The author of the article that follows is a long-time resident of Chicago. This is the first article she submitted to World-Outlook. We want to thank Cathy and encourage all readers to consider submitting coverage of similar events in their areas. Even if you don’t have experience as a journalist, we will work with you on how to do it.

— World-Outlook editors

By Cathleen Gutekanst

CHICAGO, Illinois — On September 16, 2025, Joe Botello, an Elgin, Illinois, man born in the United States, was zip-tied, questioned, and had his front doors shattered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. He was one of four men shown on a video released by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was present at the raid. Botello was let go later after showing proof of citizenship.

“I’m just blessed that I’m still alive,” Botello said. “I’ve been hearing it and seeing it through social media. But it never crossed my mind that it was going to happen here at the house … where I live.”

The raid came amid escalating threats by U.S. president Donald Trump that he would target this city by sending in federal troops to “fight crime.” While troops have not yet been deployed, an immigration crackdown by ICE is already underway. “Operation Midway Blitz” began in early September, mostly in Chicago’s suburbs with large immigrant populations like Elgin.

White House threatens troop deployment

“After we do this, we’ll go to another location,” Trump said at an August 22 press conference, while praising the work of the National Guard in the nation’s capital. “Chicago is a mess,” he continued. “Probably next, that will be our next one after this, and it won’t even be tough. The people in Chicago, they are screaming for us.”

Trump’s statement provoked an immediate response.

A coalition of the Chicago Federation of Labor, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Indivisible Chicago, Personal PAC, and Sierra Club Illinois issued a statement the same day.

“Trump’s scare tactics are nothing new and our communities see right through them,” the statement said. “We won’t be cowed. We won’t back down from fighting against his attacks on our fundamental rights.”

Two days later, Consejo de Resistencia (Resistance Council) called for a Summit of Unity and Resistance along with a series of Migra Watch meetings at public libraries around the city to train people “how to combat ICE terror in our communities.”

“We need to join in peaceful resistance against this government’s tyranny,” Consejo said in a statement. “We the people and our democracy are being threatened.”

Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, and the two U.S. senators from Illinois, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, also denounced Trump’s plan to militarize the city and refuted Trump’s insistence that crime is out of control here.

An August 25 press conference was held along Chicago’s Riverfront in the Loop, where Chicagoans could be seen riding bikes, reading, and enjoying the lake and riverfronts.

Amid that peaceful setting, Johnson pointed out that murders in Chicago are down 50% since 2021. In the past year, crime has fallen in nearly every major category, he added. Chicago does not even rank among the top 25 most dangerous cities in the country.

On August 27, ICIRR joined members of the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus to announce their commitment to fight back against the threat of increased deportations and of sending the National Guard to Chicago. ICIRR also called for a massive same-day demonstration if and when federal troops are deployed to the city.

Labor Day march focus shifts to ICE, federal troop threats

On September 1, more than 10,000 people turned out for a Labor Day march. “Fight(ing) for Immigrants and Workers’ Rights,” read the lead banner.

Labor contingents included delegations from the Chicago Teachers Union, United Steelworkers, National Nurses United, and UNITE HERE.

The initial call for this demonstration was similar to those in hundreds of U.S. cities, “Workers Over Billionaires.” But the focus here shifted quickly in the days leading up to the action. “ICE and National Guard Out of Chicago” became one of the official demands of the march. The turnout made the protest here one of the largest Labor Day actions in the country.

“There is no emergency that warrants deployment of troops,” Pritzker asserted on September 1. “[Trump] is insulting the people of Chicago by calling our home a hellhole, and anyone who takes his word at face value is insulting Chicagoans, too.” The governor said the state of Illinois was ready to fight the administration’s plan in court.

When Trump sent National Guard troops into Los Angeles in June, he used clashes over immigration crackdowns in the city as an excuse. A provision of Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services allows the federal government to deploy National Guard troops without the approval of the governor of a state if there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

On September 2, leaders of About Face — an anti-war veterans group — and attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild held a press conference at Federal Plaza to speak about the legal aspects of deploying National Guard troops to this city. They urged National Guard members to refuse illegal orders. About Face representatives also said there is a difference between National Guard troops, who are mostly working people and join in training every few months, and the police, who are a professional anti-working class force. 

In addition to daily mobilizations at the ICE office in downtown Chicago, the ICE Detention Facility in Broadview, a suburb of Chicago, and at Great Lakes Naval Air Station north of the city, several other large rallies and marches have taken place here.

On September 6, the White House upped the ante with an image posted on social media showing Trump dressed in military fatigues with helicopters, shooting flames, and the Chicago skyline. The inscription “Chipocalypse Now” echoed one of the most quoted lines from the 1979 Vietnam War era movie Apocalypse Now.

“I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” @realDonaldTrump declared. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” Trump had just renamed the Department of Defense, now called the Department of War.

The same day, Chicago Labor Parade and Friends of Labor Fest held the annual Eddie Fest, on the city’s south side, in honor of the late Ed Sadlowski — a leader of Steelworkers Fight Back, a rank-and-file movement of United Steelworkers of America union members.

Numerous contingents had floats with signs reading “Hands Off Chicago” and “ICE Out of Our City.” A larger rally and a march through downtown Chicago were held later that night rejecting the threat of a National Guard deployment and opposing ICE raids in Chicago, which is a sanctuary city.

On September 9, some 5,000 people turned out on short notice for an emergency demonstration called by ICIRR.

Faced with this backlash, Trump first told reporters on September 12 that he was planning to send troops to Memphis, Tennessee, instead. But on September 16, he said that after Memphis he still plans to send troops “against Pritzker,” calling Chicago “a death trap”

ICE activity increasing

The scope of the ICE raids is difficult to evaluate since ICE and Homeland Security have not released official numbers. “We don’t know the true scale, but we know activity has increased,” said ICIRR spokesman Brandon Lee.

On September 12, ICE agents shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez in Franklin Park, Illinois. Homeland Security officials said they shot the 38-year-old man after he allegedly tried to flee a traffic stop and struck an officer with his vehicle. There have been reports of ICE sightings and stops in West Chicago, Aurora, Elgin, and Cicero, along with other suburbs where immigrants are a high percentage of the population.

Chicago’s population of 2.7 million includes 560,000 residents who are foreign-born, with at least 150,000 people who are undocumented, according to the American Community Survey for 2023.

Local activists have been spreading out and volunteering in the community to video or photograph agents who they identify as ICE.

For weeks, immigration rights activists affiliated with local agencies such as ICIRR have been blanketing immigrant-heavy neighborhoods with “Conoce Sus Derechos” (Know Your Rights) cards that detail what someone can do if detained by ICE, including the right to remain silent. Several school districts have issued guidelines for parents and kids if the parents are detained, including explanations of how parents can set up temporary guardianships for their children.

Two well-known Mexican neighborhoods in Chicago, Pilsen and La Villita, held their annual Mexican Independence Day parades on September 6 and September 12, but the crowds were noticeably smaller than in previous years. “I came out with my granddaughters to celebrate,” one La Villita resident told this reporter. “But we’re going right back home. We have papers, but not everyone in my family does. This whole thing is terrifying for all of us.”

The Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) had floats in both parades, displaying the banner “Education Not Deportation” in English and Spanish. CTU representatives passed out Know Your Rights cards at the marches.

This can be a model of resistance for other unions.

While activists here may have held off federal troops from occupying our city for now, it will take a sustained, concerted effort and a collective mobilization to fight against the Trump administration’s agenda of scapegoating and demonizing undocumented workers.

Trump’s speech at the September 21 memorial in Arizona for Charlie Kirk, the far right “influencer” who was assassinated on September 10, made it crystal clear that the initial wave of protests in Chicago is only the beginning of what is necessary to effectively resist the federal government’s steamroller.

“One of the last things [Kirk] said to me was ‘please, sir, save Chicago,’” Trump claimed. “We’re going to save Chicago from horrible crime. We’re gonna go to Chicago and … get that one straightened out.”

The labor movement needs to remain front and center in this fight.

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