![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CBP_5832-1024x683.jpeg\")
Thousands gather for the No Kings protest at Butler Field in Downtown Chicago on Oct. 18, 2025.\/ Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\nDOWNTOWN \u2014 With their city caught in the country\u2019s largest immigration enforcement operation, tens of thousands of Chicagoans flooded Downtown on Saturday to condemn Donald Trump\u2019s administration as part of the second nationwide No Kings protest.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s event kicked off about noon Saturday with a rally in Grant Park\u2019s Butler Field at the Petrillo Music Shell. Well before noon, thousands of people converged on the lakefront park and settled in to hear from speakers including Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.<\/p>\n
Pritzker walked out to chants of \u201cJB!\u201d from the crowd, which packed Butler Field from end to end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will never surrender!\u201d the governor declared. \u201cThroughout history we have learned that tyranny doesn\u2019t arrive with dramatic proclamations, we learned that it comes wrapped in \u2018law and order\u2019 \u2026the reality here in Chicago is this: Black and Brown people are being targeted for the color of their skin, children are being zip-tied and separated from their families \u2026 these people are not abstractions, they pay taxes on their businesses, they work hard \u2014 these people are the fabric of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thousands gather for the No Kings protest at Butler Field in Downtown Chicago on Oct. 18, 2025.\/ Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n
As \u201cU.S.A!\u201d chants erupted through the crowd, Pritzker called on Chicagoans to come together in the face of the Trump administration\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeaceful, democratic resistance is always scary for authoritarians,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cWe in Chicago are not afraid to stand up \u2026 today we are resisting more than just Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on democracy, and he knows it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want a rematch of the civil war,\u201d Johnson said to the crowd. \u201cBut we are here to stand firm, to stand committed \u2014 that we will not bend. We will not cower. The attempt to divide and conquer this nation will not prevail, because when the people are united, justice always prevails.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/TS4_0303-1024x683.jpg\")
Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at the No Kings protest at Butler Field in Downtown Chicago on Oct. 18, 2025. Credit: Talia Sprague for Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n
Carrying hand-lettered signs with slogans including \u201cWhen injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty,\u201d \u201cNo crown for the orange clown\u201d and \u201cHate does not make America great,\u201d the crowd spilled out onto Downtown streets after 1 p.m. Despite some initial confusion in the crowd about the route, the destination was a usual one for anti-Trump rallies: Wacker Drive across from Trump Tower, 401 N. Wabash Ave. After rallying there, the crowd was expected to circle back to Butler Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my duty to do this as a Mexican American who has citizenship here,\u201d one protester, a Chicago resident named Paulina, said. \u201cI\u2019ve been seeing a lot of terrifying realities on social media and it\u2019s easy to let that fear take over my life. But now that I\u2019m here, seeing protesters of all ages and abilities, it takes the fear out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A line of police officers with bicycles ushered demonstrators north on Michigan Avenue as bystanders on the sidewalk cheered on the protest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kurt, a Brighton Park resident who declined to share his last name for safety reasons, said that Saturday\u2019s protest was the first he\u2019d attended since 1990 protests against the Gulf War. He was inspired to go to the march after being hit with tear gas in his neighborhood, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re kidnapping people off the streets \u2014 in my neighborhood \u2014 and it feels like a ghost town. People are scared, I\u2019m scared too, but I\u2019m mostly angry. History is repeating itself and this feels like Nazi Germany. I mean, I\u2019m carrying my birth certificate around with me nowadays just out of fear of what they might do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kurt turned over his wrists, revealing surgical scarring on each.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t get zip-tied,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m disabled. They could really hurt me and mess up my wrists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chicago\u2019s demonstration is one of many No Kings protests to be held Saturday across the United States. The Downtown rally seeks to show President Donald Trump and his administration there is unified opposition to \u201cillegal and unnecessary attacks against our neighbors, our communities and our democracy,\u201d according to an organizing page<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Chicago No Kings protest in June<\/a> drew a crowd of an estimated 75,000 people Downtown.<\/p>\n All modes of transit heading downtown were clogged in the hours leading up to Saturday\u2019s rally. Hundreds packed into train cars. On the Blue Line, south of California, riders had to wait for several trains to pass by before being able to get on the train, protesters said.<\/p>\n Bridges were lifted starting around 9 a.m. Saturday for Chicago\u2019s annual fall boat runs, further congesting some downtown streets.<\/p>\n Demonstrators came prepared with creative, homemade costumes and signs that mocked President Trump and others in his administration, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who accompanied masked federal agents on raids in Chicago earlier this month.<\/p>\n The protest and march come as the Trump administration\u2019s large-scale immigration operations in Chicago \u2014 ICE\u2019s Midway Blitz<\/a> and Customs and Border Patrol\u2019s At Large<\/a> \u2014 are well into their second month. More than 1,000 people have been arrested during Operation Midway Blitz, Russell Hott, former ICE field director in Chicago, told Block Club earlier this month.<\/p>\n Since the operations began, federal agents in and around Chicago have shot at least two people<\/a>, killing one<\/a>; repeatedly tear-gassed protesters<\/a> and first responders<\/a>; shot rubber bullets<\/a> at protesters; detained U.S. citizens<\/a>, including children<\/a>; handcuffed a Chicago alderperson in a hospital<\/a>; smoke-bombed and tear-gassed people in Logan Square<\/a>, Albany Park<\/a> and East Side<\/a>; fired a chemical weapon at a TV reporter<\/a> and detained a journalist<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOWNTOWN \u2014 With their city caught in the country\u2019s largest immigration enforcement operation, tens of thousands of Chicagoans…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":314207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818,121074],"class_list":{"0":"post-314206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois","11":"tag-operation-midway-blitz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115396927327468576","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CBP_5900-1024x683.jpeg\")
Thousands gather for the No Kings protest at Butler Field in Downtown Chicago on Oct. 18, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n