Federal immigration enforcement agents fanned out across the Chicago region on Monday, arresting at least 17 people in the city and suburbs and being spotted by immigrant advocates and others at a Chicago courthouse and in cities from Elgin to Aurora.
The scope of the raids remained difficult to assess as information on apprehensions and sightings from various sources has created a “patchwork” understanding for advocates and the public, with federal authorities largely staying silent about their activities. Still, officials and advocates were clear that the increased federal activity is upending daily life, including children’s education and business operations.
“We don’t know the true scale, but we know activity has increased” in the area over the last couple of weeks, said Brandon Lee, spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The organization is mostly relying on intake numbers from legal partners, hotline calls and networks of community members to get a sense of what is happening and who has been affected.
The Monday activity comes one week after President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security announced it was embarking on its latest immigration enforcement surge in the Chicago region, which it dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” Since he took office, the Trump administration has increased enforcement against illegal immigration nationwide, saying it is seeking individuals with criminal records who are in the country without proper authorization, though several studies have shown federal agents have picked up a large number of individuals without criminal records.
A senior Trump administration official told the Tribune Monday that federal agents made 400 to 500 arrests through late last week, though the administration didn’t provide additional information on the exact circumstances or locations of the arrests.
Just last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez in Franklin Park. Department of Homeland Security officials said they shot the 38-year-old after he allegedly tried to flee a traffic stop and struck an officer with his vehicle. DHS officials also said Villegas-Gonzalez was a citizen of Mexico and was in the U.S. illegally, though further details have remained sketchy.
On Monday, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said he was still seeking information on the fatal shooting, including the circumstances that led up to it.
If a member of the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County sheriff’s office or the Illinois State Police were involved in a shooting, the governor said, “you would have had a lot more information.” But so far, “apparently ICE is unwilling to provide that transparency,” he said.
“This is the most unusual situation I’ve seen in my entire lifetime, where we have no transparency and the federal government is not policing itself,” Pritzker said.
Two people ride past a memorial on Sept. 12, 2025, at the site where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez after the agency said he tried to flee a traffic stop and dragged an agent in Franklin Park. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
The raids in West Chicago, a suburb with a significant Latino population, occurred Monday morning, according to state Sen. Karina Villa, a Democrat from West Chicago. She said she saw federal agents assembling at a West Chicago Police Department station parking lot early Monday, and when she confronted them about why they were present, they dispersed.
“I just started running and chasing and yelling at folks to stay in their houses,” she said at a news conference later Monday. “And so then once I came upon them, I just basically told them to get out of my town.”
At one point, she said, there were at least 15 people, including a minor, detained in the suburb, though she said that was not confirmed independently by federal or local law enforcement. Villa said 30 to 40 volunteers in the community were dispatched across town to take videos or photos of immigration agents who were wearing vests identifying them as members of ICE. They were in “unmarked vehicles,” she said.
“I think we scared them off,” Villa said.
State Rep. Maura Hirschauer, a Democrat whose district includes West Chicago, also said there had been “several credible ICE sightings” on Monday, one day after the city had its Mexican Independence Day festivities.
“It was a joyful celebration, there was a giant pinata in our downtown square,” she said. “Waking up this morning to ICE in the neighborhoods is jarring. It’s very scary for the community, and it feels targeted.”
State Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, grows enraged at a news conference about people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Sept. 15, 2025, in West Chicago. Earlier in the day, she confronted agents as they gathered in a municipal parking lot. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
According to Villa, ICE agents attempted to enter workplaces but were denied entry because they had no warrants.
“That means that there are no criminals here,” she said.
Under Illinois’ 2017 Trust Act, signed into law by former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, local law enforcement is generally prohibited from working with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. Villa said West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey assured her the Police Department was “not collaborating with ICE.”
She said the actions took place as elementary and high school classes in the area were beginning for the day. Bovey told the Tribune there was “a huge amount of fear,” including at schools and businesses.
“ICE operations disrupt daily life for citizens and noncitizens alike,” said Lee of ICIRR.
Schools within West Chicago Elementary School District 33 secured their campuses in response to reports of ICE’s presence in the area, Superintendent Kristina Davis said Monday. Instruction continued as normal, and extra staff and administrators worked on buses and at bus stops for afternoon dismissal, she said.
Blair Johnson holds a sign in support of immigrants while across the street from the Jel Sert company on Sept. 15, 2025, in West Chicago. Earlier in the day, state Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, confirmed that Jel Sert would not allow any federal agents onto their property or into their factory without a signed warrant. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Davis added they had not heard whether agents were targeting schools. But advocates noted reports of two incidents Sunday and Monday in which parents were taken by federal agents from their cars during traffic stops while their children were inside their vehicles, in what ICIRR Senior Director of Organizing Demian Kogan called an “escalation of violence.”
State Rep. Norma Hernandez, a Melrose Park Democrat, called on U.S. citizens to participate in civilian support networks that monitor and respond to reports of ICE activity and assist with basic needs.
“We need to grow the (number of) volunteers that are going to be able to do mutual aid to provide food to people’s houses, because people are so afraid to get kidnapped at a grocery store,” she said.
In Chicago, immigration agents arrested two people near a courthouse at 3150 W. Flournoy St., located next to a Chicago Police Department station on the West Side, according to the Cook County public defender’s office.
Federal agents detain two people on Sept. 15, 2025, outside a courthouse at 3150 W. Flournoy St. on the city’s West Side. (Cook County public defender’s office)
An employee with the public defender’s office also reported seeing five to six people they thought were plainclothes federal immigration agents at the county’s domestic violence courthouse at 555 W. Harrison St. on Monday morning, according to the office. An advocate who works in the courthouse also told the Tribune she saw a person who appeared to be an immigration agent.
Matt Hendrickson, a spokesman with the public defender’s office, said the agents did not appear to have made any arrests.
But Chicago police officers responded to the courthouse in the morning, Hendrickson said, after someone reported seeing an individual in plainclothes in a vehicle holding an “assault-style rifle.” Police on scene said they confirmed the person was a federal agent, Hendrickson said.
A Police Department spokesperson confirmed officers responded after a report of a person with a gun.
“Responding officers determined that it was a member of another law enforcement agency, and the call was coded out,” the department said in a statement. Officials did not immediately confirm whether it was an immigration agent.
The sighting came more than a week after ICE agents arrested at least two people in the vicinity of the domestic violence-focused courthouse near downtown, sparking fears that the agents’ presence in the area would cause people to miss court dates or refrain from seeking orders of protection.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Barbara Hernandez, a Democrat from Aurora, said ICE agents were spotted in her town as well, but she was not aware of any arrests.
KJ Johnson chants with others outside Great Lakes Naval Base during an anti-ICE demonstration on the evening of Sept. 13, 2025, in North Chicago. (Audrey Richardson/for the Chicago Tribune)
According to a city spokesman, ICE agents were in Aurora on Monday, but no one was detained as part of their operations.
Hernandez said she doesn’t think suburban areas have been properly prepared for the agents’ presence.
“I think many people think, ‘Oh, this is going to be in Chicago. We don’t have to think about it,’” she said. “But we do. We really do. Because at any moment, they can come to the suburbs and we’re starting to see them.”
The strength of volunteers responding in the suburbs, Villa said, shows the community is “not going to be bullied into submission.”
“It’s been a beautiful day for the united allies here in West Chicago to come out and show all of their demonstrations of support, because ICE is not welcome here,” she said.
In Elgin, federal agents have recently changed tactics, according to the local, volunteer-led Rapid Response Team.
“They are not going into homes. They are going into fábricas (factories), pulling you over in cars,” said Rafael Villagomez, a member of the team. There was one incident last week where someone was detained outside of a grocery store, he said.
ICE agents “don’t care about showing a warrant or a badge,” Villagomez said. Agents aren’t going after “bad apples,” he said. “They are just out getting people.”
While federal immigration sweeps were active Monday, Trump’s administration last week temporarily backed down on threats to send federalized National Guard troops into Chicago to tamp down on crime overall, with the administration instead saying they’d send troops to Memphis.
But only hours after Pritzker said people should “celebrate” Trump’s decision, the president continued to dangle the prospect of troops being deployed in Illinois, saying “Chicago is going to be next.”
Eva Ramirez shows her sign to cars as they pass by outside the Great Lakes Naval Base during an anti-ICE demonstration on Sept. 13, 2025, in North Chicago. (Audrey Richardson/for the Chicago Tribune)
Signing an executive order that created a federal task force to send the Guard to Memphis with the approval of Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “We have to save Chicago,” regardless of opposition from Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“We think Chicago is going to be next, and we’ll get to St. Louis and New Orleans,” Trump said.
“If they do cooperate, that’s good. If they don’t, it’s not going to matter to us at all. You know, who wants to help us? (The) police department. They have no respect for the governor. They have no respect for the mayor. They respect us,” he said of Pritzker and Johnson as he touted a reduction in crime after federalizing law enforcement and the guard in Washington, D.C. “You’re going to have the same results in Chicago, and we hope we have the governor’s help, but if we don’t, we’re doing it without them.”
Despite expressing relief about the president’s Memphis decision, Pritzker also warned about Trump’s back-and-forth history on the threat of Guard deployment in Chicago that has gone on for the last month.
“The president says things one day and then goes back on them the next day, changes his mind from week to week. So we never really know what he intends to do,” Pritzker said. “All I can say is that sending troops into any American city is a terrible idea. The law and the Constitution only allow it in the case of insurrection or a national emergency, and those are not taking place in any city across the United States.”
It was largely believed that Trump selected Memphis over Chicago to avoid the legal issues of sending the guard into a state over the objections of a governor.
Chicago Tribune’s Talia Soglin, Rick Pearson and Molly Morrow contributed, as did freelance reporter Gloria Casas.
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Originally Published: September 15, 2025 at 1:00 PM CDT