U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began targeted operations in Chicago on Sunday as part of a nationwide effort that federal officials said resulted in 1,000 people arrested. A spokesman Sunday declined to say how many were from the Chicago area.
The immigration blitz was action long promised by President Donald Trump who made mass deportation central to his campaign. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan designated Chicago — the nation’s third-largest city — as ground zero for his plans to round up immigrants in the country illegally and other groups at an unprecedented scale.
ICE spokesman Jeff Carter issued a statement Sunday saying that ICE and partner federal agencies “began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in Chicago to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous (criminals) out of our communities.”
Across social media, Chicagoans and advocates for immigrants in the country illegally reported at least a half-dozen ICE sightings in the city and suburbs Sunday.
“It’s no secret that the new administration wants to target Chicago,” U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García has said. “They want to intimidate a city that would stand up for justice and protection for everyone.”
Here’s what to know about the ICE raids in Chicago — and how residents, politicians and more are responding.
- ‘We are terrified’: ICE begins long-promised immigration blitz in Chicago
- Fear permeates every aspect of life in Chicago, under threat of mass immigration deportations
- Chicago immigrant advocacy groups sue ICE following week of tensions
- In their 90s, Sisters of Mercy have spent their lives fighting for immigrant justice. And they’re not stopping now.
- Chicago church stops hosting in-person Spanish services amid fears of mass deportations from Trump administration
- Trump administration shuts down White House Spanish-language page and social media
Chicago, a ‘Sanctuary City,’ fights back
Trump has made cracking down on immigration a top priority, just as he did during his first term in the White House from 2017-2021. On his first day back in office, he signed a slew of executive actions that included cutting off access to an app that facilitated the entry of hundreds of thousands of migrants, suspending the refugee system and promoting greater cooperation between ICE and local and state governments.
“I think we need to take every threat that Trump makes seriously and be ready to be able to fight it,” said Eréndira Rendón, vice president of immigrant justice at The Resurrection Project. “We also need to realize that some stuff is very much for show. … We are staying pretty focused on making sure that we are growing our ability to take on as many deportation cases as possible, without getting distracted.”
Chicago’s sanctuary city ordinance — or Illinois’ statewide version, the Way Forward Act — bans official cooperation between local law enforcement and federal deportation authorities, while ensuring immigrants living without legal permission can use city services. Cook County’s statute bans ICE agents from the jail and other facilities unless they have a criminal warrant unrelated to immigration.
In a move announced last week, officers enforcing immigration laws will now be able to arrest migrants at sensitive locations like schools and churches after the Trump administration threw out policies limiting where those arrests could happen as the new president seeks to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations.
How will Donald Trump’s mass deportation promise affect my community and child in CPS schools?
A resolution passed by Chicago Public Schools’ Board of Education in November said schools would not assist ICE in enforcing immigration law. Agents would not be allowed into schools without a criminal warrant, it said.
The week of alarm and anxiety culminated on Friday when federal officials approached a school on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
CPS officials initially said ICE officials showed up at Hamline Elementary School, whose student body was roughly 92% Hispanic as of 2024; many had assumed it was the first apparent immigration action taken at a Chicago school after President Donald Trump took office.
CPS officials said the school had barred federal officials from coming inside and talking to students, school officials said.
The U.S. Secret Service later confirmed that its agents — and not ICE — approached the elementary school while investigating a threat; the investigation was related to a threat against a “protectee” in connection with TikTok, a Secret Service spokesman said.
Why now?
Though Trump’s first term ultimately saw fewer deportations than either of President Barack Obama’s terms, it was still marked by frequent ICE raids and family separations. His operation faced costly and time-intensive hurdles when it came to deporting immigrants, however, including a heavy backlog in the court system and shortages in law enforcement personnel and detention space.
There are currently a record 3 million pending cases in U.S. immigration court, per the latest government data.
To get around due process, Trump’s second administration could attempt to ramp up deportations via expedited removal, a law that allows circumventing due process for those who arrived without documents, said Nicole Hallett, clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago. Trump has also hinted at activating the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law invoked to enact deportations during wartime, as well as using the military, which would break long-standing norms and likely lead to legal showdowns with blue states.
Beyond those with criminal histories or removal orders, Trump’s incoming administration has said they would target other classes of immigrants and even citizens. That includes the asylum-seekers who flooded Chicago and elsewhere after arriving from impoverished countries such as Venezuela. But the U.S. is not allowed to deport those migrants — more than 51,000 who have come through Chicago — while their applications are processed.
What Trump can do to target them is change the law to make asylum status easier to deny, so that after their cases are adjudicated, they become immigrants subject to deportation. But in the meantime, their fates are in the hands of immigration judges, who vary widely on how many asylum statuses they grant.
Why is Chicago being targeted?
Mayor Brandon Johnson has vowed to unequivocally protect Chicago’s immigrants, including via the sanctuary city policy. In an interview with the Tribune, his deputy immigration mayor, Beatriz Ponce de León, said her team is holding a public education campaign, featuring a flurry of “Know Your Rights” workshops for immigrants.
Gov. JB Pritzker has also promised Illinois immigrants that they are safe, though violent criminals who lack permanent legal status are not. “You come for my people, you come through me,” he declared to Trump after the November election.
Chicago and Illinois could be in the crosshairs of federal funding cutoffs once again should leaders obstruct deportations, as Homan has floated. That played out during the first Trump White House, when then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel sued the Justice Department in 2017 after it withheld federal grants to Chicago because of its sanctuary city policy.
Donald Trump’s mass deportation pledge could test Chicago’s immigrant protections
What has happened so far?
Public records requests show the Johnson and Pritzker teams met last month to talk about “Shelter Raids,” indicating they think the city-state’s new single shelter system for migrants could be one of the target areas for ICE activity.
Daisy Contreras, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said the discussion “to protect vulnerable populations in Illinois in shelter settings” included brainstorming “potential trainings that shelter staff may need if engaging with federal immigration enforcement officials and/or handling and responding to immigration-related documentation.”
In Little Village, one of Chicago’s largest Mexican immigrant communities, streets were mostly deserted and quiet in the week of the inauguration week. Tamale vendors, a hearty group used to braving all kinds of weather, weren’t lined up on the sidewalks. The hardware store parking lots, where day laborers search for work, also were largely empty.
Most vendors declined to speak to the Tribune out of fear that they could be identified and targeted by federal immigration officials.
“People are hiding,” said Dolores Castañeda, a community leader and longtime resident of Little Village. “They call me and ask me what to do, but my hands are tied, I don’t think anyone knows what to do.”
On Jan. 26, ICE announced it had arrested 1,000 people nationwide, but a spokesperson declined to say how many were from the Chicago area. Last year, the Biden administration averaged about 310 immigration arrests per day. Chicagoans and advocates for immigrants in the country without legal permission reported at least a half-dozen ICE sightings across the city and suburbs Sunday.
The operations were carried out with two top Trump administration officials in Chicago. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Chicago field office posted a picture on X of Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and “border czar” Tom Homan meeting with federal agents Sunday morning. TV personality Phil McGraw was also apparently in Chicago, saying on social media that he accompanied federal authorities on their operations and, later, interviewing Homan at the ICE command center in the city.
What are your rights?
Attorney Mario Godoy has some practical advice for immigrants in the U.S. illegally who need to know their rights. His law firm has been doing Zoom workshops to help guide people should they be stopped.
First, it’s very important to know that they have no obligation to speak with an ICE representative, Godoy said.
“You are required to identify yourself by name, and that’s really about it,” he said.
Don’t say anything else other than to ask to speak to a lawyer, he said.
“If they come to your house, unless it’s an official warrant from a judge, it doesn’t give them the right to come in,” Godoy said.
People can go to the Resurrection Project’s website — trpij.org — or call 855-435-7693 if they have an encounter with ICE. But Rendon encouraged community members to be proactive and go to the website as soon as possible, in case they encounter an emergency situation in the coming days.
The website has resources in English and Spanish that people may download and print out, including a document that describes how to create an “emergency family plan,” a “Know your rights” card and a “Know your rights” sign that can be hung on a door or wall.
The “Know your rights” sign includes a sample of a judicial warrant allowing ICE to enter one’s home and a sample administrative warrant that does not permit ICE to enter one’s home.
Chicagoans may carry around a “Know your rights” card and present it to authorities. The card tells authorities they were presented with it because its holder wishes to remain silent and wishes not to sign documents, among other things.