Federal immigration enforcement efforts increased in the Waukegan and North Chicago area over the weekend and Monday morning, with the apprehension of at least 20 people.
Though arrests have occurred in the Waukegan and North Chicago areas since early September — when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began Operation Midway Blitz — local officials say federal immigration enforcement activity has increased significantly in the past few weeks.
Agents of the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apprehended eight people in Waukegan, three in North Chicago and two in Gurnee on Monday, in addition to seven arrests over the weekend as part of President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts.
“This is unprecedented,” North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. said. “We’ve never seen anything like this in our country, not here in the United States of America. ICE and DHS are coming into our city and taking people just doing their job, trying to make a living. They’re trying to live the ultimate dream.”
State Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, likened the action of the federal agents to kidnapping and thuggery, calling them unconstitutional and un-American because they are “not following current immigration law.”
“The Trump administration’s intentions in terms of kidnapping 20 residents from Waukegan, North Chicago, Park City and Gurnee are unmistakably clear that he wants to intimidate people and create chaos in our community,” Johnson said in a text.
Dulce Ortiz, the executive director of Mano a Mano Family Services and a Waukegan Township trustee, said her organization has worked closely with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights for months dealing with the situation. People are afraid, she said.
“We’ve seen a significant decrease in attendance at school districts in the area with Latino students,” Ortiz said. “Parents are afraid their children will be picked up on their way to or from school.”
Both Rockingham and Ortiz have said the apprehensions are the result of racial profiling of Latinos.
Ortiz said Border Patrol agents “kidnapped” a man near Home Depot in Waukegan Monday, another two at Mexican restaurants in Waukegan, four more elsewhere there and a pair of landscapers in Gurnee.
Over the weekend, Ortiz said Border Patrol agents took a woman into custody in Park City, a man in North Chicago and two on 10th Street in Waukegan, which separates Waukegan and North Chicago.
Greg Jackson, Rockingham’s chief of staff, said the city Police Department informed him five people were apprehended by ICE outside Eleven109 Kitchen and Cocktails on 10th Street in North Chicago on Saturday night, and two more at the same location on Monday.