Chicagoans are tetchy about suburbanites who claim to be from the city.
“Where are you from?” begins the proverbial conversation.
“What part?”
“Actually, Naperville.”
With the Immigration and Customs Enforcement invasion of the Chicago area, though, the line between city and suburbs has disappeared. We’re all in this together, and we’re all responding the same way. The ICE detention center is in Broadview, a suburb most of us had never heard of until September. It’s been the site of some of the most violent episodes of the conflict, with ICE officers firing pepper balls at a minister, tear gassing crowds, and pushing protestors to the ground. ICE is not just attacking Chicago for being a sanctuary city, it’s attacking Illinois for being a sanctuary state. They don’t care about city limits, and neither should we.
Consider what happened when ICE appeared in Mount Prospect, the epitome of complacent middle-class suburbia. “The Rapid Response network confirmed high levels of immigration enforcement activity in Rolling Meadows, Wheeling, Prospect Heights & Mt. Prospect,” read a text from an ICE activity alert system run by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “At least 4 people have been detained.”
Alarmed residents poured out of their houses, following ICE SUVs, blowing whistles, honking horns, filming operations, and confronting agents.
“You don’t belong here,” one woman told them. “Our neighbors, they do belong here. Our community members, they do belong here.”
Days later, residents filled the village hall, delivering a petition signed by 500 residents to the board. Among its demands: create civil immigration enforcement exclusionary zones, ban face masks for federal agents, prohibit agents from operating vehicles without license plates, require signed judicial warrants for enforcement, and establish a relief fund for affected families.
The scene in Evanston was even more raucous. Despite Governor JB Pritzker’s pleas to halt operations on Halloween, agents showed up in the North Shore suburb on the holiday, detaining five people they said were in the country illegally. During a clash outside a middle school, they pinned a protestor to the ground and bashed his head against the pavement. According to the Department of Homeland Security, “[a] hostile crowd surrounded agents and their vehicle, and began verbally abusing them and spitting on them. As Border patrol arrested one individual, who actively resisted arrest, pepper spray was deployed to deter the agitator and disperse the crowd. Three U.S. citizens were arrested as a result of their violence against law enforcement.”
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who is running for Congress, had a succinct message for what he saw as the invaders: “Get the hell out of Evanston.”
Chicago and its suburbs are reacting to ICE in the same way because they’ve grown together politically over the past few decades. Chicago was once Democratic and suburbia Republican, but the suburbs have developed Democratic voting habits and attitudes as the national Republican Party has moved further to the right. In the 2024 presidential election, all the collar counties except McHenry voted for Kamala Harris.
It’s also worth noting that many of Chicago’s satellite cities have large Latino populations, which has made them targets for immigration enforcement. Waukegan is 59 percent Hispanic, Elgin 47 percent. ICE agents are quartered at Naval Station Great Lakes, close to Waukegan. They arrested workers outside Home Depots in Waukegan and Vernon Hills, and allegedly pointed guns at Waukegan Alderperson Juan A. Martinez as he was driving to work. According to Martinez, agents stopped their vehicle to block him, and walked up to his car with guns drawn.
“I will be honest: I felt fear,” Martinez told Lake & McHenry County Scanner. “I am a proud Latino leader, but no one should have to experience that kind of intimidation, especially from those sworn to uphold the law. I am deeply shaken, but I am also more determined than ever to stand with my community.”
Even in Wilmette, where the average home price is $850,000 and the population is 90 percent white and Asian, residents blew whistles, pulled out their cell phones, and shouted “You guys suck,” and “How do you live with yourselves?” when ICE agents detained landscapers.
ICE even targeted roofers in…Naperville.
Rumor has it that ICE is leaving Illinois this week. Most of us will be glad to see them go. But maybe one legacy they’ll leave is that Chicago and its suburbs have more in common than we thought. They were both targets, and they both fought back.