The Chicago kidnappings have begun
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"Two weeks ago, first grade teacher Maria Heavener’s students at Funston Elementary saw something no child should ever have to see — federal agents releasing tear gas outside their school in Logan Square.
“It was the first time my students had ever seen that level of violence in our community,” Heavener said. “Right there on the corner of Central Park and Armitage.”
That day, Maria and her colleagues acted quickly - closing windows, ushering students to safety, and standing between children and armed federal agents.
Last week at Funston, Mayor Brandon Johnson, CTU President Davis Gates and AFT President Randi Weingarten stood with Maria to honor the bravery of Funston educators, parents and community members. They demanded an end to the federal occupation of Chicago and to the attack on our Black and brown communities. Because classrooms should be sanctuaries — not battlegrounds." -
Cook County Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Evans signed an order barring civil arrests of people while at county courts — a common tactic used by federal immigration agents to detain people.
The order takes effect Wednesday and bars the civil arrest of any “party, witness, or potential witness” while going to, remaining at or returning from court proceedings inside the courthouse or the larger property — such as parking lots, sidewalks or entryways — though judicial warrants can still be carried out.
“The fair administration of justice requires that courts remain open and accessible, and that litigants and witnesses may appear without fear of civil arrest,” the order states. “The common law has long recognized this privilege to ensure individuals can fulfill legal duties without risking further legal jeopardy.”
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And now arresting police officers:
"Background checks performed by the FBI, Illinois State Police reveal no criminal history," Craig said. "If Officer Bojovic did not hold federal work authorization, he would not have been hired."
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President Donald Trump on Friday urged the Supreme Court to allow him to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, putting the explosive legal fight over his ability to use those troops on American soil before the justices for the first time.
The filing sets up a showdown over presidential power at a moment when the administration is attempting to deploy the National Guard to multiple US cities.
The emergency appeal follows a series of decisions from lower federal courts, temporarily blocking the administration’s efforts on the grounds that Trump vastly overstated the need for deploying the National Guard. On Thursday, the Chicago-based 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals let stand an order temporarily blocking that effort.
Trump filed the appeal at the Supreme Court in a case involving his effort to deploy the guard to Chicago. In the appeal, the administration said that lower court order “improperly impinges on the president’s authority and needlessly endangers federal personnel and property.”
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/17/politics/supreme-court-national-guard-chicago
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Not only did U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino show his face in a federal courtroom Tuesday, he and a judge will be getting to know each other a lot better in the days to come.
That’s because U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said she wants to meet with the Border Patrol commander every weeknight over the next seven days, as federal agents continue their aggressive deportation campaign that’s stretched from Little Village to Lake View.
Their daily meeting around 6 p.m. will give the judge a chance to speak with Bovino about the events of the day.
And as they do so, Ellis will have in her back pocket a request that she fully ban the feds from using tear gas amid the immigration blitz. The judge said Tuesday that, if agents continue to deploy gas, “they’d better be able to back it up.”
“And if they can’t,” she added, “then they will lose that as something they can use.”
Tuesday’s hearing revealed that Bovino has no body-worn camera — nor the training to use one. Bovino admitted that fact, even after telling the judge that 99% of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents here have that technology.
The judge told him to find himself a body-worn camera by Friday, noting that he probably has “an in” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“I’ve talked to her from time to time,” Bovino acknowledged.
https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/10/28/border-patrol-gregory-bovino-federal-court
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On the North Shore.
Martin said the group chat has a segment they call a rapid response team, of which she is a part, and the team’s goal is to respond to the scene of an ICE sighting and warn community members while also letting the agents know they are unwanted.
“Because this is wrong,” she said. “You can have a conversation about whether immigrants need to be deported, but that’s not what this is about. If you’ve seen footage of them arresting U.S. citizens, breaking windows — there is no responsibility. Nothing is going to stop them except for us. So we have to stop them.”
She added, “There is fear in the air, and everybody should stand up. Nobody should feel that way.”
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In my town. I figured this would happen eventually. Not sure what part of town this occurred in.
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Activity in surrounding towns is ramping up.
And then there's this:
Border Patrol agent 'bragged' about shooting woman in Brighton Park, defense attorney says
Testimony from the agent who shot a woman multiple times in an immigration enforcement action revealed how he touted his marksmanship in leaving seven wounds despite firing five bullets. He later texted fellow agents, “Put that in your book boys.”
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A federal judge in Chicago on Thursday issued a sweeping injunction that puts more permanent restrictions on the use of force by immigration agents during “Operation Midway Blitz,” saying top government officials lied in their testimony about threats that protesters posed and that their unlawful behavior on the streets “shows no signs of stopping.”
“I find the government’s evidence to be simply not credible,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said in an oral ruling from the bench, describing a litany of incidents over the past month and a half where citizens were tear-gassed “indiscriminately,” beaten and tackled by agents and struck in the face with pepper spray balls.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/06/operation-midway-blitz-injunction/
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Good grief.
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"U.S. Border Patrol boss Greg Bovino, fellow agents to soon leave Chicago but could be back four-fold in March
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin insists “we aren’t leaving Chicago,” but the feds’ immigration campaign is expected to begin winding down. However, one DHS source said 1,000 agents could return in the spring, up from 250 now." -
Maybe 10 minutes away from my house.
Federal immigration agents pointed rifles at bystanders and tried to break down doors as they took over an apartment complex in unincorporated Northbrook on Wednesday.
The immigration enforcement action, which took place over the course of around 50 minutes Wednesday morning, Nov. 5, led to the arrest of a man living in the Salem Walk apartments and involved more than a dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and an armored car, according to eyewitness accounts and photos and videos shared with the Tribune.
“ICE basically held… 90 apartments hostage while they’re trying to get to one man,” said Bobbie Montgomery, a Salem Walk resident.
On Wednesday, Montgomery watched as the agents unsuccessfully tried to break down the stairwell door with a battering ram.
Smith, who followed along on the video call, said he marveled at their ineptitude. “The door opens outwards,” he explained.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/11/ice-agents-northbrook-point-rifles-bystanders/
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“The door opens outwards”
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Some street vendors say they are barely making enough to survive, due to the widespread immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.
Community members are stepping in and finding creative ways to help them.
"We try to get out at 6-7 a.m., get into the neighborhoods, buy all the products they have so that they can leave and go home and be safe with their family for the rest of the day," said Rick Rosales, a community organizer with CyclingxSolidarity.
They are being called "buyouts."
Groups of cyclists are riding through neighborhoods across Chicago, and purchasing everything street vendors have, from tamales to elotes.
The movement is meant to support street vendors, as many fear being detained, during "Operation Midway Blitz."
Good riddance. ICE has moved to Charlotte.
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It may not be much, but at least it's something.
Arlington Heights says no to immigration agents using public spaces
Arlington Heights village board members have voted unanimously to ban immigration enforcement officials from using municipal property, though some trustees call the measure unenforceable.
Arlington Heights village board members have voted unanimously to ban immigration enforcement officials from using municipal property, though some trustees call the measure unenforceable.
The 8-0 vote late Monday came at the end of a debate lasting almost two hours in front of a packed village boardroom of residents opposed to the presence of federal agents in town in recent months.
“What our neighbors and residents have experienced, it is not safety. It is fear,” said Trustee Carina Santa Maria, who proposed the ordinance. “If we see this happening and choose not to act, then what is our role? We are elected to protect our neighbors — all of them — to create conditions for safety and stability, to take a stand when something is wrong.”
“It is not enough to say this isn’t our jurisdiction,” she added. “If it’s not ours, then whose is it?”
The ordinance, pending a final vote Dec. 1, would prohibit immigration agents from using any village-owned property, facilities or resources for the purpose of conducting civil enforcement operations. That would include areas already closed off to the public at large, such as a parking lot behind the police station.
But it also would encompass municipal parking areas that have spaces normally open to the public, such as the top floor of the Vail Avenue garage and the lot across the street from village hall.
Though he and other trustees eventually came to support the ordinance, Trustee Colin Gilbert questioned its enforceability and the expense of potentially having to fight such a measure in federal court.
“I don’t want anybody to be lulled into some sort of false sense of security that everything is OK, because we cannot keep these agents out of Arlington Heights,” Gilbert said. “What we can try to do is not allow them to use a small pocket of property. We can’t even do that. We can tell them we’d rather they didn’t. But in terms of enforceability, there’s just not much we can do.”
Trustee Jim Bertucci called the ordinance “window dressing.”
Nearly two dozen residents who later came up to the boardroom podium disagreed.
“Sometimes, it’s the principle of the thing, and not the enforceability of the thing,” said Robert Buehler, whose Ring doorbell camera footage of an Oct. 30 immigration arrest went viral.
The video captured federal agents pushing to the ground a mail carrier who tried to intervene in the arrest of a landscaper.
“I’m angry and saddened that my property played a role in this politically-motivated targeting of the Chicago area and the racial profiling of landscapers and others randomly working in our neighborhoods,” Buehler said.
The Rev. Corey Brost, executive director of the Viator House of Hospitality, which houses young men seeking asylum, said one of his former residents is now in federal custody at a jail in Michigan. The 20-year-old Venezuelan man, who has an active asylum case and a work permit, was arrested by federal officers while repairing a sign at an East Dundee gas station, Brost said.
“We need to be on the right side of history,” Brost said of his support for the village ordinance. “This is a time of moral reckoning. And as for enforceability, Rosa Parks didn’t have the law on her side either.”
