Federal immigration enforcement agents made arrests in Chicago and the suburb of West Chicago on Monday, while others were spotted in west suburban Aurora, officials and two state lawmakers said.
The actions come one week after President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security announced it was embarking on its latest immigration enforcement surge in the Chicago region, which it dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.”
State Sen. Karina Villa, a Democrat from West Chicago, said she saw the federal agents assembling at a West Chicago Police Department station parking lot early Monday. When she confronted them about why they were present, they dispersed, she said.
At some point, she said there were “probably over five” arrests, though she said that was not confirmed independently by federal or local law enforcement. Villa said volunteers in the community were dispatched to take video or photos of immigration enforcement activity, and the agents were wearing vests that identified them as being from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and they were in “unmarked vehicles.”
“They’re attempting to get into workplaces but they’re being denied entry because they do not have a warrant,” Villa told the Tribune of the agents. “That means that there are no criminals here.”
Under Illinois’ 2017 Trust Act, signed into law by former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, local law enforcement is prohibited from working with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. Villa said West Chicago’s mayor assured her local police were “not collaborating with ICE.”
She said this all transpired as elementary and high school classes in the area were beginning for the day.
“This is a terror that they’re attempting to instill in our community,” Villa said.
In Chicago, two people were arrested by immigration agents in the vicinity of the courthouse located in the Chicago Police Department station at 3150 W. Flournoy St. on the city’s West Side, according to the public defender’s office.
An employee with the Cook County public defender’s office also reported seeing five to six people they thought were plainclothes federal immigration agents at the county’s domestic violence courthouse at 555 W. Harrison St. on Monday morning, according to the office. An advocate who works in the courthouse also told the Tribune she saw a person who appeared to be an immigration agent.
Matt Hendrickson, a spokesman with the public defender’s office, said the agents did not appear to have made any arrests.
But Chicago police officers responded to the courthouse in the morning, Hendrickson said, after someone reported seeing an individual in plainclothes in a vehicle holding an “assault-style rifle.” Police on scene said they confirmed the person was a federal agent, Hendrickson said.
A police department spokesperson confirmed that officers responded after a report of a person with a gun.
“Responding officers determined that it was a member of another law enforcement agency, and the call was coded out,” the department said in a statement. Officials did not immediately confirm whether it was an immigration agent.
The sighting came more than a week after ICE agents arrested at least two people in the vicinity of the downtown domestic violence-focused courthouse, sparking fears that the agents’ presence in the area would cause people to miss court dates or refrain from seeking orders of protection.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Barbara Hernandez, a Democrat from Aurora, said ICE agents were spotted in her town on Monday as well, but she was not aware of any arrests. She said she doesn’t think suburban areas have been properly prepared for the agents’ presence.
“I think many people think, ‘Oh, this is going to be in Chicago. We don’t have to think about it,’” she said. “But we do. We really do. Because at any moment, they can come to the suburbs and we’re starting to see them.”