Catalin Spatar didn’t take much notice of the black SUVs driving along Caddy Avenue in Carpentersville on Wednesday morning as he and his construction crew worked on installing fiber optic infrastructure in the northwest suburban village. “A lot of neighbors have black SUVs,” Spatar said.
It wasn’t until Spatar saw men in black gear running toward his crew that he realized what was happening.
Federal immigration enforcement activity surged in Carpentersville and neighboring Elgin Wednesday, according to local rapid responders, as videos of federal agents spotted across the area circulated online, including outside Carpentersville village hall.
“They hadn’t hit Carpentersville really bad (like this before),” said Mari Elena, a volunteer with the rapid response network People’s Patrol based at Wheaton’s Casa Dupage Workers Center, who asked not to give her last name for security reasons. “A couple here and there, but not the big sweeps (they’ve done) in other places. This is the biggest one for sure.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated on social media earlier this week that “Operation Midway Blitz” — President Donald Trump’s local mass deportation mission — has resulted in more than 1,500 arrests across the state. From raids to arrests in broad daylight, the immigration crackdown has been sweeping the city and suburbs for more than a month now.
Local rapid responders tracked 20 to 25 confirmed sightings of federal immigration officers across Carpentersville and Elgin on Wednesday, according to Mari Elena. Mari Elena, 46, has volunteered for the People’s Patrol in the Elgin area, where she grew up, since February, she said.
“There are days, like today, that they just ambush us,” Mari Elena said.
Spatar said federal agents “took two people from me, two workers.”
“They just showed up at 9:30 (this morning),” Spatar, originally from Romania, said. “They drive one time around my workers. After that, they come (with) four or five cars. They block me and take my guys.”
Agents tried to get into his truck, Spatar recalled. “I told them, you need to show me something to get into the truck,” he said.
No one asked Spatar about his status, he said.
Customs and Border Patrol conducted a “targeted immigration enforcement operation” in Carpentersville, according to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. The operation “resulted in the arrest of three illegal aliens — two of which had criminal histories,” McLaughlin said in an emailed statement.
McLaughlin’s statement identified Jesus Inclan-Zarate as a “criminal illegal alien, (who) was previously arrested for DUI, retail theft, and driving without a license (and) Manuel Alvarez-Angeles (who) was previously convicted for DUI with child endangerment.”
Kane County court records show that Inclan-Zarate was charged with retail theft under $150 in December 2010, completed a second chance diversion program and had his case dropped. The following year, he pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license, court records show, and paid a total of $600 in fines. The Tribune was not able to verify a DUI arrest in local court records.
The Tribune was unable to verify a DUI conviction of Alvarez-Angeles in local court records.
Detainees will remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody pending removal proceedings, McLaughlin stated.
By midday, activity had encroached on Carpentersville property. Around 12:20 p.m., village officials said federal immigration agents were outside village hall and that they had no knowledge of the immigration enforcement activities in the area until vehicles with federal agents inside parked in a public parking area outside its village hall, Village Manager Brad Stewart told the Tribune in a call Wednesday afternoon.
The village learned the agents were at the hall because they had walked “what we understand to be two detainees (inside) to use the public bathroom” and then escorted them back, Stewart said. Agents stayed for about half an hour, Stewart estimated, during which time they were “in and out” of vehicles they had parked in the public parking area, he said.
Federal officials did not contact the village about the operation, Stewart added. “They don’t give us an advance notice they will be in the area,” he said. “If they show up, they show up.”
While monitoring the situation himself, Stewart said a crowd of about 50 protesters began converging on the area, though there was no physical contact between them and agents. “There was nothing that escalated that required some sort of crowd control,” he said.
Mari Elena was among those who gathered at the scene as part of her rapid response efforts. When she arrived, a white passenger van with tinted windows was stationed outside, alongside other vehicles with agents inside, she said. She videotaped and monitored the situation.
In a livestreamed video posted to Facebook and later shared with the Tribune, masked Border Patrol agents in tactical gear can be seen standing outside the white van, stationed near village hall. About nine minutes into the video, four agents are seen escorting what appears to be a detainee from another car parked up the road into the white van.
Further into the footage, what appear to be several more detainee transfers take place as more people start to converge around the area and additional agents guard the van, some carrying military rifles.
At one point, Mari Elena is heard gasping on the video as she recognizes one of the apparent detainees. “(He was) one of my friend’s husbands,” she later told the Tribune. “I was really surprised when I saw him.”
Mari Elena cries are captured in her livestream as she continued to film.
Pedro Hernandez, who lives in the area, came to the village hall after he saw what was happening on social media. Seeing federal operations happen in his own town is infuriating, Hernandez said.
“It’s absurd that it’s being allowed,” Hernandez said. “It’s not acceptable at all. We have to stand together, come together, and do something about this. If not, it’s going to get worse. I’m afraid it’s just the beginning.”
By the time agents left, Mari Elena recalled seeing about nine to 10 apparent detainees inside the white van. She stayed even after they had driven away. “We are already getting contacted by family members,” she said.
Carpentersville doesn’t have a policy regarding ICE in the village hall because it is public property, but Village President John Skillman said the village may need to look at doing something like Chicago and Evanston to create an “ICE-free zone.”
Last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order establishing “ICE free zones” at city property and “unwilling” private businesses. Following suit, the Evanston City Council unanimously agreed to a resolution Monday that prohibits the use of city property for federal immigration enforcement operations.
“We are going to work with our attorney and village staff and the board to look into it more,” Skillman said. “We don’t need things like this happening on a daily basis here, scaring people and our kids.”
Spatar, who followed his construction crew workers to the village hall, was one of the last people to leave the scene on Wednesday, looking sad and stunned.
“I wish I (didn’t) go to work today,” Spatar said. He had to text his friends’ families to tell them what happened.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for the Elgin Courier-News. The Chicago Tribune’s Caroline Cubzansky contributed.