(CNN) — The state of Illinois and Chicago on Monday sued the Trump administration over its move to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as the White House targets Democrat-led cities amid weeks of protests against the federal government’s immigration enforcement campaign.
The lawsuit opens a new front in the legal battles the White House is waging against state and local officials, coming just hours after a federal judge blocked a similar deployment of the guard to Portland, Oregon.
“Defendants’ deployment of federalized troops to Illinois is patently unlawful,” the lawsuit says. “Plaintiffs ask this court to halt the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the National Guard of the United States, including both the Illinois and Texas National Guard.”
The lawsuit comes two days after the White House announced President Donald Trump authorized sending 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to Chicago to “protect federal officers and assets,” reprising a strategy he first used against anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests in Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
News of the deployment was condemned by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who said he refused to call up the National Guard after the Trump administration demanded he do so. On Sunday – after learning the administration also planned to send 400 members of the Texas National Guard to Illinois and Oregon, among other places – Pritzker likened the move to an “invasion.”
The lawsuit asks the court to order the administration to stop federalizing or deploying any National Guard troops to Illinois, and to declare the federalization of National Guard troops more broadly as unlawful.Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are among the defendants named.
In a statement, a White House spokesperson said the president “will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”
“Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like Pritzker have refused to step in to quell, President Trump has exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officers and assets,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson told CNN.
The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, argued the deployments are politically motivated, claiming Trump has a long history of making “threatening and derogatory” comments about Chicago and the state of Illinois, dating to at least 2013.
Among other examples, it calls out a September 6 social media post by Trump in which he said Chicago would “find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” referring to the president’s rebranded name for the Pentagon.
Illinois and Chicago have already seen a “surge” of federal agents, some of whom have responded to demonstrations at an ICE facility in Broadview, near Chicago, the lawsuit says. Those protests are a “flimsy pretext” to deploy National Guardsmen to the state, the lawsuit says.
Instead, “Defendants’ provocative and arbitrary actions have threatened to undermine public safety by inciting a public outcry,” the lawsuit says, because local and state law enforcement have been sent to “maintain the peace” in Broadview while ICE continues operating the facility.
“There is no legal or factual justification” for the National Guard federalization order, the lawsuit says.
Illinois’ complaint follows a similar challenge to the administration’s move to assign federalized guard troops from Oregon and California to Portland.
Officials in both states had objected, and a Trump-appointed federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked the deployment of National Guard from anywhere in the US to Portland.
The president, the judge said, appeared to have “exceeded his constitutional authority” by federalizing troops, because protests in Portland “did not pose a ‘danger of rebellion.’”
This story has been updated with additional information.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Monday prohibiting federal immigration agents from using city-owned property for immigration enforcement operations, as the Trump administration deploys National Guard troops to Illinois.
Johnson established the “ICE-free zones” — referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — as part of his Protecting Chicago Initiative, rejecting President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown and deportation rollout in the city.
“Today, we are signing an executive order aimed at reining in this out-of-control administration,” Johnson said during a news conference on Monday. “The order establishes ICE-free zones. That means that city property and unwilling private businesses will no longer serve as staging grounds for these raids.”
As Chicago seeks to thwart ICE’s deportation efforts, Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker filed a lawsuitMonday,attempting to block the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to Illinois.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has rejected President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago.(Kamil Krazaczynski/Getty Images)
“The Trump administration must end the war on Chicago,” Johnson said. “The Trump administration must end this war against Americans. The Trump administration must end its attempt to dismantle our democracy.”
During his remarks, Johnson accused the “extreme right” of refusing to accept the results of the Civil War, when slavery was abolished.
“They have repeatedly called for a rematch, but in the coming weeks, we will use this opportunity to build greater resistance. Chicagoans are clear that militarizing our troops in our city as justification to further escalate a war in Chicago will not be tolerated,” he said.
“The right wing in this country wants a rematch of the Civil War,” Johnson repeated during the news conference.
Johnson said Chicago would “not tolerate ICE agents violating our residents’ constitutional rights” or the Trump administration’s “disregard” for local authority.
President Donald Trump visits the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility on Aug. 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“With this executive order, Chicago stands firm in protecting the constitutional rights of our residents and immigrant communities and upholding our democracy,” Johnson said.
Johnson has directed Chicago agencies and departments to identify spaces within the next five days that have been targeted during ICE raids and post a clear message to federal immigration officers that the city-owned property would not be used for immigration enforcement, including as a staging area, processing location or operations base.
“If the federal government violates this executive order, we will take them to court,” Johnson said, urging Trump to leave Chicago “the freak alone.”
Pritzker, long considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said Sunday that he refused to comply with the Trump administration’s “ultimatum” to deploy Illinois National Guard troops, calling it “absolutely outrageous and un-American.”
“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s invasion,” Pritzker said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at the office of the Center for American Progress event on March 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
After Pritzker refused to deploy his own troops, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott authorized Trump to send 400 Texas National Guard members to Illinois and Oregon.
The White House ridiculed Pritzker on Monday for rejecting Trump’s deployment of national guardsmen to Illinois to combat crime.
“Chicago is descending into lawlessness and chaos because this slob cares more about boosting his anti-Trump creds on X than he does about making his city safe,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital.
The state of Illinois and Chicago are suing the Trump administration over their plans to deploy the National Guard.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit states in its introduction.
In the lawsuit, which names both the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago as plaintiffs, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul writes, “Defendants’ deployment of federalized troops to Illinois is patently unlawful.” He continues, “Plaintiffs ask this court to halt the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the National Guard of the United States, including both the Illinois and Texas National Guard.”
Raoul is asking for a temporary restraining order, saying deployment will cause “additional unrest,” “mistrust of police” an dharm to the state’s economy.
Over the weekend, a federal memo obtained by CBS News revealed up to 300 members of the Illinois National Guard would be federalized and deployed to “protect federal property” and “government personnel performing federal functions.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker confirmed that memo and said he had also been told an additional 400 other National Guard members from Texas would be deployed to Chicago and Portland, Oregon.
The quickly unfolding developments come as the administration portrays the Democrat-led cities as war-ravaged and lawless and amid Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Officials in both cities have disputed the president’s characterizations, saying military intervention isn’t needed and it’s federal involvement that’s inflaming the situation.
The lawsuit alleges that “these advances in President Trump’s long-declared ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous.”
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit says.
Pritzker and Raoul will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Monday, where they will also be joined by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. CBS News Chicago will stream that news conference live on our 24/7 news stream and on air.
Sara Tenenbaum is the Senior Digital Producer for CBS News Chicago covering breaking, local and community news in Chicago. She previously worked as a digital producer and senior digital producer for ABC7 Chicago.
The state of Illinois and Chicago are suing the Trump administration over their plans to deploy the National Guard.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit states in its introduction.
In the lawsuit, which names both the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago as plaintiffs, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul writes, “Defendants’ deployment of federalized troops to Illinois is patently unlawful.” He continues, “Plaintiffs ask this court to halt the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the National Guard of the United States, including both the Illinois and Texas National Guard.”
Over the weekend, a federal memo obtained by CBS News revealed up to 300 members of the Illinois National Guard would be federalized and deployed to “protect federal property” and “government personnel performing federal functions.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker confirmed that memo and said he had also been told an additional 400 other National Guard members from Texas would be deployed to Chicago and Portland, Oregon.
President Trump first used the National Guard against anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests in Los Angeles in the spring.
Pritzker and Raoul will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Monday. CBS News Chicago will stream that news conference live on our 24/7 news stream and on air.
This is a developing news story. Check back with CBS News Chicago for updates.
Sara Tenenbaum is the Senior Digital Producer for CBS News Chicago covering breaking, local and community news in Chicago. She previously worked as a digital producer and senior digital producer for ABC7 Chicago.
After the mangosteen daiquiri misted tableside with lime oil, the cheesy garlic naan, the broccoli salad with pistachios and mint, the pink peppered pineapple soda, the tandoori half-chicken with tingling green chutney, the crock of thick, savory, buttery black dal—after all that, served in the celadon-green Permit Room in Notting Hill, no, I did not need dessert.
Enter the brownie to end all brownies. It came cloaked in malai, the Indian version of clotted cream, and pulverized jaggery. My spoon slipped through, revealing an interior so moist and black, it looked like you could grow tomatoes in it.
Dessert was not, however, the sweetest thing about this epic meal at the Permit Room, a branch of the London-based Dishoom empire. The sweetest part was the fact that the only thing separating me from postprandial relaxation in a waffle-knit robe was a viridian stairwell up to the Lodgings—a one-room hotel I had all to myself.
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom flat, splashed with exuberant fabrics and Art Deco lighting, has arched windows that look out on the neighborhood’s famous Portobello Road Market, where tourists and locals skitter between stalls hawking silver teapots, first-edition books, and vintage Burberry trench coats. And there were plenty of treasures to find in the Lodgings, too, including a smart vinyl collection and a veritable museum of modern South Asian art curated by the L.A. gallerist Rajiv Menon.
The Lodgings at the Permit Room take bed and breakfast seriously.
TARAN WILKHU/COURTESY OF THE PERMIT ROOM/DISHOOM
The founders of Dishoom, cousins Shamil and Kavi Thakrar, had been thinking about this hotel concept for a while. “We’ve always adored those stays in Bombay with friends or family, someone pressing food into our hands, and a sense of being properly looked after,” says Kavi. “We wondered, what if we could bottle that feeling of warmth and hospitality, and bring it here?”
The cousins have hosted millions for meals at their four Permit Rooms and 11 Dishoom restaurants, but the opening of the Lodgings in July (at £700 per night) marks the first time they’ve had guests stay overnight.
They’ve hit upon a new mood in the luxury hotel arms race: sumptuous hideouts that combine the privacy of an exclusive-use rental with the amenities of a full-service property. The most rarefied stay, it turns out, is the one where you’re the only guest.
André Terrail’s grandmother once lived in the elegant apartment above La Tour d’Argent.
MATTHIEU SALVAING/COURTESY OF LA TOUR D’ARGENT
You won’t find these rooms on Expedia. Bookings are typically via email or an old-fashioned phone call. At the 1RoomHotel in Detroit, in a historic building in Corktown—it boasts an infrared sauna, Soho Home furnishings, and a 1,000-square-foot terrace—hotelier Doug Schwartz works mostly by referral. “We only do one booking a week, 50 guests a year,” he says. “So we really try to cater to that person.” That could mean their favorite cocktail prestocked in the minibar, or a tour around Motor City in the house car, a restored 1972 Ford Bronco. “At a hotel with a hundred rooms,” he said, “all that stuff gets lost in translation.”
While these properties are not all above restaurants, most target food-destination travelers looking to extend their experience from dining room to bedroom. From Chicago (the minimalist Loft at Michelin twostar Oriole) to Tasmania (the Ogee Guesthouse, neighboring the perpetually packed wine bar of the same name), access to a hard-to-get reservation is a motivating amenity in its own right.
The Permit Room has a line of hopeful diners snaking out the front door the entire day. But as the only overnight guest, I had a table waiting for me whenever I felt like eating, or I could order up room service from my living room’s baby-blue landline telephone. Before going to bed, I marked my breakfast order on the doorknob hanger menu, and awoke to fragrant masala chai, an immunity-boosting ginger shot, brioche French toast, and yogurt speckled with what looked like $100 worth of vanilla bean. The minibar fridge was stocked with Dishoom’s superb mango lassi.
The Lodgings at the Permit Room take bed and breakfast seriously.
TARAN WILKHU/COURTESY OF THE PERMIT ROOM/DISHOOM
In Paris, those who can’t get into the famous La Tour d’Argent might consider its Augusta Apartment (€1,800 per night). André Terrail, whose family has owned the Left Bank restaurant for 114 years, converted it in 2023 from the old private dining room. Why let the magic of a La Tour tasting fizzle after paying the bill, when it might continue with a nightcap overlooking an illuminated Notre Dame and slumber in a bespoke Maison Tréca bed? Terrail’s grandfather also managed the iconic Hotel George V (now the Four Seasons) in the early 20th century, so “it sounded logical that we would extend back into a hotel-like experience,” he said.
But it was Terrail’s grandmother, Augusta Burdel, who inspired the design. A patroness of the arts and woman-abouttown, she lived in the apartment 50 years ago, and probably would have appreciated the custom-built Scandinavian sauna and peacock-blue kitchen, as well as the ivory wainscoting and herringbone wood floors. Guests have the run of the place and can hire a barman to mix martinis in residence or unwind on the restaurant’s rooftop terrace after the venue closes for the night.
“The apartment is a little bit like going to Disneyland [mixed] with the Terrail and La Tour d’Argent story,” Terrail says. “I think we are having tons of fun with it.
Five unique boutiques
If you love the pomp of a grand hotel but crave quiet and a personal touch, these exquisite one-roomers are for you.
The Lodgings at The Permit Room, London
The cousins behind Dishoom, the wildly popular Indian restaurant chain, bring some bona fide Bombay hospitality to Portobello Road.
La Tour D’Argent’s Augusta Apartment, Paris
André Terrail, the restaurant’s third-generation owner, has modernized what was once his grandmother’s apartment with colorful flair.
The 1RoomHotel, Detroit
The 50 guests a year who snag a booking here can enjoy an infrared sauna, a spacious terrace, and the opportunity to tool around in a 1972 Ford Bronco.
The Loft at Oriole, Chicago
A stay above the two-Michelin-star restaurant includes a reservation at Oriole’s Kitchen Table for “a front-row dining experience” with chef Noah Sandoval.
Ogee Guesthouse, Tasmania
Matt and Monique Breen’s two-bedroom apartment—steps from their renowned restaurant, Ogee— offers a listening room with records from their own collection.
This article appears in the October/November 2025 issue of Fortune with the headline “Be our (only) guest.”
Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.
For weeks now, armed federal agents, some in full tactical gear, have been patrolling downtown Chicago. Ash-har Quraishi reports on Operation Midway Blitz.
President Donald Trump’s administration plans to deploy 300 Illinois National Guard troops to the Chicago region for at least 60 days, according to a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Illinois National Guard leadership and obtained by the Tribune.
In addition, likely hundreds of National Guard members from Texas were preparing to be sent to Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker said late Sunday.
“This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States,” Pritzker said, adding that the Illinois National Guard was informed of the Texas deployments and that no officials from the federal government had called him directly to discuss or coordinate. “We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”
The developments capped a weekend of rapid-fire moves by the Trump administration as it escalated its immigration enforcement actions in Illinois and in Oregon, where Trump moved to send National Guard troops from California to evade a federal judge’s temporary restraining order. Late Sunday, that same judge during an emergency hearing again blocked Trump’s efforts, issuing a ruling to stop the president’s deployment of California National Guard troops to Portland.
In his memo to the Illinois National Guard issued Saturday, Hegseth informed Guard leadership that up to 300 of its members will be called into federal service “effective immediately” for a two-month period.
The president called on guard members to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Protective Service and other federal government personnel “who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property, at locations where violent demonstrations against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations,” the memo stated.
Much of the historic move to federalize Illinois National Guard troops — over Pritzker’s objections — was laid out by Pritzker on Saturday and was soon defended by the White House, while Democrats slammed it as a power grab by the president to sow fear and division.
Saying the Trump administration issued him an ultimatum to “Call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said on Saturday that he would not deploy the state’s National Guard and contended a federal deployment over his objection is illegal. He has also vowed to go to court to stop it, previously citing the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits the military from conducting law enforcement activities on U.S. soil.
A spokesperson for Pritzker said Sunday that the governor has not communicated with Trump administration officials regarding the Illinois deployment.
“The Governor did not receive any calls from any federal officials. The Illinois National Guard communicated to the Department of War that the situation in Illinois does not require the use of the military and, as a result, the Governor opposes the deployment of the National Guard under any status,” the governor’s spokesperson said in an emailed response.
The White House said the troops were needed ostensibly to ensure the safety of federal agents and facilities that are part of Trump’s immigration enforcement surge that has hit the Chicago area for the past month.
The Hegseth memo didn’t specify exactly where the deployments would take place, but said the chief of the National Guard Bureau, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commander of U.S. Northern Command would coordinate details about the mobilization with the Illinois National Guard.
The White House confirmed on Sunday evening that the National Guard troops being called up to the Chicago area would be working without pay until the ongoing federal government shutdown, which began on Wednesday, is resolved.
Trump’s moves in Illinois occurred while Judge Karin Immergut — whom Trump appointed to the U.S. District Court in Oregon — on Saturday night blocked the president’s mobilization of 200 Oregon National Guard members in Portland. On Sunday, Trump sought to circumvent the temporary restraining order in Oregon by federalizing 300 National Guard members from California for deployment in Portland but late Sunday Immergut blocked that move as well.
“How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention of the (decision) I issued yesterday?,” Immergut asked a Trump administration lawyer during a hearing on Sunday night.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom had called Trump’s effort to send California troops to Oregon a “breathtaking abuse of power.”
“The Trump Administration is unapologetically attacking the rule of law itself and putting into action their dangerous words — ignoring court orders and treating judges, even those appointed by the President himself, as political opponents,” Newsom said.
Hours later, Pritzker said Trump was trying to do much of the same by likely sending hundreds of Texas National Guard members to Illinois.
“I call on Governor Abbott to immediately withdraw any support for this decision and refuse to coordinate,” Pritzker said of Texas’ Republican governor, who has long bickered with Pritzker. “There is no reason a President should send military troops into a sovereign state without their knowledge, consent, or cooperation.
“The brave men and women who serve in our national guards must not be used as political props. This is a moment where every American must speak up and help stop this madness,” Pritzker said.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul did not have specific plans to file new lawsuits against the Trump administration following news of the Illinois National Guard deployment and the issuance of the Oregon temporary restraining order.
Annie Thompson, a spokesperson for Raoul, said in a statement Sunday that the attorney general “is firmly committed to upholding the Constitution and defending the rule of law.”
“Our office will not hesitate to take legal action in the event of any unlawful deployment anywhere in Illinois,” Thompson said.
A spokesperson for Democratic Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who filed suit seeking to block the Oregon National Guard deployment, said the office has “been in touch and coordinating” on legal strategy with Raoul’s office.
Rayfield spokesperson Jenny Hansson also said Democratic attorneys general “have been working closely since January to hold the line on this administration.”
Speaking Sunday outside the White House as he prepared for a naval celebration in Norfolk, Virginia, Trump intimated that Pritzker was opposing efforts to bring in the National Guard to Illinois because it would anger opponents of immigration enforcement efforts, adding that protesters in Chicago and Portland are “paid people.”
He also said Pritzker was “afraid for his life,” apparently contending the governor does not want to run afoul of organizations and networks the administration alleges are behind the protests over enhanced immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.
Repeating as he often does basic Chicago police blotter statistics about murders and shootings and lauding his federalization of law enforcement in Washington, D.C., Trump criticized Pritzker, a major critic of the president, for saying “what a wonderful place” Chicago is when “they need help.”
“I believe the politicians are under threat, because there’s no way somebody can say that things are wonderful in Chicago,” Trump said. “There’s no city in the world like that. We’re going to straighten it out. And I think that Pritzker, he’s not a stupid person. I think that Pritzker is afraid for his life.”
Pritzker, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said it was the Trump administration and federal agents participating in the raids who “are the ones that are making it a war zone.”
“They want mayhem on the ground. They want to create the war zone so that they can send in even more troops,” Pritzker said.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard, sought to downplay potential confrontations with the Trump-ordered deployment of Illinois National Guard members.
“So they’ll be homegrown Illinoisans, and they’re our brothers and sisters, our neighbors. I probably served with quite a number of them, certainly the leadership. And, you know, they’ll be home. We’ll welcome them,” Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“It’s a misuse of the National Guard. They’re not needed, but we’re going to welcome them, because they’re our brothers and sisters, and we’re proud of our National Guard,” she said.
Trump’s National Guard plans also drew opposition from a coalition of business and civic groups.
Troop deployment could harm the “meaningful progress” being made to make Chicago safer by sowing “fear and chaos,” according to a statement from the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and Civic Federation. The statement touted the work already underway to address violence in the city and described Trump’s plans as a threat to “our businesses’ bottom lines and our reputation.”
In his comments outside the White House, Trump criticized Judge Karin Immergut — whom he appointed to the U.S. District Court in Oregon — for blocking the deployment of Oregon National Guard troops in Portland. Trump did not at that time mention his plans to send California National Guard members to the city.
Immergut said Trump’s basis for deploying the guard in Portland was “simply untethered to the facts” and that historic tradition “boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.” Allowing the troops to be deployed risk “blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation,” Immergut wrote.
Trump acknowledged appointing the judge but said, “I wasn’t served well.”
“Portland is burning to the ground. You have agitators, insurrectionists. All you have to do is look at that, look at the television,” Trump said. “That judge ought to be ashamed.”
Immergut, in the ruling, also noted that “state and local law enforcement will need to expend additional resources to quell increased civil unrest that is likely to result from the Guard’s mobilization.”
In addition to sending guard troops to Washington, Trump previously federalized guard troops in Los Angeles after sporadic anti-ICE protests in June, a move a federal judge said was illegal for domestic law enforcement. That ruling was stayed pending an appeal, and troops have remained deployed in Southern California. Newsom said those are the troops being sent to Oregon. Trump has also announced he was deploying the guard to Memphis with the support of Tennessee GOP Gov. Bill Lee.
CHICAGO – Two people are facing charges in connection with the use of cars to ram and block federal agents on Chicago’s Southwest Side on Saturday, which led to a shooting.
Federal prosecutors charged Marimar Martinez, 30, and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, with forcibly assaulting, impeding, and interfering with a federal law enforcement officer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois.
What we know:
Prosecutors said federal agents had conducted an operation on Saturday and Border Patrol agents acting as security detail were followed by a “convoy” of cars.
Prosecutors allege that civilian cars began to follow the agents near Oak Lawn and were driving “aggressively and erratically,” sometimes coming very close to the agents’ car, disregarding red lights and stop signs, and driving the wrong way on one-way streets.
Around 10:30 a.m., Martinez and Ruiz allegedly used their cars to hit a vehicle being driven by a Customs and Border Protection agent near the intersection of West 39th Street and South Kedzie Avenue. The car driven by Martinez side-swiped the driver’s side of the CBP car, prosecutors said.
Martinez loudly referred to Border Patrol agents as “la migra,” according to court documents, which is common Spanish slang for immigration enforcement officials.
After hitting the agent’s car, the suspects then allegedly boxed in the vehicle, which held a total of three agents at the time.
Prosecutors included multiple images of the damage they say was caused by the suspects’ vehicles.
Two people are facing charges in connection with the use of cars to ram and block federal agents on Chicago’s Southwest Side on Saturday, which led to a shooting. (U.S. Attorney’s Office)
The agents were unable to move their car and got out. One agent fired five shots at Martinez, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the accounts of events by federal agents was corroborated by body-worn camera footage.
Martinez then allegedly drove off, but paramedics found her and her car at a repair shop about a mile away near 35th Street and California Avenue. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital where she received treatment for her gunshot wounds.
Ruiz also allegedly off, but officers later found him at a gas station about half a block away.
They were both in law enforcement custody pending an initial court appearance in Chicago.
President Donald Trump’s crime and immigration crackdown hit a legal roadblock in Portland, Oregon, as new details emerged about the administration’s plan to send federal troops into Chicago. On Saturday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s effort to federalize 200 members of the Oregon National Guard. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut said the plan to send troops to Portland likely overstepped Trump’s authority and threatened state sovereignty. “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation,” Immergut said. The decision was celebrated by state and local leaders who brought the lawsuit, but the White House vowed to appeal. “President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement — we expect to be vindicated by a higher court,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland has been at the center of recent protests. On Saturday, hundreds marched to the building, prompting federal agents to deploy tear gas, among other crowd-control munitions. At least six people were arrested. Similar demonstrations and a similar debate have been playing out in Chicago. On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security said federal agents shot and injured one woman during what the agency described as a “defensive” response to an alleged vehicle-ramming attack. On Saturday, Trump authorized 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, despite opposition from Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker. The timeline of the National Guard’s arrival was not immediately clear. More from our Washington Bureau:
President Donald Trump’s crime and immigration crackdown hit a legal roadblock in Portland, Oregon, as new details emerged about the administration’s plan to send federal troops into Chicago.
On Saturday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s effort to federalize 200 members of the Oregon National Guard. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut said the plan to send troops to Portland likely overstepped Trump’s authority and threatened state sovereignty.
“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation,” Immergut said.
The decision was celebrated by state and local leaders who brought the lawsuit, but the White House vowed to appeal.
“President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement — we expect to be vindicated by a higher court,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland has been at the center of recent protests. On Saturday, hundreds marched to the building, prompting federal agents to deploy tear gas, among other crowd-control munitions. At least six people were arrested.
Similar demonstrations and a similar debate have been playing out in Chicago. On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security said federal agents shot and injured one woman during what the agency described as a “defensive” response to an alleged vehicle-ramming attack.
On Saturday, Trump authorized300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, despite opposition from Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker. The timeline of the National Guard’s arrival was not immediately clear.
The Trump administration plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said Saturday.Related video above: “Full force, if necessary:” Why President Trump is sending troops to Portland, OregonPritzker said the guard received word from the Pentagon in the morning that the troops would be called up. He did not specify when or where they would be deployed, but President Donald Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago.“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for additional details. The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to questions about Pritzker’s statement.The escalation of federal law enforcement in Illinois follows similar deployments in other parts of the country. Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile Tennessee National Guard troops are expected to help Memphis police.California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued to stop the deployment in Los Angeles and won a temporary block in federal court. The Trump administration has appealed that ruling that the use of the guard was illegal, and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has indicated that it believes the government is likely to prevail.Pritzker called Trump’s move in Illinois a “manufactured performance” that would pull the state’s National Guard troops away from their families and regular jobs.“For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control,” said the governor, who also noted that state, county and local law enforcement have been coordinating to ensure the safety of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Broadview facility on the outskirts of Chicago.Federal officials reported the arrests of 13 people protesting Friday near the facility, which has been frequently targeted during the administration’s surge of immigration enforcement this fall.Trump also said last month that he was sending federal troops to Portland, Oregon, calling the city war-ravaged. But local officials have suggested that many of his claims and social media posts appear to rely on images from 2020, when demonstrations and unrest gripped the city following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.City and state officials sued to stop the deployment the next day. U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut heard arguments Friday, and a ruling is expected over the weekend.Trump has federalized 200 National Guard troops in Oregon, but so far it does not appear that they have moved into Portland. They have been seen training on the coast in anticipation of a deployment. Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone contributed.
The Trump administration plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said Saturday.
Related video above: “Full force, if necessary:” Why President Trump is sending troops to Portland, Oregon
Pritzker said the guard received word from the Pentagon in the morning that the troops would be called up. He did not specify when or where they would be deployed, but President Donald Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago.
“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for additional details. The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to questions about Pritzker’s statement.
The escalation of federal law enforcement in Illinois follows similar deployments in other parts of the country. Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile Tennessee National Guard troops are expected to help Memphis police.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued to stop the deployment in Los Angeles and won a temporary block in federal court. The Trump administration has appealed that ruling that the use of the guard was illegal, and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has indicated that it believes the government is likely to prevail.
Pritzker called Trump’s move in Illinois a “manufactured performance” that would pull the state’s National Guard troops away from their families and regular jobs.
“For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control,” said the governor, who also noted that state, county and local law enforcement have been coordinating to ensure the safety of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Broadview facility on the outskirts of Chicago.
Trump also said last month that he was sending federal troops to Portland, Oregon, calling the city war-ravaged. But local officials have suggested that many of his claims and social media posts appear to rely on images from 2020, when demonstrations and unrest gripped the city following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
City and state officials sued to stop the deployment the next day. U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut heard arguments Friday, and a ruling is expected over the weekend.
Trump has federalized 200 National Guard troops in Oregon, but so far it does not appear that they have moved into Portland. They have been seen training on the coast in anticipation of a deployment.
President Donald Trump’s administration will withhold $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, the White House budget director said Friday, expanding funding fights that have targeted Democratic areas during the government shutdown.
The pause affects a long-awaited plan to extend the city’s Red Line train. The money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting,” budget director Russ Vought wrote on social media.
Vought made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York, where he said $18 billion for infrastructure would be paused, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
Trump, a Republican, has embraced Vought’s tactics. On Thursday night, he posted a video depicting him as the reaper, wearing a hood and holding a scythe.
Losing the money would be a significant setback for Chicago’s transportation plans. The Red Line extension is slated to add four train stops on the city’s South Side, improving access for disadvantaged communities.
In addition, a broader modernization project for the Red and Purple lines, which Vought said was also being targeted, is intended to upgrade stations and remove a bottleneck where different lines intersect.
In New York’s case, Trump’s Transportation Department said it had been reviewing whether any “unconstitutional practices” were occurring in the two massive infrastructure projects but that the government shutdown, which began Wednesday, had forced it to furlough the staffers conducting the review.
The suspension of funds for the Hudson River tunnel project and a Second Avenue subway line extension is likely meant to target Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, whom the White House is blaming for the impasse. The New York senator said the funding freeze would harm commuters.
“Obstructing these projects is stupid and counterproductive because they create tens of thousands of great jobs and are essential for a strong regional and national economy,” Schumer said on X.
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This story has been corrected to show $18 billion, not $18 million, was held in New York.
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Yara Afaneh was scrolling through her phone on the platform at the Loyola CTA Red Line station Tuesday afternoon when a man approached and said “excuse me miss.”
Afaneh, 23, didn’t look up, but when she noticed he wasn’t wearing shoes she said she got a bad feeling and started walking away. That was when she said the encounter allegedly turned violent.
“Out of nowhere he just punched me in the back of the head,” Afaneh told the Tribune Wednesday. “I still have a headache right now.”
A police spokesperson said the man — later identified as Derek Rucker, 37, of Blue Island — struck Afaneh with a closed fist. He was arrested Tuesday about 1:15 p.m. in the 1200 block of West Loyola Avenue and charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery, police said.
He is at least the second man in recent months to have been accused of randomly punching people in Chicago. Numerous people claim to have been victims of a “Loop puncher” in posts across social media, including Instagram, Reddit and TikTok, though it’s unclear how many perpetrators there are.
The video Afaneh posted on TikTok of the arrest of Rucker was viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Afaneh said she heard about similar assaults on social media, but didn’t expect it to happen to her.
“But once (the attack) happened, I guessed it was definitely (the Loop puncher),” she said.
Last month, CBS Chicago shared a story about two women who, in separate instances, had been allegedly punched by William Livingston in Lincoln Park and the Loop.Livingston was ordered held in Cook County Jail pending trial. Records show he’s pleaded not guilty to felony battery charges.
A Chicago Transit Authority spokesperson said in a statement that the “safety and security” of riders and employees is “top priority.”
“When CTA was alerted to this incident, we immediately pulled surveillance images to assist the Chicago Police Department with their investigation,” the statement said. “We also issued a bulletin to our security staff and law enforcement to be on the lookout to identify the suspected individual.”
So far this year, about 230 cases of assault or battery have been reported at CTA train platforms, according to city data. They are reported most frequently at Clark/Lake, 69th St. Red Line and 79th St. Red Line stops.
Cook County court records show Rucker has been arrested more than two dozen times in the last 20 years. Several judges have ordered mental health evaluations.
Rucker has faced charges of attacking police officers, Cook County jail personnel and hospital nurses, records show.
In 2014, he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery of a police officer and was sentenced to three years in prison. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to resisting a police officer and was sentenced to another year in prison.
Rucker pleaded guilty in 2024 to aggravated battery of a nurse, records show. In November, he was sentenced to a year of probation, but he was arrested again two weeks later after CPD officers allegedly saw him attacking a 62-year-old man in River North. Rucker was charged with battery, though the disposition of that case was not immediately clear.
The public defender’s office said it hadn’t been appointed to represent Rucker for the recent battery charges, as of Wednesday afternoon. It wasn’t clear if he had obtained another attorney. Rucker couldn’t be reached for comment.
After the punch, Afaneh said she immediately called 911, while her assailant went and sat on a nearby bench alone. She said the police showed up within about 10 minutes and arrested him. She decided not to go to the hospital, but still has a headache a day later, so that she might go for a check-up soon because she doesn’t “want to risk anything.”
Afaneh added that police later informed her that while Rucker was currently in the hospital, he would be released until his upcoming court date on Oct. 30. It was an update that Afaneh said made her “uncomfortable.”
“It kind of sucks because it’s like multiple people have said they went up to the police when he got arrested, and they told him I’ve seen him around Loyola, I’ve seen him around this neighborhood,” she said. “I stay around there, and I take the train every day to go to work, and now I just feel really uncomfortable.”
Savanna Wood, 30, also posted a now-viral TikTok video after she was allegedly punched in the face by a man at the Addison Red Line stop on Sept. 20 about 2 p.m. while on her way to Wrigleyville. Wood didn’t report the attack to the police. She said she was repeatedly disconnected when she called the non-emergency number.
When she stepped off the train and looked left to find the stairs to exit, a man punched her in the face, near her right eye. Wood’s siblings and boyfriend, who were with her, saw her fall backward and were “stunned for a moment,” she said.
Wood said she immediately left the platform because she didn’t want to provoke a further attack. The man — who was wearing a “bright yellow shirt” and “really baggy pants” and Wood described as “scruffy” and “very tall and large” — got on an incoming train. She was left with a black eye.
No one has been charged in her attack.
“It was the quickest and most subtle way of being attacked I probably could have ever dreamed of,” she said. “But it could have been significantly worse.”
While she encourages women to be alert, she wants people to understand that there’s sometimes not a lot someone can do to prevent an attack. Wood moved to Chicago a few months ago for a new job at Northwestern University.
“When you’re in crowded situations and someone’s walking toward you, it’s not even as if they’re approaching you, it’s that they’re walking past you. And that’s how easy it is for something like this to happen,” she said. “I’ve replayed this moment in my head 100 times, and there’s not a single thing I could have done to prevent it.”
For the first time since being elected in May, Pope Leo XIV waded into U.S. politics Tuesday, criticizing those who say they’re against abortion but support the death penalty, saying that’s “not really pro-life.”
Leo, a Chicago native, was asked late Tuesday about plans by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich to give a lifetime achievement award to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin for his work helping immigrants. The plans drew objection from some conservative U.S. bishops, given the powerful Democratic senator’s support for abortion rights.
Leo called first of all for respect for both sides, but he also pointed out the seeming contradiction in such debates.
“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Leo told reporters. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Leo, whose words echoed a common Catholic argument often made in discussions about abortion, spoke hours before Cupich announced that Durbin had declined the award.
“I am not terribly familiar with the particular case. I think it’s important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during, if I’m not mistaken, in 40 years of service in the United States Senate,” the pope told reporters on Tuesday in response to a question from EWTN News.
In his comments about the Illinois dispute, Leo made no mention of President Trump, whose administration has carried out a surge of immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.
Still, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt weighed in and disputed concerns raised by Pope Leo about the treatment of immigrants, saying that she “would reject there is inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration.”
The administration, Leavitt said, “is trying to enforce our nation’s laws in the most humane way possible.”
Church teaching forbids abortion, but it also opposes capital punishment as “inadmissible” under all circumstances. U.S. bishops and the Vatican have strongly called for humane treatment of migrants, citing the Biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”
Responding to a question in English from the U.S. Catholic broadcaster EWTN News, he said there were many ethical issues that constitute the teaching of the Catholic Church.
“I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them but I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics to say we need to you know really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward in this church. Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear,” he said.
Cupich was a close adviser to Pope Francis, who strongly upheld church teaching opposing abortion but also criticized the politicizing of the abortion debate by U.S. bishops. Some bishops had called for denying Communion to Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights, including former President Joe Biden.
Biden met on several occasions with Francis and told reporters in 2021 that Francis had told him to continue receiving Communion. During a visit to Rome that year, he received the sacrament during Mass at a church in Francis’ diocese.
Durbin was barred from receiving Communion in his home diocese of Springfield in 2004. Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki has continued the prohibition and was one of the U.S. bishops who strongly objected to Cupich’s decision to honor the senator. Cupich claims Durbin as a member of the Chicago Archdiocese, where Durbin also has a home.
In his statement announcing that Durbin would decline the award, Cupich lamented that the polarization in the U.S. has created a situation where U.S. Catholics “find themselves politically homeless” since neither the Republican nor the Democratic party fully encapsulates the breadth of Catholic teaching.
He defended honoring Durbin for his pro-immigration stance, and said the planned Nov. 3 award ceremony could have been an occasion to engage him and other political leaders with the hope of pressing the church’s view on other issues, including abortion.
“It could be an invitation to Catholics who tirelessly promote the dignity of the unborn, the elderly, and the sick to extend the circle of protection to immigrants facing in this present moment an existential threat to their lives and the lives of their families,” Cupich wrote.
Paprocki, for his part, thanked Durbin for declining the award. “I ask that all Catholics continue to pray for our church, our country, and for the human dignity of all people to be respected in all stages of life, including the unborn and immigrants,” Paprocki said in a Facebook post.
President Trump warned the country’s top ranking military officials Tuesday that they could be headed to “war” with U.S. citizens, signaling a major escalation in the ongoing legal battle over his authority to deploy soldiers to police American streets.
“What they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles — they’re very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one-by-one,” Trump said in an address to top brass in Quantico, Va. “That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.”
Commanders should use American cities as “training grounds,” the president said.
Trump’s words provoked instant pushback. Oregon has already filed a legal challenge, and experts expressed concern that what the president described is against the law.
“He is suggesting that they learn how to become warriors in American cities,” said Daniel C. Schwartz, former general counsel at the National Security Agency, who heads the legal team at National Security Leaders for America. “That should scare everybody. It’s also boldly illegal.”
The use of soldiers to assist with federal immigration raids and crowd control at protests and otherwise enforce civilian laws has been a point of contention with big city mayors and blue state governors for months, beginning with the deployment of thousands of federalized National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles in early June.
That deployment was illegal, a federal judge ruled last month. In a scorching 52-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer barred soldiers under Trump’s command from carrying out law enforcement duties across California, warning of a “national police force with the President as its chief.”
Yet hundreds of troops remained on the streets of Los Angeles while the matter was under litigation. With the case still moving through the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, hundreds more are now set to arrive in Portland, Ore., with another hundred reportedly enroute to Chicago — all over the objections of state and local leaders.
“Isolated threats to federal property should not be enough to warrant this kind of response,” said Eric J. Segall, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law. “The threat has to be really serious, and I don’t think the Trump administration has made that case.”
Others agreed.
“I’m tremendously worried,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. “Using the military for domestic law enforcement is something that’s characteristic of authoritarian regimes.”
Oregon’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Monday alleging the president had applied a “baseless, wildly hyperbolic pretext” to send in the troops. Officials in Illinois, where the Trump administration has made Chicago a focal point of immigration enforcement, are also poised to file a challenge.
Although the facts on the ground are different legally, the Oregon suit is a near copy-paste of the California battle making its way through the courts, experts said.
“That’s exactly the model that they’re following,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.
Unlike the controversial decision to send National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., in August, the Los Angeles and Portland deployments have relied on an esoteric subsection of the law, which allows the president to federalize troops over the objection of state governments in certain limited cases.
California’s challenge to those justifications has so far floundered in court, with the 9th Circuit finding in June that judges must be “highly deferential” to the president’s interpretation of facts on the ground. That case is under review by a larger panel of judges.
In a memo filed Monday, California Deputy Solicitor General Christopher D. Hu warned that the decision had emboldened the administration to deploy troops elsewhere, citing Portland as an example.
“Defendants apparently believe that the June 7 memorandum — issued in response to events in Los Angeles — indefinitely authorizes the deployment of National Guard troops anywhere in the country, for virtually any reason,” Hu wrote. “It is time to end this unprecedented experiment in militarized law enforcement and conscription of state National Guard troops outside the narrow conditions allowed by Congress.”
Experts warn the obscure 19th century law at the heart of the debate is vague and “full of loopholes,” worrying some who see repeated deployment as a slippery slope to widespread, long-term military occupations.
“That has not been our experience at least since the Civil War,” Schwartz said. “If we become accustomed to seeing armed uniformed service personnel in our cities, we risk not objecting to it, and when we stop objecting to it, it becomes a norm.”
The joint address to military leaders in Virginia on Tuesday further stoked those fears.
“We’re under invasion from within,” the president admonished generals and admirals gathered in the auditorium. “No different from a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”
He touted the move in August to create a “quick reaction force” to “quell civil disturbances” — a decree folded into his executive order expanding the D.C. troop deployment.
“George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, George Bush and others all used the armed forces to keep domestic order and peace,” Trump said. “Now they like to say, oh, you’re not allowed to use the military.”
Those historic cases have some important differences with 2025, experts say.
When President Cleveland sent troops to break up a railroad strike and tamp down mob violence against Chinese immigrants, he invoked the Insurrection Act. So did 15 other presidents, including Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush.
Experts stress that Trump has pointedly not used the act, despite name-checking it often in his first term.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday largely avoided the theme of “enemies within,” instead extolling the “warrior ethos” at the heart of his military reform project. He railed against what he saw as the corrupted culture of the modern military — as well as its aesthetic shortcomings.
“It’s tiring to look out at combat formations and see fat troops,” Hegseth said. “It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon. It’s a bad look.”
As deployments multiply across the country, experts said they were watching what the appellate division and ultimately the Supreme Court will decide.
“It will be a test for the Supreme Court,” Schwartz said. “Whether they are willing to continue to allow this president to do whatever he wants to do in clear violation of constitutional principles, or whether they will restrain him.”
Federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter onto the rooftops of Chicago residential buildings, launching a sweeping immigration enforcement operation targeting suspected Tren de Aragua gang members, according to NewsNation.
The operation, led by ICE with support from the FBI and U.S. Border Patrol, was designed to apprehend high-priority targets connected to the Venezuelan crime syndicate that U.S. authorities have accused of trafficking, violence, and other cross-border crimes.
His administration is ramping up immigration enforcement operations in Chicago after he threatened to deploy the National Guard to quell crime in the city.
What To Know
Nearly 300 federal agents and officers descended upon a five-story apartment complex in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, where U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino has claimed members of Tren de Aragua have been operating, according to NewsNation.
The outlet reported that roughly 30 undocumented immigrants were taken into custody, several of them suspected of gang affiliation.
Bovino told NewsNation that the operation proceeded “very smoothly” after federal officers and agents spent several days training for the targeted enforcement effort. Bovino, who is overseeing the ongoing operation in Chicago, added that residents of the South Side should expect an increased federal presence in the area.
“Midway Blitz was launched to remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens—including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists—from Chicago communities,” A DHS spokesperson told Newsweek.
Under the Trump administration, immigration enforcement in the city has proceeded through Operation Midway Blitz, which focuses on individuals in the country without legal status who also have criminal records or pending charges.
The initiative was launched following the death of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old Illinois College student killed in a hit-and-run.
The operations have sparked protests from immigrant advocacy groups and drawn criticism from state Democratic officials, who have expressed concern over the enforcement tactics used in residential communities.
What People Are Saying
A DHS spokesperson told Newsweek: “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, nowhere is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.”
Bovino told NewsNation: “We’re going to be taking it to those violent gang members and illegal aliens.”
“What I have been warning of is now being realized,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said at a news conference on Monday. “One thing is clear. None of what Trump is doing is making Illinois safer.”
What Happens Next
Chicago is expected to see an increased federal presence with more Border Patrol and ICE agents due to arrive in the city.
As federal agents hurled tear gas and pepper spray through the night sky at protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Broadview, the Rev. Quincy Worthington threw his arms out and used his body to shield those around him. Breathing through his own gas mask, the north suburban Presbyterian minister, who was wearing a clerical collar, hugged whoever he could and dragged them away from the fray.
His forearms burning from the pepper spray bullets, Worthington secured medical help, located water and, for the most part, listened to those protesting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the area.
“People just need to know that somebody’s there for them,” he said.
With escalating federal immigration enforcement operations across Chicago and its suburbs, and President Donald Trump’s threats of sending the National Guard to quell crime, tension and fear have gripped those opposed to his administration and its “Operation Midway Blitz,” which officials say has resulted in more than 550 immigration arrests in the Chicago area this month.
Trump’s actions have prompted everyday citizens to confront immigration agents during arrests, activists to hold weekly news conferences and dozens of demonstrations and rallies to spring up on street corners and plazas, with the protest outside the ICE Broadview facility a flashpoint in a weekly standoff against federal agents, who fired baton rounds and tear gas at protesters for the third Friday in a row last week.
Faith leaders are on the front lines with demonstrators. They are not only attending rallies and protests, they’re providing resources and offering safe spaces for people to gather, worship and counsel one another — that support felt nowhere more so than in the Latino community, which has borne the brunt of Trump’s enforcement operations.
‘Missionaries of hope’
The Rev. Carmelo Mendez walked shoulder to shoulder with congregants Wednesday night in a procession for migrants through the city. For nearly 3 miles, Mendez — pastor of St. Oscar Romero Catholic Church — and about 50 mostly Latino parishioners strode along narrow sidewalks and through quiet street corners as they made their way from St. Michael the Archangel Church in Back of the Yards to St. Rita of Cascia in Chicago Lawn.
Each step, Mendez said as he walked, moved them closer toward their goal: hope.
“(Our) main role is just to accompany them,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do to change their status. But we give them support. … As a pastor, as a shepherd, that’s (the message I’d) really like to convey.”
Around him, congregants sang hymns, their voices playing over the hum of cars driving by and the crunch of gravel beneath sneakers. Some parishioners clutched rosary beads, reciting prayers in low tones to themselves.
Jaqueline Estrada, from left, her mother, Angelica Perez, and father, David Estrada, kneel while praying for migrants at Mary Mother of Mercy Parish in the West Lawn neighborhood as part of an observance of National Migration Week by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Sept. 24, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
People walk in a procession for migrants from St. Oscar Romero in the New City neighborhood to St. Rita of Cascia in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood as part of an observance of National Migration Week by the Archdiocese of Chicago on Sept. 24, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
People pray at St. Rita of Cascia in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood after walking in a procession for migrants from St. Oscar Romero in the New City neighborhood during an observance of National Migration Week by the Archdiocese of Chicago on Sept. 24, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
People walk in a procession for migrants from St. Oscar Romero in the New City neighborhood to St. Rita of Cascia in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood as part of an observance of National Migration Week by the Archdiocese of Chicago on Sept. 24, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
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Jaqueline Estrada, from left, her mother, Angelica Perez, and father, David Estrada, kneel while praying for migrants at Mary Mother of Mercy Parish in the West Lawn neighborhood as part of an observance of National Migration Week by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Sept. 24, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
Jose Trejo walked arm in arm with his mother and father. Together, they teetered between optimism and unease.
“As you might see, the majority of the people here are Hispanic. … So I feel like a lot of us are walking with hope to continue moving forward but also with a little bit of fear,” the 28-year-old Back of the Yards resident said. But making the trek with his family — and carrying on a religious tradition despite the anxieties — is empowering, he said.
Over the past few weeks, Jacqueline Ramirez has leaned on her faith. Ramirez, who just started her freshman year at DePaul University, took part in the procession with her mom. She has always considered herself close to God, the 18-year-old said, but especially at this time, she’s relied on “having that belief that nothing bad is going to happen and just praying for my people.”
Ramirez said she was thankful for the chance to be with her community in a different way. For Mendez, he said it was humbling and an honor to be there.
After all, he’s an immigrant himself.
The Wednesday procession was part of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s observance of National Migrant Week — which the U.S. Catholic Church has celebrated for 45 years — that culminates Sunday with a 5:15 p.m. Mass in nine languages at Holy Name Cathedral downtown.
The archdiocese’s immigration ministry and parishes have been offering services like Mass, rosary prayer and holy hour, and free resources like legal immigration consultations, as well as labor rights, mental health and “Know Your Rights” workshops.
The weeklong celebration events have shared the theme of the Vatican’s upcoming World Day of Migrants and Refugees, “Migrants, missionaries of hope,” which Chicago’s own Pope Leo XIV says reflects “their courage and tenacity” that “bear heroic testimony” to their faith.
“Our migrant brothers and sisters are not strangers; they are family in Christ,” said Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, in a Monday news release highlighting National Migrant Week. “They enrich our Church and serve as a reminder that the gospel knows no borders and that God’s love is for all people.”
Bishop Tim O’Malley of the archdiocese, based in Lake County and pastor at Most Blessed Trinity Parish in Waukegan, said he still writes letters in support of community members seeking residency or citizenship, and the parish continues offering a food pantry for groceries and hot meals at their soup kitchen every week, as well as counseling to spiritually “walk with them.”
He has been at the parish since 2018, he said. “I have not seen so much concern over immigration issues until now,” he added, from U.S. citizens and undocumented migrants alike.
On Sept. 20, a morning after federal agents violently clashed with protesters in Broadview, hundreds marched from downtown North Chicago to the entrance of the Naval Station Great Lakes base, which the Trump administration asked for support on immigration operations.
Representatives from seven congregations of multiple faiths — including the rabbi of a Reform Jewish synagogue, a Catholic priest from Chicago, and reverends of a suburban Unitarian Church and a Presbyterian Church — offered prayers outside the station.
Rabbi Ike Serotta of Makom Solel Lakeside in Highland Park said a vast majority of Americans came to the United States seeking refuge in some form, and he sees those being arrested as refugees, like members of his family once were.
“My ancestors were refugees,” Serotta said. “Unfortunately, some did not come soon enough and were killed in the Holocaust. The people I encounter are seeking asylum. They are going through the legal process.”
Rabbi Ike Serotta, of Makom Solel Lakeside in Highland Park, blows a shofar during a peaceful protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and federal actions against immigrants at Great Lakes Naval Station on Sept. 20, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Being present
At a peaceful rally in suburban Melrose Park earlier this month, Roberto Moreno, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in nearby Franklin Park — where an ICE agent fatally shot an undocumented father, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, after a traffic stop Sept. 12 — carried a sign with a big red heart and the words “No human being is illegal.” A child had drawn cherubs holding ribbons asking for “Más amor” — more love.
“There has been a rush of fear over the whole community,” Moreno told the Tribune in Spanish. There are fewer congregants in attendance, he said, as residents “feel a lot of dread about simply going outside.”
Moreno came to the United States in 2007 from a small town near Comayagua in Honduras, fleeing cartel violence after one of his brothers was murdered. Like many immigrants, he said, he crossed the southern border. It then took him years to go through the long process of obtaining documents.
“I’ve faced the same challenges: the language, the culture — all those challenges fellow migrants experience and live,” he said. “Eso lo conozco en carne propia. I know that in my own flesh.”
After a vigil following Villegas-Gonzalez’s death, Moreno heard a knock on the church’s door, followed by footsteps. He poked his head out from his office to welcome the visitor. It was one of the schoolteachers who taught Villegas-Gonzalez’s son.
She started crying, he recalled.
“Thanks for coming out,” Moreno said the elderly teacher told him. “I came here to this church because I was at the vigil, and I left feeling so affected because I breathed in love, I breathed in hope, I breathed in the grace of God. Now the teachers at school want to offer our help to your church, to support you in everything you’re doing.”
Roberto Moreno, pastor at Franklin Park United Methodist Church, marches during a walk protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement organized by P.A.S.O West Suburban Action Project and other community organizations, Sept. 16, 2025, in Melrose Park. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
The suburban United Methodist Church is part of the area’s rapid response team, which deploys when there are sightings of federal immigration operations to be present and support the people being affected. Some congregants in the church are also helping families by taking their children to and from school.
“The only way for us to be the church of Christ, in these times, is letting the world know that we are here,” Moreno said. “I firmly believe that the church and faith leaders today, more than ever, have to be present where there is a need.”
Earlier this month, on a Monday morning, calls for “faith over fear” echoed across Daley Plaza as some 50 people gathered to protest heightened immigration operations in a rally led by leaders from the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, or IMAN, New Life Centers and Live Free Illinois. Other Chicago clergy and religious figures spoke to the crowd that day, including the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham.
Tariq El-Amin, a resident imam at the Masjid Al Taqwa mosque on Chicago’s Southeast Side, spoke at the Sept. 8 rally downtown.
“We’re not going to be overwhelmed by what we see, what we think to be overwhelming odds,” El-Amin said. “We’ll remind ourselves that we’re not alone.”
Their presence is powerful, says Jessica Darrow.
For the past month, Darrow, a professor at the University of Chicago who lives in Logan Square, has traveled to Broadview to protest. Darrow, 54, considers herself a longtime activist, between advocating in the pro-immigrant space to campus organizing. But nothing could have prepared her for “what it would be like to come face to face with these ICE agents,” she said.
She’s been grateful, though, to have faith leaders beside her.
“To see clergy with their collars, to see rabbis coming dressed in identifiable clothing just so that the people around them can have courage and feel their support and love … I’ve just found that to be incredibly moving,” she said. “And brave.”
Ana Nikolic has been a consistent presence outside Broadview, not to protest, but to support families with loved ones detained inside the facility.
An independent chaplain for a decade now, Nikolic’s mission, she said, is just to help people. These days, that has entailed knocking on the doors of the detention facility seeking insight for families of detainees, she said.
But it has also involved advocating for peace as protests persist outside the building. Heightened tensions, Nikolic says, have made it more difficult to work with federal agents and get loved ones the information they need.
“We’re pretty much the bridge (connecting) them,” she said.
Worthington, the Presbyterian minister who has tried to shield protesters, said what he has seen in Broadview has been both devastating and heartbreaking. But he’s tried to stand his ground as a calming presence through the disquiet.
A few years ago, Worthington was part of a group of ministers that traveled to Texas and Mexico to see how U.S. immigration policies were being implemented in real-time. Since then, and since he’s taken on a ministry in the north suburbs’ large immigrant community, he’s developed an intimate understanding of “what (their) everyday life looks like and the struggles they go through.”
Through the latest immigration crackdown, he’s spent a lot of time praying, he said, and looking for guidance.
“What is the right response?” he said. “Where do I need to be?”
Chicago Tribune’s Cam’ron Hardy and Lake County News-Sun freelancer Steve Sadin contributed.
We’re exploring three restaurants you should visit this autumn. We take a trip to Chicago to visit a neighborhood hangout highlighting local produce, and we travel to New York’s Hudson Valley, where one chef has restored a space almost as old as the nation for her wood-fired cuisine. Watch these stories and more on The Dish.
Officers found an 18-year-old man, who had suffered a gunshot wound to his head, unresponsive in the street, police said. He was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Officers also found a 27-year-old woman, who had been shot in the arm. She was taken to the same hospital in good condition.
Police recovered four guns from the scene.
There is no one is in custody, and Area Three detectives are investigating.
Police did not immediately provide further information about the shooting.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s City Council struggles showed up again Thursday, this time in the form of a ticking clock and empty chairs.
The mayor had hoped to reshuffle the council members who hold the reins of the body’s powerful committees. But hours after aldermen were set to meet and vote on the matter, they were still buzzing around City Hall’s backrooms — a sign that the deal Johnson wanted was falling apart.
His reorganization plan ultimately never came up for a vote Thursday as aldermen met for the first time since July to hammer through a backload of policy.
Johnson could not satisfy the thorniest question in Chicago politics, posed this time by the council’s Black Caucus and Latino Caucus: “Where’s mine?”
The mayor had planned to give five aldermen various promotions to fill holes left by the retirement of close ally former Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. But the fragile plan his administration had tried to sell aldermen on Wednesday fell apart, leaving dozens of spectators in the City Council chambers waiting for hours as negotiations continued, to no avail, up on the Fifth Floor.
When aldermen finally began meeting, they quickly and unceremoniously approved the appointment of Walter “Red” Burnett to lead the 27th Ward. The 29-year-old took the City Council seat held for almost three decades by his now-retired father.
But a broader re-shuffling got shelved. Several aldermen on Wednesday said Johnson wanted to make progressive Ald. Daniel La Spata chair of the powerful Zoning Committee.
Ald. Andre Vásquez, 40th, would then have taken La Spata’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee chairmanship, while Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, would have snagged Vásquez’s spot leading the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Committee, multiple sources said Wednesday.
Veteran Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, would have become Johnson’s vice mayor, and Ald. David Moore, 17th, would have taken Mitts’ position as chair of the Contracting Oversight and Equity Committee.
None of that got voted on Thursday, and council members said Johnson couldn’t line up the votes as Black and Latino aldermen told him they felt like they got short shrift in the plan.
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And Alds. XXX and XXX used a legislative maneuver to delay a vote on an ordinance to legalize video gambling terminals in Chicago bars and restaurants.
The ordinance sponsored by Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, took a surprise move forward in a committee vote earlier this week without Johnson’s support. The Thursday delay could tee aldermen up to cast a years-in-the-making vote on the terminals next month.
Top Johnson financial officials cast cold water on the potential profitability of the gambling machines in a July presentation to aldermen, though legalization has won support from the ally the mayor tasked with leading the City Council search for new revenue, Ald. William Hall, 6th.
With a key ally out of the City Council, Mayor Brandon Johnson plans to switch up the aldermen who hold the body’s power levers.
Johnson administration officials are lobbying aldermen with a plan to install a progressive Zoning Committee chair while winning over the council’s powerful ethnic caucuses with upgrades of their own.
But the final result of the mayor’s push to reassign chairmanships remains in question, aldermen said Wednesday.
“I don’t think it’s a done deal until it’s in writing, passed by committee and passed by the full City Council,” Ald. Daniel La Spata said at City Hall Wednesday. “I’ve seen too many things go sideways when actual voting happens.”
La Spata, 1st, confirmed that Johnson’s administration hopes to make him chair of the powerful Zoning Committee. That would make the Northwest Side progressive known for his interest in urban planning perhaps the biggest winner of the shake-up.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, left, and Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, bump fists on Sept. 23, 2025, during an event in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Ald. Andre Vásquez, 40th, would then take La Spata’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee chairmanship, while Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, would snag Vásquez’s spot leading the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Committee, multiple sources said.
To finish off the dizzying line of trade-ups, veteran Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, would become Johnson’s vice mayor, and Ald. David Moore, 17th, would take Mitt’s position as chair of the Contracting Oversight and Equity Committee.
Moore said he pushed for the Black Caucus to get more seats. The South Side alderman said he believes chairmanship choices should be made by aldermen themselves and determined by seniority.
“I don’t agree with everything,” he said. “It’s not perfect, but I am going to support it. And I’m not just going to support it because I’m being appointed.”
Moore said he thinks the plan would pass.
He added Wednesday afternoon that he only heard from the Johnson administration asking if he’d be interested in taking a seat “about three hours ago,” a sign of the fast-moving negotiations over the seat swapping.
“This thing is always fluid,” Moore said.
Johnson struggled for months to fill the Zoning Committee seat after former Ald. Carlos Ramírez-Rosa, now Johnson’s Park District superintendent, resigned his position amid controversy.
Some aldermen were less sure of the much-speculated plans Wednesday morning. Johnson opponent Ald. Silvana Tabares, 23rd, said she didn’t expect the slate would be set till Thursday morning.
The moves were sparked by the resignation of former Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. Johnson appointed Burnett’s son, Walter Redmond “Red” Burnett, to fill his vacated 27th Ward seat.
The vice mayoralty is a largely ceremonial role — unless the mayor dies or vacates office — but comes with a $400,000 budget under Johnson, who benefited from Burnett serving as a loyal ally throughout his term. But that hefty line item could be a target during the upcoming 2026 budget fight where tough cuts must almost certainly be explored.
Meanwhile, the powerful zoning chairmanship controls critical legislation related to development and other land-use issues in Chicago. Johnson did not campaign against aldermanic prerogative — the de facto practice of deferring to the presiding alderman when it comes to projects within their ward — but has recently moved toward trying to undermine it amid some affordable housing and upzoning fights, so he will need a zoning chair he can trust to shepherd his agenda.
In the same Rules Committee meeting Thursday morning where aldermen are slated to weigh Johnson’s reorganization plan, they are also set to vote on and approve Burnett’s appointment.
