Andrew Denton was on his way to get lunch Friday afternoon when he noticed people yelling at masked men in a white SUV near Funston Elementary School in Logan Square.
Realizing the men were likely federal immigration enforcement agents, Denton pulled out his phone and started recording the commotion near the school and Rico Fresh Market at Armitage and Drake avenues.
The SUV had been blocked in traffic by a man on a scooter for about 30 seconds when suddenly the men tossed canisters out their windows that quickly began expelling smoke onto the streets, Denton said.
Aside from “people yelling at them, telling them to leave, and a lot of honking, no one was attacking the agents,” said Denton, who lives in Logan Square.
“There was no reason for them to do that,” he added. “I’m upset. I’m a Caucasian male and I don’t typically have to deal with situations like this, but it’s upsetting to see people being paid to attack our community for senseless stupid reasons.”
The deployment of smoke canisters — some witnesses described it as tear gas — came as tensions boiled over Friday afternoon on the Northwest Side. One local alderman was briefly detained by agents. Protesters chased federal immigration agents through neighborhood streets, past grocery stores, small businesses and a day care that went into lockdown.
Numerous reports of federal agents arresting people lit up social media, group chats and rapid response teams, the escalation in Chicago coming after a tense morning outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview when federal agents confronted hundreds of protesters, resulting in several arrests.
DHS and ICE officials did not return requests for comment.
From raids to public shows of force, the city and its suburbs have been feeling the weight of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown for weeks. Since “Operation Midway Blitz” began in early September, ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol have made more than 800 arrests, according to a statement Wednesday from the Department of Homeland Security.
Community members line the perimeter of Funston Elementary School, 3616 W. Armitage Ave., near the end of the school day on Oct. 3, 2025. People in the community are on high alert for the possibility of action by federal immigration agents. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Funston Elementary officials confirmed reports of federal law enforcement activity near the school in a letter to community members Friday. Though the activity was not on school grounds, recess was held indoors “out of an abundance of caution,” Principal Sarah Trevino-Terronez wrote.
“All of our students and staff members are safe,” she said.
Ten minutes before Funston let students out for the day, yellow school buses lined the front of the campus. Around the school’s perimeter, dozens of community members stood on sidewalks and street corners. Community members told the Tribune they had flocked to the school to have more eyes on the campus come drop-off and help ensure students returned home safely with their families.
Funston was one of several schools on the Northwest Side that had community members turning out for a show of extra support Friday afternoon. At several area campuses — Funston included — Chicago Teachers Union members monitored dismissal.
Among those waiting was Betsy Pillion. Earlier in the day, Pillion, who lives up the street from Funston, saw videos of the incident outside Rico Fresh circulating on social media.
“I was overcome,” the 35-year-old said. “I knew that I needed to get out and find something to do to help my neighbors.”
She said her goal was to show students and families that the community stands behind them.
An image taken from a video shows a federal immigration agent throwing a gas canister into the street near Rico Fresh Market in the 3500 block of West Armitage Avenue in Chicago on Oct. 3, 2025 (Andrew Denton)
Neighbors recalled seeing helicopters over Logan Square Friday morning. Those caught in the fray outside Rico Fresh described the moment as scary — and painful. They said the smoke that agents released burned their eyes and had them scrambling to get out of the way.
Standing across the street from Funston with a whistle around her neck, lifelong Logan Square resident Megan Wagner, 31, kept watch on the school after seeing the aftermath of agents throwing out canisters firsthand. Wagner was driving back from Cicero when she saw that traffic had stopped outside Rico Fresh. She watched as several people standing by rinsed out their eyes, she said.
“This is my neighborhood,” she said. “I want everybody to be safe.”
Meanwhile, immigration attorneys and a Northwest Side alderman say federal immigration agents blocked them from accessing a man being treated at Humboldt Park Health Friday afternoon for injuries that occurred during his arrest. Ald. Jessie Fuentes was briefly placed in handcuffs during the confrontation.
In a video of the altercation, Fuentes, 26th, can be heard making repeated demands that the agents present a warrant in the man’s arrest.
“Do you have a signed judicial warrant for him?” she said as one of the agents shoved her around and placed her in handcuffs, video of the altercation shows.
Fuentes was released after five minutes when she insisted officers tell her what crime she had committed, she said in a news conference afterward. They appeared to be ready to place her in a van, she said.
Immigration attorneys Enrique Espinoza and Jason Lee Garcia told the Tribune hospital leaders allowed them inside, but the federal agents physically blocked them from the man.
They argued that constituted a “complete violation” of his rights to due process and legal representation.
“We haven’t been allowed to talk with him to be able to get his side of the story, speak with him, his constitutional right,” Espinoza said. “It’s difficult to say what’s the strategy right now, other than to put more pressure on them to remind them about their obligation.”
Cook County Commissioner Jessica Vasquez told reporters that agents were not allowing the man to speak with an attorney, despite his requests.
“I will not leave the front of this hospital until I am sure that that individual is connected to a lawyer, so that he is not disappeared and kidnapped by federal agents,” she said.
A host of progressive elected officials called for new laws to restrict federal immigration agents. U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, a Democrat, has backed federal legislation to ban agents from hospitals, schools and faith communities.
Outside Humboldt Park Health hospital in Chicago, Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, describes being handcuffed by federal agents in the emergency department after repeatedly asking them if they had a warrant to detain a person who reportedly was injured while being chased by the agents on Oct. 3, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Brandon Johnson is considering implementing more executive orders in an effort to restrict ICE’s activity, said Beatriz Ponce de León, Johnson’s deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights.
“Don’t turn away when you see atrocities. Record them, share them, talk about them,” Ponce de León said.
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, pushed in Spanish for ordinances to require city employees to report agents that arrive in any city-run building and to allow the city’s police accountability authorities to investigate reported collaboration between the Chicago Police Department and federal immigration authorities.
Near the hospital, a group of protesters followed immigration agents driving through the neighborhood in a pickup truck.
The agents stopped in front of a day care that went into lockdown, then a plant store before pulling away as the demonstrators shouted insults and demanded they move.
Chicago Tribune’s Kate Armanini contributed.
larodriguez@chicagotribune.com
Originally Published: October 3, 2025 at 6:12 PM CDT