Neighbors rally amid surge of ICE raids on Chicago’s NW Side

CHICAGO – Residents on Chicago’s Northwest Side said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have hit Home Depot and other places where laborers look for work.

Now rapid response teams are out early too, looking to observe and record.

What we know:

One team of two women sat in their car and recorded videos Thursday morning as ICE agents approached them. They said they were intimidated and threatened by armed masked men at about 6:30 a.m. outside an electronics store near Kostner and Grand avenues.

They said they were watching for ICE here because they were concerned about students attending the high school nearby.

Juliet DeJesus, executive director of Palenque, said there has been a surge of ICE activity on the Northwest Side, where at least 10 people have been arrested.

She said volunteers tried to document it.

“What they’re seeing is aggression towards them. We have the right in Illinois to film law enforcement doing any activity in public,” DeJesus said.

What they’re saying:

Activists recommitted to supporting their neighbors by spreading the word when ICE is in the neighborhood. They asked neighbors in Hermosa and Belmont Cragin to assist those who were afraid to leave the house.

“I encourage you to get to know your neighbors. I encourage you to deliver groceries to your neighbors terrified to leave their homes. I encourage you to text when you see something suspicious,” Sandra Puebla, co-founder of the Northwest Side Rapid Response Network said.

State Senator Graciela Guzman (20th) said she has followed ICE vehicles driving recklessly.

“The heinousness that is ICE [is] trying to rip apart families as they seek to go to school, as they seek to go to work, as they seek to be beloved community members,” Guzman said.

Organizers said when people are detained, household incomes are eliminated. Mutual aid organizations that mobilized to provide food during the pandemic are doing that now.