Immigration advocates, picketing Teamsters and social media accounts reported sightings of Border Patrol agents and possible arrests in Cicero and Chicago’s Southwest Side Tuesday morning.
Videos showing uniformed, masked men driving unmarked vehicles once again began circulating online. One arrest appeared to take place in a Walmart parking lot in Cicero, according to Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and a video posted to social media.
“As (Cmdr. Gregory) Bovino was leaving Illinois a month ago, the administration made it clear that they would bring their violence back to our communities. ICE’s deportation campaign has not stopped, and we have received multiple confirmed abductions this morning in Cicero and the Southwest Side of Chicago,” said ICIRR spokesman Brandon Lee.
“We ask residents across Chicago and the suburbs to remain vigilant, look out for your neighbors, and call the Family Support Hotline,” he said.
The agents also targeted a Teamsters picket line near Midway International Airport Tuesday morning, according to a representative for the union.
Nico Coronado, an attorney for Teamsters Local 705, said Border Patrol agents showed up to the picket line at 5507 S. Archer Ave. and asked workers for identification. Coronado said he did not believe any workers were detained.
The picketing Teamsters — most of whom are Latino, and many of whom are immigrants — used to work for Oak Brook-based Mauser Packaging Solutions at a plant in Little Village. They first went on strike in June, seeking, amongst other demands, an agreement from the company that it would not allow federal immigration agents onto company property without a signed judicial warrant.
The Teamsters said Mauser never agreed to provide those protections. And months into the strike this fall, Mauser said it was planning to close the Little Village plant citing a “range of operational challenges.” Coronado said Mauser had shifted some of its work to the Archer Avenue location, which is why workers are picketing there.
A representative for Mauser did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.
Rapid responders began circulating rumors Monday that a surge in Border Patrol agents would return to Chicago this week.
In an email statement to the Tribune late Monday afternoon, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said, “For operational security purposes, CBP will not discuss ongoing or future operations.”
More than a month ago, Operation Midway Blitz appeared to wind down as Bovino and the hundreds of federal agents that descended on the city for the controversial mass deportation mission left for other operations. In its wake, the fallout from the blitz has reverberated across the region, from court battles to communities left to face a new normal.
From Chicago, the roving immigration crackdown briefly went to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then moved to New Orleans. There were more than 200 Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials working on the New Orleans operation, The Associated Press reported. The objective, according to the AP, was to make as many arrests in the Louisiana city as possible over at least 60 days.
Meanwhile, immigration enforcement hasn’t ended the Chicago area.
Two days before Thanksgiving, federal immigration agents detained an Uptown man on his way to work. The arrest came after the man, a Kurdish immigrant, and his wife breathed a sigh of relief thinking the crackdown was starting to let up.
Earlier this month, ahead of a scheduled visit to Chicago by Homeland Security Kristi Noem, at least three people were detained in the west suburbs in a sudden burst of aggressive action.
And just over a week ago, federal immigration agents deployed tear gas and pepper spray on a crowd that gathered to protest a prolonged arrest in Elgin. DHS has maintained the man arrested is a suspected member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, an accusation his family and advocates have denied.
Officials have also cautioned against assuming the Trump administration’s focus has entirely moved elsewhere.
Last month, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood warned the crackdown wasn’t over after she was granted special access to the federal government’s immigration processing center in west suburban Broadview. Underwood — the top Democrat of the congressional subcommittee that oversees the budgets ICE, Border Patrol and other agencies within DHS — said ICE is looking to “probably triple” the size of the staff at its Broadview facility and Chicago field office “by January.”
