With federal agents reportedly set to use the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago as their jumping-off point for an upcoming blitz in Chicago, immigrant advocates gathered nearby Friday to urge people to prepare for the looming threat.<\/p>\n
Leaders from Chicago, North Chicago and Lake County rejected President Donald Trump\u2019s planned operation and argued Illinois\u2019 legal safeguards provide a measure of protection and reassurance for immigrant communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo tengan miedo, organ\u00edcense,\u201d said Carlos Alvarez, with Tierra and Libertad, a pro-immigrant group that provides resources to community members on the North Side of Chicago. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, but organize.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Giselle](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ctc-l-Great-lakes-ice-protest018.jpg\")
Giselle Rodriguez, of Illinois Workers in Action, speaks in opposition to President Donald Trump’s rumored plan to stage ICE agents at Naval Station Great Lakes in September, during a protest at the Veterans Memorial on Aug. 29, 2025, in North Chicago. (Stacey Wescott\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
And Giselle Rodriguez of Illinois Workers in Action said her group has been working to get rapid response teams ready to provide guidance and help to families that could be impacted by raids.<\/p>\n
While details of the scale and scope remain uncertain, immigrant communities are bracing for an impact similar to Los Angeles earlier this summer, when there were large-scale raids on workplaces, and street vendors and day laborers were grabbed by federal agents.<\/p>\n
\u201cStand with us and mobilize with us,\u201d Rodriguez said, calling on elected officials and others to help spread awareness of the potential raids and ways in which they can protect themselves.<\/p>\n
Mayor Brandon Johnson decried Trump as inhumane Thursday evening following reports of the major immigration sweep starting imminently.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a North Side town hall, the mayor again warned it would be \u201cunconstitutional\u201d and \u201cillegal\u201d for the federal government to send troops to patrol the city\u2019s streets and vowed to uphold Chicago\u2019s long-standing sanctuary city policy for immigrants. \u201cThe city of Chicago is emphatically clear that we do not want our streets occupied by federal troops,\u201d Johnson declared.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Johnson upped his rhetoric against Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to build the safest, most affordable big city in America, and we\u2019re going to roll past Donald Trump to make sure that we do that,\u201d the mayor said at an event on the South Side. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t care who tries to stand in the way of Chicago, you about to get hit with something very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s comments were echoed in large part Friday by Gov. JB Pritzker, who said \u201cthey\u2019ve tried this before\u201d to news about Trump\u2019s apparent plans to send an influx of federal immigration agents to Chicago. Pritzker recalled how earlier this year U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents went on mass deportation missions in Chicago and let TV\u2019s \u201cDr. Phil\u201d tag along<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, is that a serious endeavor?\u201d Pritzker said before an audience in an elementary school gymnasium in the south suburbs. \u201cBut it is a serious endeavor because they were literally scaring the heck out of people in Little Village, in Pilsen, and other places in the city of Chicago, in the state of Illinois. So, it is a very serious matter. But they apparently think this is some kind of reality TV show.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest reports note that federal officials might be housed at the naval base in North Chicago, more than 35 miles north of downtown Chicago.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so the intentions here are clear, again, nothing to do with actually enforcing the law. Nothing to do with actually keeping the peace. They want to inflame something,\u201d Pritzker said before alluding to reports in Los Angeles of federal agents with masks \u201cgrabbing people off the streets and throwing them in the back of a van.\u201d<\/p>\n Pritzker said federal immigration agents, such as ICE agents, have a legal right to do their jobs in Chicago \u201cbut we don\u2019t appreciate when they mistreat our residents, when they go after people who, many of whom have been here for decades, many of whom are taxpayers and workers.\u201d<\/p>\n Pritzker also said he hasn\u2019t heard from Washington about any intention of the federal government to send an influx of federal law enforcement or National Guardsmen to Chicago. He also made clear that he respects the work of the National Guard but that they\u2019re trained for war, not civilian law enforcement duties.<\/p>\n \u201cI know members of the National Guard. They don\u2019t want to do law enforcement on the streets. This is not the job they signed up for when they went into the National Guard,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cSo if it happens that they end up here, we should all be respectful of them. They are following orders. That\u2019s what they\u2019re supposed to do. They can be court-martialed if they don\u2019t follow orders.\u201d<\/p>\n On Thursday evening, Johnson made his comments at a Rogers Park church hours after a New York Times article<\/a> reported the White House was planning major immigration raids in Chicago that would entail staging more than 200 federal agents at the naval base. The team would begin touching down Tuesday and stay for a month, per an internal memo cited by the news outlet.<\/p>\n For the past week, Trump\u2019s shifting, but hostile, remarks threatening to send federal troops to Chicago next amid an ongoing, controversial deployment of about 2,000 National Guard members in Washington, have sent Illinois leaders into a frenzy<\/a>. Thursday\u2019s report confirming use of the Naval Station Great Lakes for immigration agents added further reason to believe the White House hopes to involve the military in a possible Chicago crackdown.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office also released a statement Thursday evening saying the possible operation was \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d and resembled a similar strategy used in Los Angeles, where roiling protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids were met with a military response.<\/p>\n \u201cWe reject any attempts that put Chicagoans in danger as a means of furthering the President\u2019s political ends,\u201d the Johnson statement read. \u201cIn the event of enhanced immigration enforcement in Chicago, we will continue to issue guidance to all city departments and ensure that Chicagoans know their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Gov.](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/CTC-L-pritzker-school-2.jpg\")
Gov. JB Pritzker comments on art and letters for him from students, Aug. 29, 2025, during a visit to Wagoner Elementary School in Sauk Village. (Dominic Di Palermo\/ Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n