Good morning, Chicago.
It was around 8 a.m. Sunday when a family friend called Maria to ask why her husband of nearly 10 years hadn’t shown up for work.
Minutes later, with federal immigration agents banging on the front door of her apartment in Chicago’s Hermosa neighborhood, she had an answer.
Maria’s husband was one of an as-yet-unknown number of people taken into custody Sunday morning in what appeared to be the opening salvo in the long-promised — and much-feared — federal immigration blitz on Chicago.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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.”
ICE announced it had arrested 1,000 people nationwide Sunday, 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 undocumented immigrants reported at least a half-dozen ICE sightings across the city and suburbs Sunday.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Laura Rodríguez Presa, Nell Salzman, Adriana Pérez, Caroline Kubzansky and Jonathan Bullington.
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‘People are scared’: Fear permeates every aspect of life in Chicago, under threat of mass immigration deportations
Although no widespread immigration raids were reported here this week, the possibility — and reports that Chicago would be ground zero for enforcement — kept many of the region’s estimated 400,000 undocumented immigrants at home.
- Chicago immigrant advocacy groups sue ICE following week of tensions
- Northwest Indiana police departments not called to help with deportations
Closing arguments in Madigan trial to continue Monday with more from his defense
A lawyer for former House Speaker Michael Madigan is scheduled to continue his final pitch to the jury today by attacking allegations of a ComEd bribery scheme as well as the FBI mole at the center of the landmark case: ex-Ald. Daniel Solis.
‘Yo!’ Mayor Brandon Johnson’s texts reveal governing style and intrigue at City Hall
The text from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson started as his messages often do.
“Yo!” he wrote Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, last month.
The Northwest Side alderman knew what it meant. “That’s when I called him,” he remembered.
A Tribune review of Johnson’s text messages show many politicos have gotten similar messages and read between those two letters themselves.
CIA believes COVID likely originated from a lab, but agency has low confidence in its own finding
The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.
Asset manager seeks to quash US Steel-Nippon deal after taking stake in US steelmaker
An asset manager is seeking to quash Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel and oust the leadership of the U.S. steelmaker after taking a stake in the company.
Oak Park home once owned by Chicago Outfit chief Sam Giancana sells for $900,000
The five-bedroom, 3,283-square-foot bungalow in Oak Park that onetime Chicago Outfit chief Sam Giancana owned — and the home in whose basement Giancana was slain in a 1975 crime that never has been solved — sold on Jan. 22 for $900,000.
Matt Shaw will enter Chicago Cubs camp with a shot to win the third-base job. Can he seize the opportunity?
Chicago Cubs top prospect Matt Shaw heads into spring training in a position that any player without an established role wants: a legitimate chance to make the opening-day roster.
Column: ‘SoxFest Lite’ goes off the rails on Day 2, but Chicago White Sox fans don’t seem to mind the noise
When Jerry Reinsdorf stood in the balcony at the Ramova Theatre overlooking SoxFest Live, you couldn’t help but think of Statler and Waldorf, the elderly Muppets characters who heckled Kermit the Frog from a similar, overhanging balcony box.
The only difference was the heckling wasn’t coming from the White Sox chairman. It was aimed directly at Reinsdorf, as a few angry Sox fans chanted “Sell the team.”
This definitely was not part of the revamped program at the small Bridgeport venue, but it made the Ramova feel like home, writes Paul Sullivan.
- White Sox takeaways: Colson Montgomery is focused on opportunities ahead this spring at shortstop
- Column: Mark Buehrle was a one-of-a-kind pitcher for the White Sox — and enjoyed a few beers on an epic ride
Column: Architecture is having a movie moment — but do ‘Brutalist’ and ‘Megalopolis’ make architects more than pure ego?
Tribune film critic Michael Phillips writes that the movies have long exploited a select handful of go-to professions for stories of obsessive creatives, creating. Sometimes it’s a real-life singer-songwriter, blowin’ in the wind from the recent past, a la “A Complete Unknown.” Or a real-life theoretical physicist who risks destroying the world in order to end a war, aka “Oppenheimer.” Lately it’s architects.
David Schwimmer says he is ‘doubling down’ on Lookingglass Theatre
On Thursday, after an existential crisis and a hiatus of close to two years, Chicago’s famous Lookingglass Theatre Company officially returns to public performances in its Michigan Avenue theater in the city-owned Water Tower Pumping Station.
Restaurant news: Mahari in Hyde Park explores the cuisine of the African diaspora, plus more openings and closings
A new restaurant on the South Side of Chicago explores the cuisine of the African diaspora. Mahari held its grand opening in Hyde Park on Jan. 17. Executive chef and owner Rahim Muhammad describes his menu as a “Creole take on African Caribbean and Latin food.”
