A massive demonstration by thousands who marched through Chicago’s Loop in protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown briefly snarled Tuesday evening traffic as crowds surged into downtown streets and DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
Marchers briefly blocked honking traffic on several main arteries, including DuSable Lake Shore, as they walked among stopped cars and buses. At least one CTA bus could be seen with anti-CPD, anti-ICE graffiti.
Police helicopters hovered as marchers wove between vehicles. Police detained two people at South State and East Monroe streets as protesters yelled in the intersection.
As officers detained people and cars waited in traffic, a woman told to drive west on Monroe had a brief, shouted exchange with an officer. After making a noise of apparent frustration, she drove across the intersection down a street filled with marchers. People screamed and scattered. A few moments later, an officer knelt in front of a woman seated on the sidewalk, holding a little girl in her lap, shaking her head. No one appeared to be injured. It was unclear whether police made any arrests.
Protests that sprang up in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement raids and prompted President Donald Trump to mobilize National Guard troops and the Marines have begun to spread across the country, with more planned into the weekend.
From Seattle to Austin and Washington, D.C., marchers have chanted slogans, carried signs against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and snarled traffic through downtown avenues and outside federal offices. While many were peaceful, some have resulted in clashes with law enforcement as officers made arrests and used chemical irritants to disperse crowds.
In Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker has been a loud opponent of Trump’s enforcement campaign. And Chicago has long been a “sanctuary city” that prohibits its law enforcement from inquiring about residents’ immigration status or cooperating with federal immigration officials.
Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan pledged just before the new administration took office that sanctuary cities such as Chicago would be epicenters for Trump’s promised crackdown on immigrants in the country without legal permission. But the city hasn’t seen major unrest related to the raids so far, besides a June 4 clash between immigration authorities and advocates and some City Council members outside an ICE field office in the South Loop.
About 40 people gathered with signs and drums Tuesday afternoon outside a different ICE office, located at 55 E. Monroe St.
“ICE belongs in our coffee, not in our communities,” a sign read.
The group expanded to about 200 protesters, and briefly blocked traffic outside the office before marching down to a second ICE outpost, at Ida B. Wells Drive and South Clark Street, but found the intersection taped off by the Police Department. They turned to march north and east through the Loop, carrying Mexican and Palestinian flags.
“No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” they chanted.
Benjamin Milford commuted to the city from Wheaton to voice his opposition to deportations of families, particularly children of unauthorized immigrants who were U.S. citizens and in need of medical care. About 3:30 p.m., he was sitting on the sidewalk outside immigration court adjusting the rollerblades he’d worn to give him easier movement around the march.
“With ICE raids happening every day across the country, it needs to end,” said Milford, 30. “I hope this sends a message to Trump and his administration that we won’t put up with this in Chicago or across the country.”
Then he got back on his feet and skated off into the chanting crowd.
The Associated Press contributed.
