teams.

He was a student at the University of Alabama on break in Spain when he disappeared last Tuesday.

Spanish police say his body was found Thursday in the waters off the beach.

Greece's death is believed to be an accident.

Illinois and several other Democrat led states are filing yet another lawsuit against the Trump administration.

This time challenging the conditions.

The federal government placed on billions of dollars in federal grant money from the U.S.

Department of Agriculture.

The 5.6 billion dollars for Illinois was meant to be 965 million dollars for the child nutrition program.

241 million for WIC.

4.4 billion for snap.

And 21 million dollars for the emergency food Assistance program.

>> are targeting.

Our daily food and nutrition.

As well as the agricultural programs that we rely on to know we will be able to feed Americans.

For generations to come.

This must stop.

>> In December, the USDA announced new requirements for states that received federal funding for certain social safety net programs like snap.

The department says states must comply with new federal guidelines which say no taxpayer money can go to dei initiatives to benefit undocumented immigrants or support gender ideology.

Up next, chaos at the airport.

Is the government solution to TSA shortage is helping or hurting.

That's right.

After this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part why the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> Chicago's O'Hare Airport is among at least 14 across the country where the federal government has deployed ice agents to backfill for overwhelmed TSA agents.

The partial government shutdown is now in its 37th day.

And airport security lines are growing longer as agents work without pay as a result, many workers have been calling out for searching for a different job entirely.

Joining us now by zoom to talk about the latest is Daryl English, a TSA officer at Midway Airport and president of GE, Local, 7, 7, 7, That's the union representing TSA agents in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Darrell, Welcome back.

Thank you for joining us again.

as I said, you joined us 2 weeks ago to discuss the DHS shutdown as well as pay for TSA agents.

And you told us then that the situation for agents at Chicago's airports could soon become, quote, devastating.

What is the current status now for TSA workers in the area?

>> Well, TSA still officers are still stressed out because of the situation of not being paid.

They have for paycheck since the end January.

And they've been going by one loans and things of that kind of nature for last too much.

Now, coming up on April, going to be a second month that they may be missing their or their rent going to cause a lot of officers to probably getting.

Think it.

happy have lose their homes and houses.

>> Are you hearing reports of any age and so far that leaving leaving the job, leaving the profession or calling out sick.

So they can work.

Some locals.

>> I've been contact with officers that are deciding on going to a more secure paying position because of issues with the federal government.

We understand that because of end of day, they have to look out for their family.

And TSA is not providing that structure floral, then they need take steps to protect their family in a livelihood.

>> All right.

So the Trump administration, we know that they've been deploying ICE agents, at least 14 airports, including O'Hare, supposedly to assist with line management and security.

But do you think ICE agents presence at TSA checkpoints?

Could that actually be helped to reduce the wait time?

Some folks are experiencing.

>> Well, right now there, as far as what I'm hearing, they're doing limited type of assistance, working the exit lane and assisting passengers with the the vesting, their items.

Is it going to help to some extent?

But the main emphasis is, again, is those officers that are not being paid because if those officer that are not being paid, can't afford to come to work, you're going to have more call Austin and near future.

>> Okay.

And I mean, if that should be the case, you know that the Trump administration is responding by sending ICE agents on.

But we know TSA agents, you all have specific training to detect explosives, weapons threats in an airport setting.

Could ice agents slot into that workflow?

Even in a limited capacity.

>> She had to in order to work those secure positions.

You have to have weeks and months of training to be able to be on your own and just can't come off the streets and then be able to take those positions without being thoroughly tested past.

Certain a certain standard of test in order to be your own.

So those kind of positions like X-ray things I nation they're not going to be able to do in this state in their early training.

>> Chicago, we know is also the focus of large-scale immigration efforts last fall, the DHS called it Operation Midway Blitz, but it did lead to multiple violent encounters between residents and ICE agents.

Are you concerned at all that ISIS presence at O'Hare could make a situation that is already chaotic?

Worse?

>> Well, you have some 6 people that have experience with ice.

So, you know, it's gonna take a while for them to be reassured that these ice ages are out there for best interests.

Time time will be the best way of determining that.

But again, it takes time for people to individuals after being experienced things that, you know, what that were detrimental to its up to some individuals.

>> Everett Kelley is the national President of your union.

The American Federation of Government Employees said earlier today that the Trump administration should be looking to reopen DHS rather than to replace TSA agents with ICE agents.

And as we've said, the shutdown has entered its 37th day.

Lawmakers in DC are scheduled to a 2 week recess for Easter and Passover this Friday, which means that they don't have a deal.

The shutdown could stretch into day 60.

What would you like to see happen on the federal level?

They're all.

>> I would love for these congressional leaders to get together and to pass a full funding bill for those ages 40 40 on Department.

Homeland Security and all the agencies that have have been affected by this, TSA should not innovations.

Abc should not be a in the middle of all of this, especially when we have a war going on in the Middle East.

We need to be unified in to open We need to get the best people qualified to be the work.

Those equipments as it was made to be.

>> The office of the Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told WTTG W that they have been in contact with you that there's been no word yet ICE agents being deployed to midway.

As of now, it's hair.

But can you tell us anything about the conversations you've had with the mayor's office?

>> It's just general as far as how things are going with officers and let them know how stressed stressful it with the officers, mainly because of the not being paid.

And I let them know about what's coming up in April.

Again, it could begin month is to be their second mortgage or rent.

And with that will cost a lot more officers to have to call off or possibly lead to agency.

And if that would happen to have a bigger issue because you have holes in the end, a security where will take weeks and months to be feel.

>> Congressional Democrats, they've been withholding their votes on funding the Department of Homeland Homeland Security because they say they want reforms for ice.

Do you think Democrats at this point should reopen DHS without the reforms they're seeking.

>> Well, each side has their own reason forward and have to arguments.

Our main thing for TSA is to make sure we're not putting the middle of this.

Tsa have officers like have people just like you, myself.

They have family in have obligations.

So to be caught in the middle of the U.S.

when they should be actually opened up is looks bad for our country because of the situation we have in the Middle >> Ok, Darryl English, president of AFT local, 7, 7, 7, Best of luck to you and your colleagues.

Errol, thanks again for joining us.

All right.

Thank you.

>> Up next, the latest in the battle over how waiters and waitresses are paid in Chicago.

Tipped workers in Chicago are getting caught in a back and forth at City Hall.

That's after older people last week reversed their own 2023 vote.

That would phase out the tipped minimum wage.

Mayor Johnson said he would veto that reversal measure.

The original ordinance marked a compromise between the Illinois Restaurant Association in the mayor's office giving restaurants 5 years to prepare for the end of the tipped minimum wage in 2028.

Well, giving workers annual 8% raises.

But restaurant groups say the raises have cut into their already thin margins.

While others say it helps the city's lowest paid workers Sept joining us to help with the whiplash are Gina laugh.

Director of community engagement with Chicago, hospitality, accountability and advocacy database or Chad.

She's also a tip service worker.

Molly Pash, a director of strategic partnerships at Chad.

She's also worked at a number of hospitality establishments in a variety positions.

So no Oliver attempt server at the Bronzeville Winery.

Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association.

Thanks to all of you for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for having Let's start with you, please.

So as we mentioned, when this measure initially passed in 2023, it was supposed to have been compromised between your association and the Johnson administration to give.

>> Restaurants of runway time to prepare to roll this inning to get to the elimination.

What changed, OK?

So we have always and always will be against elimination of Tip credit.

>> But I did agree to 5 years.

Kuz 2 or 3 years would have been too much.

There's a lot of misinformation out because by law, every share needs to make minimum wage.

Right now.

Minimum wage in the city.

Chicago 16, 60 an hour.

The tip credit wage is 12.

62 show.

If a server does not make $3 and $0.98 in tips, then the employer needs to rounded up.

95 1% of the independent restaurant here in our 77 communities have a payroll company and that will rounded up.

So again by law, everybody needs to make minimum wage.

And if they're not, you mean the employer needs to around that up.

>> Okay.

So it's new 0 was opposed to But did something change more recently?

>> Yet show, you know, we know that since up since 2020, product cost is going up.

31% tariffs and everything else going on.

probably a little bit higher now specially was going on in the Middle East and labor costs is off.

35%.

I used to say the restaurant industry was an industry of nickels and dimes.

Now it's an industry of pennies and nickels.

We know over 400 Porter 96 restaurants closed in the 1st half 2025. here in the city Chicago.

All you have to do is look up and down or commercial streets like 79th Street 53rd Street Lincoln Avenue, Western Avenue, Lawrence and see all the empty store fronts.

Quite a few empty storefronts and I worry about the like I said, the 17 wards touched a 25 municipality's that go right into summer's show.

really hurt and lot of independent restaurants here in the city of Chicago, OK?

So it sounds then like, you know, reality of implementation, those slow, it's actually proving to be more damaging as a result of other factors.

cost every again, our eyes do not lie on.

You have to is and down the commercial corridors in see all the empty storefronts.

Okay.

do want to get you in your How do you see the city council's reversal?

>> I feel like it's up a trial to all low-income workers.

Have I larger women in the city?

>> We have the largest share of single mothers of any private sector that we are getting a pay cut to during astronomical affordability crisis.

And yes, restaurants are feeling especially the small independents, the mom and pops those rising costs of products are also the rising cost of groceries at the store for that worker making.

That's a minimum tax wage.

beyond that, that data points of the city's own data show that over new rate of licenses in the sector is higher than it was over the past 5 years higher than it was in 2019 before the pandemic.

So this rhetoric that, you know, the industry is collapsing is not supported by the data.

And I do want to acknowledge I know it's very difficult for a small mom and pops.

They do.

But I do not think the solution is to reach into the pockets of the workers to try and subsidize that risk of owning and operating.

I don't think it has to be either or I think there are a lot of solutions that I wish the Illinois Restaurant Association but invest their considerable resources into exploring like lobbying at the state level for reducing payroll tax like asking the city to build out a robust urban farm system that can provide produce and other products that restaurants to get a much lower cost and considering the war in Iran in the way oil prices are spiking, we're going to see food costs.

Go so high over the next few months.

Not just because the cost of transporting food across the world, our global economy.

But because farmers cannot before the fertilizers, they need to grow the food.

So this idea that it's just because tipped workers are making a dollar to more of a year.

That's why seeing all these restaurant closures.

That is not the whole story.

And I'm so tired.

Workers always bearing the brunt of this conversation.

Tonight.

You you worked as a and you're also an advocate of a limp, eliminating the sub minimum wage.

And how tell us a little bit about your work and how this has worked?

yeah, absolutely.

I have been a restaurant worker for the past 14 years of my life.

It is one of the it's the only job I've ever known.

I've only been a tipped worker.

>> for me throughout my experience with in the restaurant industry, I'd say about 75% of the establishments that I've worked out.

I have experience which that.

>> And it has forced me to go on to different spaces and figure out.

How to meet that.

That gap in the minimum age that I'm not getting, I help support my 75 year-old mother who just survived cancer.

And usually it comes down to the brink of every cent in my paycheck matters.

Can I pay rent on time or am I able to get medicine for my mother?

This is a very serious matter for me because it up it affects me personally and it affects many of the people I love as well.

And in 2025 we saw that the city data show that tipped workers got a $3300 pay bump because of that phrase.

>> That is a lot of money for tipped.

Workers may not meet the a lot of money for someone who makes almost $500,000 as a lobbyist, kind of tipped workers.

That's the difference between a 40 at the center paying your rent out Senate.

Yeah, I want to get you know, and here it something that a lot of questions and limited amount of time.

tell us a little bit about your experience.

Yes, I've been in this industry.

I work in Bronxville Winery, nabbing a tipped worker for almost 20 years.

I'm also a single mom.

I have 3 children.

My mother is also Helling from cancer.

And so I understand what it's like to count every penny.

>> The to the matter is that these kinds of policies actually don't help tipped workers like myself because what happens is what happened just yesterday to a worker at Boswell winery, whereas shift was cut.

So instead of having 2 servers working on a Sunday shift because it would be packed.

We have only one server work and I had several ships cut last week.

What's happening is that, you know, owners of these restaurants aren't able to come out of pocket and pay more money on top of what they're already paying.

And the 2 of the matter is that tipped workers in the city make close to $30 an hour.

I know that I do working Wrightsville, working at Brownsville Winery because we offer a really great menu.

We have customers that appreciate the service that we offer.

They enjoy that the food that's offered there and the to, of course, the service.

So I just feel like this law is a one size fits all lot.

We don't need a sledgehammer policy need surgical care when it comes to figuring out what's going to be the best way to, you know, kind of deal with the issues at hand.

This policy is going to obliterate the restaurant industry, especially in communities like Bronzeville and South Shore and under-resourced communities.

Okay.

So real real briefly, Gina, we heard a Chanel about $30 an hour is when it comes out to 2 for her.

>> Approximately what would you say?

You're making an hour.

I want to say is somewhere ranging probably about 16 to >> 20, depending on what season, what time the data is, what shift?

I'm working.

I also want to know that, you know, we're not taking into consideration.

Also all the others, all the other took to employees who are working it.

Sandra Servers who are getting this high pay but also bussers food runners hosts.

We also need to be advocating for their voices because they're also part of this giant ecosystem of the restaurant.

so and I think we have have that the rest my work out.

Yes, they are.

And brother.

Also receive a portion of last summer's to keep it going, though, because in a social media post, the mayor's office says, quote, in the 2 years since the one fair wage ordinance has been affection, cargo has enjoyed a net gain.

>> 1344 food business licenses.

While the license renewal rate has jumped to 83% more hospitality workers were employed in Chicago in December 2025.

Then they were in July 2024.

Sam, I'm gonna come back to you on this to use a restaurant struggling retail food licenses.

You have to understand a gas station has a retail from places that are showing potato chips or peanuts or?

>> Yeah.

convenience stores and manufacturers you show that's not broken down.

And yes, mayor did say 83% of the restaurant's renew their license, but that's still one out.

Every 5 restaurants are failing.

That's why you see all these empty storefronts up and down our commercial street.

Think about state.

Think it's 83 is like a a C average.

You that's not that's not great.

And we do know full-service restaurants are down 7800 jobs.

Mayor Bowser in Washington, D.C., I was limited to tip credit wage, too.

They were a year before us and then she saw over 3200 jobs.

And she also saw a lot of empty storefronts show.

What she did was, you know, reversed at in said we're going to have to tip credit wage.

I think it at 25% were saying 24% on a good.

You don't mean you'd think we definitely understand.

You need to take care of your team So because just we're almost out of time.

Molly, what is your reaction to that and how should we be balancing?

We're measuring the health of the restaurant industry is at restaurants, closing versus license renewal rate.

I mean, obviously there are other measures, right?

Employees losing their hours.

Employees not being paid enough.

How do you measure the health of the restaurant industry?

I I come from the child project.

You're always going to be worker focus because workers are the lion's share of the people in the restaurant industry.

And so the claim that workers are making across the board.

>> Across the city at 29 in our is just not supported by city data.

The city own Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection has shown that 67%.

That is two-thirds of workers are making less than $30,000 of year as annual income.

So all I am so glad you're making a packed, a Brownsville winery.

I want that for all the folks who don't work as on by say award winning restaurant.

I want that for the folks who are working at the corner I want that for the folks who are working at the corner I don't I want every worker to be able to make but dignified wage to know that they can count on.

That weighs in the slow seasons.

And I wanted to be for everyone because also when you raise the wage and everyone's out a full minimum you can share tips across the house, which is a for back house right next to you.

And I think it's important just to reiterate that we everyone makes minimum wage right now by law.

>> All restaurant workers have to make minimum wage.

However, for people like me who are servers, you're a server because you want to make well above that.

And so not every restaurant is going to have the kind of menu that will lend itself for everyone to get that money.

But I'm happy that everyone is making But this loss make it really difficult for me to to keep Bronzeville winery in so many other that and unfortunately, that is where we'll have to leave it on because obviously a lot of passion and feeling about this is very important to all of you.

Obviously.

>> Best of luck.

Thanks to each of you for joining us and Oliver.

My life changed the last things we want Thank Thank you.

And that is our show for this Monday night.

On a quick note, we had hoped to be joined tonight by former Chicago deputy mayor for community safety Gary and gate would we hope to be joined by him later in the week.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Instagram at W T Tw Chicago and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 and at 10, 30 10, 30 now for all of us here Chicago tonight and Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have >> Closed captioning is made possible by Robert a cliff and Clifford law offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death.

That is a