Federal Agents Detain Organizers, Journalists in Controversial Chicago-Area ICE Operations
Federal Agents Detain Organizers, Journalists in Controversial Chicago-Area ICE Operations
Federal agents are facing strong condemnation from Chicago officials and immigrant rights groups following a weekend of escalated enforcement actions across the city and suburbs. Incidents included the detention of immigrant rights organizers and a journalist, alleged assaults on protesters, and widespread patrols that Mayor Brandon Johnson labeled a “brazen provocation.”
On Sunday, members of the Southwest Side Rapid Response Team were detained by federal agents while documenting ICE activity in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Organizers reported being “followed, harassed, physically kettled in their vehicles and intimidated by federal officers aiming a firearm at them.” Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th) confirmed agents became “aggressive” when filmed, eventually detaining the organizers and moving them to an immigration processing center in Broadview before their release. Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd) decried the arrests as an exercise of First Amendment rights, calling it “tyranny.”
These incidents occur just days after civil rights and immigrant justice groups filed a notice in federal court on Friday, representing 27 individuals, including U.S. citizens, unlawfully arrested without warrants or probable cause since May. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the National Immigrant Justice Center allege federal agents continue to violate a consent decree limiting ICE arrests, identifying over 70 additional potential violations of the Castañon-Nava settlement.
The weekend’s enforcement surge also saw armed border patrol agents in high-traffic areas like Millennium Park, where a family was reportedly detained. Mayor Johnson criticized these patrols as a “brazen provocation” by the Trump administration.
Separately, a local television journalist, Asal Rezaei of CBS2 Chicago, reported being hit by a pepper ball fired by a masked ICE agent outside the Broadview processing facility on Sunday, causing chemical agents to engulf her news vehicle. Broadview police are investigating the alleged assault. On Saturday evening, agents reportedly fired pepper balls into a group of about 75 protesters at the same location, making several arrests, including investigative journalist Steve Held, who was later released.
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