Dozens of federal immigration agents took individuals into custody during a winding patrol Sunday through downtown Chicago, and a top U.S. Border Patrol official told WBEZ the agents were arresting people based on “how they look.”
The agents, clad in military fatigues, roamed past some of Chicago’s most well-known landmarks on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The highly visible show of force came just three days after Border Patrol boats carrying armed officers appeared on the Chicago River.
Gregory Bovino, commander at large of the border force, contrasted the people being arrested with a white WBEZ reporter, saying agents consider a person’s appearance before taking them into custody.
“You know, there’s many different factors that go into something like that,” Bovino said. “It would be agent experience, intelligence that indicates there’s illegal aliens in a particular place or location.
“Then, obviously, the particular characteristics of an individual, how they look. How do they look compared to, say, you?” he said to the reporter, a tall, middle-aged man of Anglo descent.
Bovino, who brought his “Operation At Large” deportation campaign from California to Illinois this month, made the comments about three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court said federal agents could continue stopping people based on factors including race and language during the campaign in California. The court’s majority did not explain itself.
Chicago has been on edge ever since President Donald Trump floated the idea of sending National Guard troops into the city in August. Though he never followed through, Sunday’s immigration patrols may have given him the photo opportunity he’s been looking for.
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker responded on social media by noting the officers appeared “to be carrying large weapons around downtown Chicago in camouflage and masks.
“This is not making anybody safer — it’s a show of intimidation, instilling fear in our communities and hurting our businesses,” Pritzker said.
The immigration agents were first spotted making arrests in downtown Chicago and the River North neighborhood early Sunday. A Sun-Times photographer saw the agents, many of whom appeared to be with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, make at least two arrests.
Agents, some masked, walked north on Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park toward the Wrigley Building. They then walked down Wacker Drive near Trump Tower, while some headed to the Riverwalk. They then made their way to River North.
Some passersby shouted at the agents, telling them to go home and “ICE sucks,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
At least one person shouted, “Thank you!”
Another said sarcastically: “Real patriotic guys. Real patriotic.”
By the time officers were walking up Clark Street through River North, about two dozen protesters followed them. They chanted, “ICE go home!”
Around 2 p.m., Bovino yelled “we got a runner” and joined agents in a sprint that ended with the detention of a man on Superior Street between Clark and La Salle Street. The man, surrounded by about two dozen agents, was handcuffed and driven away.
Meanwhile, an observer began recording the interaction. Bovino approached the observer and questioned his citizenship status. They briefly argued over whether he had to reveal that information and the observer eventually moved to film the agents from a different location.
Asked why agents arrested the man they’d run after, Bovino would not specify anything except that the man didn’t resemble the white reporter.
“He exhibited articulable facts that made us take a look, and then we took a look and our suspicions were proven true. It does appear right now he’s an illegal alien,” Bovino said. “That’s still an ongoing federal investigation, so I’ll get back with you on exactly what that is, once we determine all those facts.”
Immigration agents were patrolling several other neighborhoods, Bovino added.
“Chicago’s got a lot of murders,” Bovino said. “We’re going to make the city a safer place.”
The city’s murder numbers have been falling fast in recent years, and studies show the vast majority are committed by U.S. citizens. Violent crime overall is down too.
Bovino said the deportation blitz also extends beyond Chicago’s borders: “It could be Cicero. It could be South Chicago. It could be anywhere in Illinois.”
As the immigration patrol continued through River North, people on a double-decker tour bus craned their necks to get a look at the commotion.
At one point, agents ran after a bicyclist who’d yelled at them. He got away.
Alexis, 28, encountered the military-clad ICE officers at Clark and Kinzie Street. She works in marketing and lives in the city’s West Loop neighborhood.
“It’s pretty crazy,” she said, declining to give her last name. “It’s scary to see them patrolling through downtown.”
It seemed the large number of officers were there to “intimidate people,” she added.
Shirley Zuniga, 24, and half a dozen girlfriends dressed up for a fancy brunch in River North to celebrate her birthday.
They finished the meal and hobbled out of the restaurant in their high heels.
“The first thing we saw was a crowd of ICE agents,” Zuniga said.
Zuniga, a hairstylist in the Hermosa neighborhood, said she and her friends set aside an afternoon plan so they could join the protesters who were following the immigration officers.
“I totally forgot about the rest of my birthday because … this is way more important to me than just celebrating myself,” Zuniga said through tears. “This was celebrating my people.”
Zuniga, the daughter of Honduran immigrants, said there were no immigration laws regulating the first Europeans on this continent: “It was not theirs to begin with.
“This country was built off of immigrants,” she added. “We’re what makes America great.”
But Larry Goone, 59, saw the immigration officers and protesters differently. He was riding an electric fat-tire bike to the lakeshore when he came across them.
“I saw these [officers] being completely heckled on the river and I just yelled out to them, ‘Hey, I appreciate what you’re doing,’ because most of Chicago does want this,” said Goone, a suburbanite who works in casino marketing. “These people just are doing their jobs.”
Goone praised the officers for going after “illegals for coming here illegally.”
What did Goone think of the protesters?
“This here is organized by George Soros and antifa, and I wouldn’t doubt that half are being paid to protest,” Goone speculated without any evidence. “I don’t understand what they’re doing.”
The agents’ presence downtown is the latest part of a campaign by Trump’s administration against immigration. The administration announced the launch of “Operation Midway Blitz” on Sept. 8, bringing a flood of federal officers to the Chicago area to conduct raids and arrests.
Since then, hundreds of Chicago-area residents have been arrested.
