Daywatch: ICE begins long-promised immigration blitz in Chicago
Good morning, Chicago.
It was around 8 a.m. Sunday when a family friend called Maria to ask why her husband of nearly 10 years hadn't shown up for work.
Minutes later, with federal immigration agents banging on the front door of her apartment in Chicago's Hermosa neighborhood, she had an answer.
Maria's husband was one of an as-yet-unknown number of people taken into custody Sunday morning in what appeared to be the opening salvo in the long-promised — and much-feared — federal immigration blitz on Chicago.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Jeff Carter issued a statement Sunday saying that ICE and partner federal agencies 'began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in Chicago to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous (criminals) out of our communities.'
ICE announced it had arrested 1,000 people nationwide Sunday, but a spokesperson declined to say how many were from the Chicago area. Last year, the Biden administration averaged about 310 immigration arrests per day.
Chicagoans and advocates for undocumented immigrants reported at least a half-dozen ICE sightings across the city and suburbs Sunday.
Read the full story from the Tribune's Laura Rodríguez Presa, Nell Salzman, Adriana Pérez, Caroline Kubzansky and Jonathan Bullington.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History
Although no widespread immigration raids were reported here this week, the possibility — and reports that Chicago would be ground zero for enforcement — kept many of the region's estimated 400,000 undocumented immigrants at home.
Chicago immigrant advocacy groups sue ICE following week of tensions
Northwest Indiana police departments not called to help with deportations
A lawyer for former House Speaker Michael Madigan is scheduled to continue his final pitch to the jury today by attacking allegations of a ComEd bribery scheme as well as the FBI mole at the center of the landmark case: ex-Ald. Daniel Solis.
The text from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson started as his messages often do.
'Yo!' he wrote Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, last month.
The Northwest Side alderman knew what it meant. 'That's when I called him,' he remembered.
A Tribune review of Johnson's text messages show many politicos have gotten similar messages and read between those two letters themselves.
The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has 'low confidence' in its own conclusion.
An asset manager is seeking to quash Nippon Steel's takeover of U.S. Steel and oust the leadership of the U.S. steelmaker after taking a stake in the company.
The five-bedroom, 3,283-square-foot bungalow in Oak Park that onetime Chicago Outfit chief Sam Giancana owned — and the home in whose basement Giancana was slain in a 1975 crime that never has been solved — sold on Jan. 22 for $900,000.
Chicago Cubs top prospect Matt Shaw heads into spring training in a position that any player without an established role wants: a legitimate chance to make the opening-day roster.
Cubs acquire veteran reliever Ryan Pressly from the Houston Astros
When Jerry Reinsdorf stood in the balcony at the Ramova Theatre overlooking SoxFest Live, you couldn't help but think of Statler and Waldorf, the elderly Muppets characters who heckled Kermit the Frog from a similar, overhanging balcony box.
The only difference was the heckling wasn't coming from the White Sox chairman. It was aimed directly at Reinsdorf, as a few angry Sox fans chanted 'Sell the team.'
This definitely was not part of the revamped program at the small Bridgeport venue, but it made the Ramova feel like home, writes Paul Sullivan.
White Sox takeaways: Colson Montgomery is focused on opportunities ahead this spring at shortstop
Column: Mark Buehrle was a one-of-a-kind pitcher for the White Sox — and enjoyed a few beers on an epic ride
Tribune film critic Michael Phillips writes that the movies have long exploited a select handful of go-to professions for stories of obsessive creatives, creating. Sometimes it's a real-life singer-songwriter, blowin' in the wind from the recent past, a la 'A Complete Unknown.' Or a real-life theoretical physicist who risks destroying the world in order to end a war, aka 'Oppenheimer.' Lately it's architects.
On Thursday, after an existential crisis and a hiatus of close to two years, Chicago's famous Lookingglass Theatre Company officially returns to public performances in its Michigan Avenue theater in the city-owned Water Tower Pumping Station.
A new restaurant on the South Side of Chicago explores the cuisine of the African diaspora. Mahari held its grand opening in Hyde Park on Jan. 17. Executive chef and owner Rahim Muhammad describes his menu as a 'Creole take on African Caribbean and Latin food.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
NYC's free summer meal program offers halal food, without listing kosher options
The city Department of Education's summer meal program for NYC youths boasts a variety of halal options at more than 25 locations citywide, but kosher food 'must be specially ordered,' officials told The Post. Free breakfasts and lunches will be served at hundreds of locations – schools, pools, libraries and parks – for anyone up to 18 years old, including all students from both public and private schools. 'You don't need to sign up, show any papers, or have an ID to get these meals,' the DOE says. 'Just head to one of our spots and enjoy a delicious breakfast and lunch.' Halal food – permissible for Muslims to eat under Islamic law – is available for the taking by anyone who shows up at the listed locations. Kosher food, for observant Jewish kids, is not mentioned on the DOE website. 4 DOE food worker Maria Gonzalez said she gave out 100 meals from a food truck in Haffen Park in the Bronx on the first day of the free summer meal program Friday. J.C. Rice Only when asked by The Post, the DOE said kosher meals 'must be specially ordered, and they are only available upon request. However we do not currently have any applications for kosher meals.' The glaring omission angered some Jewish advocates. 'The DOE's clear promotion of halal options alongside silence on kosher meals highlights a gap that needs urgent attention,'' said Karen Feldman, a DOE teacher and co-founder of the NYCPS Alliance, which fights antisemitism in the city public schools. 'Jewish families who keep kosher deserve the same outreach to feel fully included in this important program.' 4 A DOE food truck gave out free summer breakfasts and lunches to youths in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. J.C. Rice A similar controversy erupted in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when the City Council's Jewish Caucus demanded that Mayor De Blasio's DOE include kosher meals along with vegetarian and halal food for Muslims in its free meal program. The DOE does not track students by religion, but an estimated 10 percent of NYC public-school students, roughly 100,000, are Muslim. The number of Jewish kids in NYC public schools is unclear, but 105,776 K-12 students enrolled in private Jewish schools in 2024-2025, said Gabriel Aaronson, director of policy and research for the non-profit advocacy group Teach Coalition. Poverty and hunger plague many NYC Jews, among other groups. The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which serves more than 325,000 clients, says it provides emergency food that meets the cultural and religious dietary needs of both kosher and halal-observant households. 4 Karen Feldman, a DOE teacher and co-founder of a group fighting antisemitism in public schools, faulted the city's free summer meal program's failure to list kosher meals for Jewish kids. Gregory P. Mango The DOE's summer menus offer a variety of halal options it says meet Islamic guidelines. For instance, a breakfast of egg and cheese on a buttermilk biscuit, home fries, and fresh fruit; and a lunch of chicken tenders with dipping sauce, garlic knot and corn. Other halal breakfasts include waffles, zucchini and banana bread, whole-grain bagels and buttermilk pancakes. Lunches feature pizza, mozzarella sticks, beef patties, falafel, chicken sandwiches, veggie burgers and empanadas. Kosher foods meet Jewish dietary laws, including restrictions on certain animals like pork and shellfish, separation of meat and dairy, and specific slaughtering and preparation methods. If ordered, the DOE said, a kosher breakfast would include a muffin, granola or cereal, plus yogurt, an apple, and milk. A lunch would consist of hummus, tuna or egg salad, whole wheat bread, grape tomatoes, apple and milk. 4 The DOE posted July summer meals with multiple halal options, but none for kosher food, angering some Jewish advocates. DOE Last week, the DOE would not detail its preparation or purchase of halal and kosher foods. 'We are thrilled that our summer meals program is returning this year, making sure that our youngest New Yorkers are fed and nourished,'said DOE spokeswoman Jenna Lyle. Funding for the summer meal program comes out of the DOE's yearly $600 million budget for all school food.
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Immigrant detentions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania hit highs not seen since 2011
The number of individuals arrested and held in New Jersey and Pennsylvania detention centers pending deportation hearings has risen to levels not seen since the early years of the Obama presidency, according to recently released government data. The detained population in New Jersey surged 451% since the end of April, when only 65 newly-arrested individuals were detained while awaiting deportation hearings. Pennsylvania's detained population crossed the 300 mark in March for the first time since 2011. As of May 31, ICE held 358 and 353 people, respectively, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania detention facilities who were detained that month as their deportation cases wound their way through immigration court. New Jersey's figure represents the highest number of such detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 14 years while Pennsylvania's is the highest in 16. The figures reflect the number of individuals detained in a given month pending removal proceedings who remain in detention at the end of the month in which they were detained. They are an undercount of detained individuals as they do not include people in so-called "expedited removal," a process by which immigration officers can deport noncitizens from the United States without a hearing before an immigration judge. President Donald Trump expanded the use of expedited removal upon returning to office. The figures were published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, a data gathering and research organization which regularly acquires and analyzes such data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, and ICE through Freedom of Information Act requests and litigation. The data do not indicate which centers held the individuals but the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark began housing migrants on May 1. Jenny Garcia, a communications associate at Detention Watch Network, a national coalition that supports local communities trying to shut down local centers, has no doubt the increase is at least partly tied to the facility's opening. "When a detention center opens up within a state - within a community - ICE is going to fill those beds with local people - people in the tri-State Area," Garcia said. The Delaney facility, located in an industrial stretch along the Passaic River, has been dogged by controversy since before it even opened. The administration of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in March filed a lawsuit and issued a stop-work order against GEO Group, the private prison company which operates the center under a 15-year contract with ICE worth $1 billion, claiming the company blocked city building inspectors from conducting required inspections. Baraka, a candidate in this month's Democratic primary for the state's governorship, was later arrested at a protest outside the center shortly after it began operating. Baraka is currently suing New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba for "false arrest and malicious prosecution." The U.S. Attorney's Office last week charged four Delaney Hall detainees with attempting to escape earlier in the month amid reports of late-arriving meals and other poor conditions at the facility. Garcia, whose group has held daily vigils outside of Delaney Hall since the center began holding migrants, said detainees have suffered from a lack of medical care and food, alternately freezing and boiling temperatures, and access to family and legal counsel. "We've seen clergy get denied. We've seen families get denied," Garcia said. "And, very concerningly, we've seen many, many lawyers get denied visits with their clients." A spokesperson for ICE's Newark field office did not respond to an email seeking comment on conditions at the facility and whether the agency has been making an effort to detain more individuals now that it's open. While Pennsylvania did not experience the same month-over-month surge in detentions that New Jersey did, the 353 individuals held in detention pending removal proceedings is the highest number since September 2009. The state's detained population has increased every month since last December and crossed the 300 mark in March for the first time since 2011. Peter Pedemonti, the co-director of the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, decried the increased detentions. "I hope everybody can look at those numbers and agree that those are 353 people who have been abducted out of our communities," Pedemonti said. "These are our are members of our community." The number of detained people in Pennsylvania has long been higher than that of New Jersey. Before May, the last time New Jersey's total exceeded that of Pennsylvania was March 2020. Part of that is the presence of the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. The former federal prison, located 30 miles northwest of State College, was repurposed as an ICE detention facility in 2021. The facility is run by Geo Group, the same private prison company that operates Delaney Hall, and has faced accusations of serious mistreatment of detainees. Activists have identified Moshannon as the ICE facility where detained Philadelphia residents are most often sent. Pedemonti said he expects Pennsylvania's numbers could rise even further based on anecdotal reports of increased arrests in recent weeks. "(ICE) is under tremendous pressure to produce numbers," Pedemonti said. "We've seen an uptick in the last three weeks (in arrests) in Philadelphia and before that was Norristown, and I'm sure we'll see that in the June (detention) numbers." A spokesperson for ICE's Philadelphia field office did not respond to an email seeking comment on whether the agency has recently been making an effort to detain more individuals. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Deportation nation: Trump 2.0 is gunning for new records in immigration prosecutions
By March 2025 — in just the second full month of President Trump's second term — the number of criminal immigration prosecutions jumped by 36 percent over the month prior, reaching 4,550 charges per month. According to TRAC, this marks the sharpest monthly increase in recent years. The first shot has been fired. After years of 'catch and release,' the deportation machine is running again at full steam, and Southern states have become the main battleground. From Texas to Florida, sheriffs are bracing for full jails, and everyone knows this is just the beginning. Unlike Biden's slow-moving policy, Trump's forces are moving fast — 70 percent of all cases are now initiated by Customs and Border Protection. Back in 2019, the number peaked at 10,000 per month. He was already halfway back to that level in just his second full month in office. What happens by fall? Republicans have tasted blood. Governors are already demanding more funding. The return of priority enforcement and pressure on ICE to deliver faster results with less bureaucracy has pushed the system into high gear — 36 percent growth in just one month. The Trump administration is building up a new pressure system. Beyond simply reviving its old rhetoric on illegal immigration enforcement, it is building a more aggressive structure, handing real power to field-level actors. The fact that 70 percent of cases are being opened by CBP, not ICE, shows how federal power is being pushed down to those counties with the most hardline politics. The new rule is already clear: less paper, please, and pass the handcuffs. At the same time, border crossings fell to just 7,181 in March — a 95 percent drop compared to the same month last year. While some say it's seasonal, the sharp rise in prosecutions seems to be acting as a strong warning. Meanwhile, ICE is quietly speeding up deportations, processing hundreds of thousands of migrants through faster removals in recent months, showing how the system is working behind the scenes to reduce border crossings. In practice, this means that counties are once again becoming testing grounds, where new rules come as a blank check. Governors in Texas, Florida, and Louisiana are pushing to expand jurisdiction. Sheriffs are rebuilding the jail-to-deportation pipeline. Even minor charges are turning into ICE cases. This mechanism is familiar to those who remember 2018 and 2019, but this time it started from day one and has been moving even faster. As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) put it: 'Our National Guard is helping ICE with arrests and deportations.' That's the level of coordination now at play. This is less a return to immigration policy and more a rush into pre-conflict mode. If this pace continues, we could hit 10,000 prosecutions per month by fall. For now, they are testing the limits. The real goal is not law enforcement, but a broad demonstration of strength. America has restarted a machine that works not just for justice but also for power. First blood is a test — a signal of how ready the system is to obey. And if the course stays unchanged, a full-scale wave of deportations is coming. Artem Kolisnichenko writes on crime, immigration, and border policy across the American South and Southwest.
