The two Chicago aldermen who represent downtown Chicago on Monday criticized the patrolling of federal immigration agents through much of the area on Sunday, saying the efforts were largely a performative stunt aimed at intimidating citizens and shoppers.
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, called the parading federal agents, who walked along Michigan Avenue and in front of Millennium Park, a “bizarre image to see on a beautiful image,” and said the move “only served to scare people and intimidate people.” On Monday morning, there appeared to be no sign of the agents’ reappearance.
Speaking at an unrelated news conference, Reilly said his constituents were “deeply disturbed” by the moves, which stem from the Trump administration’s increased efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. U.S. Border Patrol agents have recently joined federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as part of a surge in which often masked agents have detained people across the city and suburbs. An ICE officer on Sept. 12 fatally shot an undocumented father, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, after a traffic stop in Franklin Park.
But Sunday’s move, in which masked and armed Border Patrol agents strode through many of the city’s busiest streets, was a first since operations ramped up on Sept. 6.
“It looks un-American,” Reilly said. “This is not helping anybody. All it’s doing is making President (Donald) Trump feel really good about the deployment of federal troops and federal officers to blue cities.”
Social media livestreams showed agents detaining individuals in front of Tribune Tower on North Michigan Avenue and in front of Millennium Park. They also showed several U.S. Customs and Border Protection boats on the Chicago River.
Ald. Brian Hopkins, whose 2nd Ward includes parts of downtown as well as the Old Town, also condemned the federal show of force.
People in his ward “recognize this as a farce and as a public relations stunt,” the fellow downtown alderman said. He called on the city to continue to prepare for Trump to deploy National Guard troops to the city, a threat Trump has repeated numerous times but never followed up on as he’s faced a backlash from local elected leaders, including Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker.
“We are being torn apart as a society from both extremes, the far right and the far left,” Hopkins said.
After sightings near Millennium Park and the Riverwalk downtown, the dozens of federal immigration agents made their way up to the Gold Coast, a primarily white, affluent neighborhood, in the early afternoon, flanking the sidewalks of Clark Street.
Roughly 20 bystanders and passersby started following the officers, chanting “ICE, go home!” The agents stopped at the intersection with Oak Street. Several got in vans that drove away. For another 15 minutes, the crowd of protesters around them grew bigger, yelling “shame.”
Some of the civilians present confronted Gregory Bovino, the chief U.S. Border Patrol agent, who joined on the patrol.
When asked by the Tribune how many agents had been patrolling downtown Sunday, Bovino said, “a lot.”
Bovino declined to answer any additional questions from the Tribune. When he and the last of the agents drove away, protesters celebrated with applause and cheers. “The people, united, will never be defeated!” they intoned.
Present on Sunday was Enrique Espinoza, an attorney and member of the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, who said the agents’ presence downtown was performative.
“Let’s be clear: This was a show. They wanted to get attention, and they got it,” said Espinoza, who is an immigrant himself, hailing from Veracruz, Mexico.
In addition to ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” U.S. Border Patrol has launched “Operation At Large,” but the two agencies have never detailed the differences between the two efforts.
Regardless, the operations have sown fear throughout immigrant communities in Chicago and its suburbs as reports of arrests have spiked as well as federal agents being sighted near local schools, courthouses and workplaces. ICE claimed last week it had made 550 arrests during the first two weeks of the mission.
Both Johnson and Pritzker on Sunday took to social media slamming the Border Patrol marches on Michigan Avenue.
“While Chicagoans and visitors are enjoying another gorgeous Sunday, they are being intimidated and threatened by masked federal agents flaunting automatic weapons for no apparent reason. This is another brazen provocation from the Trump administration that does nothing to make our city safer,” Johnson said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also posted on X Sunday afternoon, “This is not making anybody safer — it’s a show of intimidation, instilling fear in our communities and hurting our businesses,” he said. “We cannot normalize militarizing American cities and suburbs.”
By mid-afternoon Sunday, the intersection was cleared, traffic was flowing and things went back to normal — much like in the Loop, where after earlier sightings and reports of a couple of arrests, tourists strolled under the sun and took photos of the city, most of them none the wiser.
After the downtown display, immigrant rights advocates held a news conference alongside local and state officials, including U.S. Reps. Jesús “Chuy” García and Delia Ramírez, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and several aldermen. They did not have an exact number of arrests made.
Sunday’s downtown operation in broad daylight represented a “major escalation by the Trump administration,” said Veronica Castro, deputy director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Hers was a sentiment echoed by other speakers.
“Today, we witnessed the further militarization of ICE tactics in Chicago, as they showed up downtown to indiscriminately continue to profile against people just because of what they look like, their appearance,” García said. “This … is part of a nationwide effort by Trump and his administration to instill fear in people.” But, he said, “We want Trump and his aides to be clear: We will not take this lying down. You claim that you’re out to get the worst of the worst,” García said. “But we see time and time again that the people that you are apprehending and kidnapping and interrogating and terrorizing are hardworking people that make Chicago and Illinois a better place for everyone.”
Tribune reporter Caroline Kubzansky contributed.