Third Ward resident Maria Bratsolias cannot escape the helicopters.
In her Southeast Evanston home — the top floor of a flat-roofed building constructed in the 1910s — she can hear Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks patrolling up and down the North Shore coastline, day in and day out.
As she talked to The Daily in her living room, she paused at points to assess a loud noise outside. Sometimes, it was the Metra, or a car; sometimes, it was a helicopter. The Black Hawks were most prominent, flying so loudly that Bratsolias has had to crank music or her television to drown out the noise.
If the helicopters were being used by their original operators — the U.S. Army — the iconic green aircraft would be an attraction for local children, Bratsolias said. But among the helicopters’ all-black livery lies a horizontal gold stripe identifying their current operator: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a sister agency to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“All I hear is screaming every time I hear those damn helicopters,” Bratsolias said. “Because I know that at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to happen — is that little children will be screaming for a parent, and they won’t be there.”
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights first publicly identified helicopters operated by the Department of Homeland Security — the parent agency of CBP, which operates all of the DHS’ helicopters — on Oct. 29. Subsequent ICIRR text alerts indicated they were being used as “air support” for ICE activity in Evanston and Skokie. The helicopters were likely Airbus H125s, the primary helicopters used by CBP over residential areas, according to aircraft position data from research network OpenSky.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Still, even in Bratsolias’ neighborhood, which has seen a high density of the aircraft, residents said solid information about the helicopters’ operator or motive remains difficult to find. That’s because in early October, the helicopters practically disappeared from flight-tracking apps.
Photos and videos obtained and verified by The Daily, along with the testimony of residents like Bratsolias and aircraft data from OpenSky, confirm that the CBP-operated helicopters have continued surveillance-like behavior over Evanston with ADS-B Out — the technology that lets the public see an aircraft’s location — turned off.
Residents noted that the helicopters remain loud and visible. Black Hawks, for instance, can fly as low as 500 feet above ground level, according to Michael Saubert, a former pilot of the helicopter for the Army National Guard and adjunct lecturer at the Segal Design Institute.
Pre-October altitude data from CBP helicopters over Evanston show that Black Hawks stayed between 500 and 1,500 feet above the ground, a range Saubert confirmed is typical. H125s, too, ventured only as far as 2,350 feet into the air, according to the data.
Transponder data shows that CBP aircraft have been flying down the Evanston coastline since early September, around the time the DHS announced the start of Operation Midway Blitz, a federal immigration crackdown in the Chicago area. The data also shows an increase in CBP flights compared to September and October 2024.
Throughout September, however, the helicopters by and large stuck to straight paths along the Evanston coastline. Only one flight, a CBP-operated H125, circled or hovered during the period, according to OpenSky data.
“They could be doing flight training — there could be an instructor pilot in the aircraft teaching another pilot about a particular route,” Saubert said of the September flights.
The recorded data did not indicate “anything out of the ordinary,” he added.
Then, on Oct. 4, the last CBP-operated Black Hawk flew with ADS-B Out turned on. A 2019 rule allows government entities to stop transmitting the data for “sensitive operations” related to “national defense, homeland security, intelligence and law enforcement.”
The Daily verified 14 photos and videos showing CBP-operated Black Hawks — identifiable by three fixed wheels and a wide tailplane below the rear rotor — operating over Evanston after Oct. 4 with ADS-B Out turned off.
The Daily also verified four photos showing CBP-operated H125s — identifiable by white-and-blue livery — operating under the same conditions. Some H125s, however, have opted to keep ADS-B Out turned on, based on OpenSky data.
The “sensitive operation” being conducted is unclear, but one H125 with ADS-B Out on turned around to pass close by the intersection of Asbury Avenue and Oakton Street on Halloween. Earlier that day, the intersection had been the site of federal immigration enforcement activity resulting in the arrest of three U.S. citizens, the DHS confirmed to The Daily. By the time the helicopter arrived over the site, a large crowd had formed. The same helicopter later circled over The Home Depot in Niles in the same flight, where federal immigration enforcement activity occurred in the fall.
“I would say that they’re surveying the area, and they’re planning for things,” said 2nd Ward resident Liz Myers, who saw the helicopter over Asbury and Oakton that day.
Myers described having seen circling helicopters throughout the previous weeks, but was unable to confirm their affiliation with the federal government because they did not appear on flight-tracking apps.
Bratsolias agreed that the helicopters were likely assisting federal immigration operations in Evanston.
“They’re not in the air trying to ‘have feelings,’” she said of the Black Hawks. “They’re looking for weaknesses.”
Mayor Daniel Biss confirmed in an email statement early on Oct. 31 that he was aware of the helicopters and that the federal government had not notified the city about their activities.
The aircraft are “another illustration” of the Trump administration’s attacks on Evanston, he added.
“We will continue to do all we can to protect our community and keep people safe,” he said.
Email: [email protected]
Bluesky: @ryaninevanston.bsky.social
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