Tag: Chicago
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Sky GM expects Angel Reese to stay despite late-season rift
(Photo credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images)
Chicago Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca said Friday the franchise is preparing for star forward Angel Reese to be on the roster next season despite a rocky finish to the 2025 campaign that saw the All-Star suspended and sidelined.
Reese, 22, missed the final two games of the year with what the team called a back injury after being issued a half-game suspension on Sept. 7 for criticizing the organization in an interview. She apologized to teammates, but frustration over the Sky’s direction lingered with fans late in the season.
‘Angel is an ascending young talent in this league who’s had two very, very good seasons here in Chicago,’ Pagliocca said Friday. ‘Obviously we went through what we did. I feel like we closed the chapter on it. She spoke to her teammates, she spoke publicly. We moved on as a team. She’s a special player. And I have good conversations with Angel daily, with her team daily. They’re constant, and they’re productive.’
Reese led Chicago with 14.7 points and 12.6 rebounds per game this season, pacing the WNBA in rebounding and double-doubles (23 in 30 games). But the Sky finished tied with the Dallas Wings for the worst record in the league at 10-34 — just one year after going 13-27 and parting ways with coach Teresa Weatherspoon.
Current coach Tyler Marsh and Pagliocca both have pledged changes to improve the roster, but the Sky don’t have their 2026 first-round pick because they swapped it to the league-leading Minnesota Lynx prior to the 2025 draft.
–Field Level Media
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Driver shot, killed by ICE agent in Chicago suburb
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a driver Friday in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park, authorities said. Surveillance video showed the incident occurring during a vehicle stop. Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports.
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Trump scraps plans to send National Guard to Chicago for now, says they’re going to Memphis instead
In an interview on “Fox and Friends” Friday morning, President Trump said he is no longer sending the National Guard to Chicago, saying instead that they’ll be deployed to Memphis, Tennessee.
The White House has been sending mixed signals over whether they would be sending troops to Chicago for some time, even as immigration activity has ramped up under the banner of “Operation Midway Blitz.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump appeared to already be backtracking on plans to send the guard to Chicago, saying he would be announcing he’d be sending troops to another city “very shortly.” He appeared to make that announcement on the Fox News morning show Friday.
“I’ll be the first to say it now, we’re going to Memphis,” the president said. “I would have preferred going to Chicago.”
Mr. Trump then said he had spoken to a man he refused to name but said is the president of Union Pacific railroad, who told him he should send the National Guard to Memphis instead. The president said this man told him when he visited Memphis he was not allowed to even walk a single block and instead had to be driven in armored vehicles because the city is so unsafe.
The CEO of Union Pacific is Jim Vena; the company’s most recent president, Beth Whited, stepped down at the beginning of July and the company doesn’t list a replacement.
The president appeared to still be considering sending troops to Chicago one day, saying the same executive told him not to “lose” the city.
“He said ‘Don’t lose Chicago,’” Mr. Trump told the “Fox and Friends” hosts. “‘You’re gonna lose Chicago, sir. It’s a great city. You’re gonna lose Chicago.’”
The president did not say what he, or the executive, meant by saying he would “lose” Chicago. He also lashed out at Gov. JB Pritzker, calling him “loud” and once again claiming crime in Chicago is “out of control” as he spoke about shooting numbers.
Pritzker has vocally opposed having the National Guard deployed to Chicago. As rumors swirled of a deployment he warned Mr. Trump, “Do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here, nor needed here.”
This past weekend, Pritzker responded to Trump’s “Chipocalypse Now” post on his Truth Social account with a post on X, writing, “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”
Friday morning, Pritzker tweeted in response to the Memphis news, “It’s disturbing that the President is hellbent on sending troops onto America’s streets. Using those who serve in uniform as political props is insulting. None of this is normal.”
In his “Fox and Friends” appearance, Trump claimed the deployment of the National Guard to Memphis had the support of both Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, and Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat.
Young released a statement Thursday, writing in part, “I am committed to working to ensure any efforts strengthen our community and build on our progress. We agree with Governor Lee that effective support for Memphis comes through focused initiatives that deliver results like we have seen with the FBI, state troopers, and other law enforcement partnerships. What we need most are financial resources for intervention and prevention, additional patrol officers, and case support to strengthen MPD’s investigations.”
CBS News Chicago has reached out to the White House for comment and is waiting to hear back.
Sara Tenenbaum
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Toxic Legacy: How Lead in Schools Is Silently Harming Black Kids
Dionna Brown was two weeks shy of her 15th birthday when her world turned upside-down. An outstanding public high school student in Flint, Michigan, with a report card most of her peers would envy, she suddenly began to struggle in the classroom for no obvious reason.
“I was in AP and honors classes — straight-A student,” she recalls. “Then all of a sudden, I couldn’t remember things. I couldn’t concentrate.”
Rushed to the hospital, doctors pinpointed the problem: tests revealed elevated levels of lead, a potent neurotoxin, in Brown’s blood. In high enough concentrations, lead can cause permanent brain damage, lower IQ, learning disabilities — and even death.
Without knowing it, Brown became one of the many young victims of the Flint water crisis. But her story is being repeated in cities across the country.
For generations, America’s crumbling infrastructure has quietly poisoned its most vulnerable populations. From peeling paint in public housing to unsafe water pipes beneath city streets, lead has lingered long before and after its federal ban in 1978.
But while the government has taken action against lead exposure in homes, experts say its impact in our schools remains overlooked.
In January, the issue made headlines again when a child attending a Milwaukee public school tested positive for elevated lead blood levels. The discovery triggered emergency inspections and forced at least four other schools in the district to close temporarily.
Subsequent data found that children in cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Chicago also face disproportionately high levels of lead exposure in schools. Cleveland topped the list, with nearly 9% of children under the age of six showing signs of elevated lead levels in their blood.
“Once a child is exposed to lead, the impacts are irreversible,” says Dr. Denae King, Associate Director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University. “There’s not a lot you can do to undo that damage — and it’s still happening.”
These cities share more than aging infrastructure: they also serve large Black K-12 student populations, often in racially segregated neighborhoods. And even Flint, whose water crisis made national news, still hasn’t fully established safe drinking water for its children.
While Milwaukee’s crisis may feel like the beginning for some, the poisoning of Black communities by lead — especially in schools — began long before 2025.
Today, Brown, now the National Youth Director of Young, Gifted, & Green, a non-profit organization, has spent years fighting for environmental justice. But what still haunts her the most is how little has changed.
“That was over a decade ago,” she says. “And we’re still here. Kids are still being poisoned in our schools and communities.”
Schools Built to Fail?
Nationwide, more than 38% of public K-12 schools were built before 1970, well before the government banned the use of lead-based paint. Many of the schools were built to serve Black students in underfunded, segregated neighborhoods, and these aging buildings often contain lead service lines, contaminating the water that flows into cafeteria faucets and hallway water fountains.
According to a 2022 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Black children face higher levels of early lead exposure. The report found that exposure was linked to significantly lower standardized test scores in fourth-grade reading and math compared to their white peers.
“Most of the Black kids we’re talking about attend schools built before the ban,” King says. “That means many of them are still walking into buildings that are not only failing structurally, but failing them academically, too.”
The Educational Cost
King explains that the root of the lead crisis in schools often begins underground, with lead service lines — city-owned pipes that deliver water from municipal systems to homes, businesses, and schools.
“Most cities still have lead service lines,” she says. “So it’s no surprise students are being exposed. She adds that even if a school updates its internal plumbing, “students remain at risk” if city pipes aren’t upgraded.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even low levels of lead exposure in children can cause irreversible damage, including reduced IQ, learning disabilities, developmental delays, and behavioral problems.
“The data is very consistent when we think about learning and cognitive ability with lead exposure in children ages zero to six,” King adds. “By the time you get to first or third grade, you start to see the results of that early exposure.”
Just as striking as the exposure itself is the uneven response.
In wealthier districts, King says, active parent-teacher organizations (PTOs), can quickly raise money for water filtration systems. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in predominantly Black or low-income communities, where PTOs and other resources are underfunded or absent altogether.
Who Should Be Held Accountable?
Cleveland, Ohio, currently leads the nation in childhood lead exposure, with more than 8% of children younger than age 6 testing positive for elevated blood lead levels. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) serves a student population that is 64% Black.
When asked about lead in students’ blood, CMSD told Word In Black they’re “concerned” about the health hazard and will “continue to strongly support the work done by the City of Cleveland and the Lead Safe Coalition to identify and remediate lead in our neighborhoods.”
While the school district did not directly address the problem, Dr. David Margolius, the city’s director of public health, says school systems aren’t entirely to blame.
“This is the fault of the generations of disinvestment in housing and public infrastructure in poor communities — which leads to exposure in the first place,” he says.
However, both King and Brown say the problem is nuanced.
“There are different levels of accountability that include the municipality and homeowners,” King says. “But on the school side, they are responsible for ensuring their campuses are safe. You send your child to school expecting they’ll be protected, not poisoned.”
She also adds that parents are often left in the dark.
“Many parents have shared that they are concerned that their children are not learning at the same level as other students in their classes,” she says. “And I am surprised that schools don’t do a better job of educating parents about the risk of lead exposure and that they don’t provide wraparound services once a child has been exposed.”
Brown agrees: “Schools still have a responsibility. Kids spend 8-plus hours in school buildings every day.”
Moreover, federal programs intended to address the crisis have faltered. While the Biden administration’s Infrastructure and Jobs Act was designed to fund the replacement of lead service lines, access to the resources remains inconsistent across cities, often leaving underfunded and de facto segregated school districts behind.
“There’s no agency that owns the problem,” Margolius adds. “There’s no one taking ownership for how to fix this at the federal level. That’s the real issue.”
Making matters worse, the CDC recently laid off its entire childhood lead poisoning prevention staff, shifting responsibility to the newly formed Administration for a Healthy America under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Experts are concerned about whether the federal government is prepared to meet a crisis of this scale.
Communities as First Responders
Houston offers a glimpse of what’s possible. There, the Bullard Center and community groups are training parents and neighborhood leaders to identify lead hazards and demand answers from school officials.
King also encouraged students to write letters to the district. She said systems have begun to respond.
Community groups “did all the education themselves,” she says. “We trained them on what lead looks like, how it’s affecting their children, and then they got out there and educated others. The community stepped up where the system failed.”
Back in Cleveland, Margolius hopes to see a similar momentum, but on a national level.
“Keeping these stories alive in the media and community discussions is essential. Without sustained attention, the crisis will quietly continue.”
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Quintessa Williams, Word in Black
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Former ICE chief reveals what to expect from major Chicago immigration operation
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As “Operation Midway Blitz” launches in the Chicago area this week, former acting ICE Chief Jonathan Fahey explains that Americans can expect “known targets” to be the focus on the sweep.
ICE has been ramping up its mass deportation efforts since President Donald Trump took office in January, including in large cities such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. In recent weeks, Trump has expressed interest in cracking down on crime in the Windy City, after a multi-agency surge in the nation’s capital has led to a decrease in crime and hundreds of immigration-related arrests.
“I think it’s going to be very targeted towards a lot of people with criminal records either that have been let out of jail and maybe have been convicted or let out of jail pending trial,” Fahey said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson push back on Trump’s plan to send National Guard and boost ICE enforcement in Chicago. (Getty Images/Scott Olson)
The Homeland Security expert added that because both Los Angeles and Chicago are considered sanctuary cities, there could be similarities. Fahey said it’s likely that “the focus is going be criminals, gang members and things of that nature.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE
“It doesn’t mean when they arrest somebody, if they’re with a bunch of other people that are here illegally, those people are gonna get locked up as well,” he continued.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have been adamantly opposed to a federal surge in the city.
TOM HOMAN PUTS SANCTUARY CITIES ‘ON NOTICE’ AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CRACKS DOWN ON IMMIGRATION
Residents surround federal and Border Patrol agents who plan their escape after an immigrant raid on Atlantic Blvd. in Bell, California, on June 19, 2025. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“The City of Chicago received no notice of any enhanced immigration action by the Trump administration,” Johnson posted to X. “We remain opposed to any potential militarized immigration enforcement without due process because of ICE’s track record of detaining and deporting American citizens and violating the human rights of hundreds of detainees.”
In a statement from DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Tuesday, she said the “operation will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago.”
Fahey said that Monday’s Supreme Court temporary ruling shooting down a California district court judge on ICE’s patrolling strategy in Los Angeles, could send a legal message to Illinois Democrats.
“I think it could help them legally. I don’t think it will change what they’re doing, but it could maybe prevent some sort of injunction or other type of thing,” he said, as the Supreme Court’s stay on a temporary restraining order only applies to Southern California.
LOS ANGELES JUDGE WEIGHS SEVERE LIMITS ON TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT IN CALIFORNIA
Sheriff deputies stand among tear gas during a “No Kings” movement protest in the one-square mile area where daily protests have been occurring in response to a series of federal immigration raids on June 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)
McLaughlin called the stay a “win for the safety of Californians and the rule of law,” whereas the American Civil Liberties Union considered it deeply concerning.
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“This decision is a devastating setback for our plaintiffs and communities who, for months, have been subjected to immigration stops because of the color of their skin, occupation, or the language they speak,” Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said in a statement Monday.
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KAI’s KAION Show In Chicago Was Pure Chaos (In The Best Way)
The Rosemont Theatre in Chicago was packed to the rafters on September 4, and for good reason! KAI (best known as the main dancer of K-Pop juggernaut EXO) was in town for his solo KAION tour, and the energy in the venue could have powered the entire city. Fans (known as EXO-Ls) filled every seat, armed with light sticks and lungs of steel. You know what? The show felt like a holy trinity of S’s: screams, sweat, and sensuality. From the moment the lights dimmed, the decibel level shot through the roof. It was so loud at times that people literally covered their ears, only to burst into laughter and cheers moments later. And on stage, KAI was already drenched in passion and perspiration just a few songs in, gliding across the stage with the fluid grace of a panther.
When The Crowd Goes Wild
If there was ever any doubt about KAI’s star power, the Chicago crowd put it to rest. The roar that greeted him could probably be heard from down the street. Every time he struck a pose or flashed a smile, the fans responded with ear-splitting screams. It wasn’t just noise for noise’s sake: it was pure adoration. At points, the high-pitched shrieks were so intense that even die-hard fans found themselves momentarily covering their ears. (Imagine a sound so ecstatic you’re physically overwhelmed by it.) But truth be told, no one really minded. The louder the crowd got, the wider KAI’s grin grew, fueling a feedback loop of excitement!
KAI kicked off the night with ‘Sinner,’ plunging the theater into a frenzy right off the bat. From there, he launched into a string of solo hits spanning his three-year discography. Sensual R&B-infused tracks like ‘Mmmh’ and ‘Peaches’ had the audience in a vice grip. At one point, as KAI smoothly body-rolled and slid across the stage during ‘Mmmh,’ countless fans could be seen covering their eyes with their hands…while definitely peeking through their fingers. It was that kind of show: equal parts sultry and playful, where you might blush and scream at the same time. During high-energy hits like ‘Rover,’ the entire theater shook with synchronized fan chants and jumping. Even sitting down was impossible; the collective adrenaline had everyone on their feet, dancing and singing along as if they were part of the act.
Between musical segments, slick VCR interludes played on the big screens, giving both KAI and the crowd a breather while he changed outfits. Each visual was stylish and thematic, building anticipation for the next act without ever distracting from the live performance. It was a thoughtful touch that made the concert feel almost cinematic, yet still all about the music and the man on stage!
Image Source: Courtesy of SM Entertainment Sweat, Tears, And Leather Jackets
By the midpoint of the concert, it was clear KAI was giving everything he had and then some. He was practically pouring sweat on the stage, and even a few (happy) tears had made an appearance. Dressed in one eye-catching outfit after another, he performed intricate choreography with a precision that left him visibly winded and shirt thoroughly soaked. In fact, one of his all-black ensembles (complete with leather pants and a jacket worn open to reveal his chiseled abs) nearly caused a meltdown in the crowd. When KAI cheekily asked the audience which outfit was their favorite, the answer was obvious from the deafening cheers. He playfully feigned surprise when fans screamed for the shirtless look, then, with a laugh, he zipped his jacket up and told everyone to “chill out” with a laugh, a lighthearted scolding that only made the screams grow louder.
Physically, KAI joked that he was exhausted (and who could blame him?). After back-to-back dance breaks, he took a moment during a ment to catch his breath and ask the crowd, “Are you guys tired yet?” The crowd answered with a resounding “No!”, prompting him to quip in response, “Of course you’re not tired, you’re all full of energy!” He said it with a grin, hands on hips, as thousands of fans laughed. It was a candid, humorous moment that highlighted the bond between performer and audience. Here was a global idol, dripping sweat under the spotlights, marveling at how his fans seemed to have endless stamina while he was the one doing all the heavy lifting (or rather, heavy dancing). Honestly, seeing KAI acknowledge his own fatigue so openly, yet still push on with a smile, made the crowd cheer even harder for him.
And then came the tears. Amid the sexy dance routines and high-octane numbers, KAI wasn’t afraid to get emotional. During one heartfelt talk segment, he paused as the crowd’s chants of “We love you!” grew louder and more insistent. It was obvious that the tidal wave of support moved him deeply: KAI’s voice wavered, and soon he was blinking back tears. He confessed to the audience that he felt he could never give as much love as he receives from them, a humble admission that only made the cheers swell. In that moment, the Rosemont Theatre became a sea of encouragement! Fans held up banners and shouted affectionate messages, and KAI took it all in, one hand pressed over his heart. It’s not every day you see an idol of his caliber openly crying on stage, and it gave the show a genuine, intimate touch.
Image Source: Courtesy of SM Entertainment Fan Favorites And Surprise Moments
Emotions ran high, but KAI also kept things fresh and surprising throughout the night. The setlist was stacked, showcasing songs from all four of his mini-albums, plus a few special treats. In a nod to his EXO roots, he threw in a brief acoustic dance medley of EXO classics: ‘Love Shot,’ ‘Growl,’ and ‘The Eve.’ This unexpected tribute had longtime EXO-Ls screaming at the top of their lungs, thrilled to see KAI channeling the group that launched him. It was a clever way to honor his past while owning the stage solo in the present!
Another unforgettable moment came courtesy of the fans themselves. While KAI ducked backstage for one of several quick costume changes, the production team started playing the instrumental of ‘Amnesia,’ a sultry B-side track that, conspicuously, was not part of the official setlist. Chicago fans were ready for it. In what felt like a coordinated move (but was really pure fan instinct), the entire theater began belting out the lyrics to ‘Amnesia’ in unison. Thousands of voices singing ‘Amnesia’ a cappella filled the venue, creating a goosebumps-tingling moment that no one had expected, not even KAI. When he returned to the stage, he admitted he heard the impromptu singalong from backstage and was genuinely touched. He shook his head in astonishment and smiled that signature bashful smile. It was the kind of organic fan-artist interaction you can’t script, and it clearly left an impression on him (and everyone else in the room)!
Fans were also treated to plenty of interactive fun. During another costume change interlude, a “dance cam” challenge flashed on the big screen, prompting pockets of the audience to break into KAI’s signature choreographies. Whenever the camera landed on a particularly enthusiastic fan, the entire theater erupted in cheers. Imagine thousands of people doing the ‘Rover’ dance or mimicking the smooth moves from ‘Mmmh’ together; it was pure, wholesome chaos. These little breaks turned out to be delightful bonding moments for the crowd, as strangers high-fived and laughed with each other after each dance cam highlight. In a way, KAI was still orchestrating the vibe even when offstage, giving his fans a chance to shine and connect with one another.
Image Source: Courtesy of SM Entertainment A Night Of Heart And Heat
As the show neared its end, KAI had one more surprise up his sleeve: one that would make headlines for K-Pop fans worldwide. In his final ment of the night, still buzzing from the crowd’s energy, he hinted that this solo adventure isn’t the only thing EXO-Ls have to look forward to. With a mischievous glint in his eye, KAI let slip that EXO may or may not be planning a group tour and a new album in the near future. The theater absolutely erupted. Imagine already being on a high from two hours of nonstop music and then hearing the possibility that your favorite group could be making a comeback. The excitement was off the charts. Social media was ablaze within minutes, but in the room itself, fans were hugging, screaming, and generally losing their minds at the mere idea. KAI laughed for spilling secrets which only endeared him more to the crowd.
Fittingly, he ended the night on a heartfelt note. For the encore, KAI reappeared wearing a relaxed smile (and, in a cute local twist, a jersey thrown over his stage outfit). He closed with ‘Blue’ and ‘To Be Honest,’ two of his most personal songs, waving to every corner of the theater as he sang. The atmosphere turned almost reverent. After all the sweat and bombast, here was KAI simply singing his heart out to a bluesy R&B melody, bathed in blue light. Fans swayed light sticks and phone flashlights gently, soaking in the last moments. When the final note faded, KAI stood in awe of the roaring applause, bowing deeply and taking a moment to just absorb the scene: Chicago giving him one last, giant wave of love!
In the end, KAION in Chicago wasn’t just a concert: it was a whole experience, a celebration of KAI’s artistry and the reciprocal devotion between a performer and his fans. Conversational and polished, playful and poignant, the night struck a perfect balance. KAI managed to turn a 4,400-seat theater into an intimate arena of shared joy, where everyone was either screaming, sweating, or swooning (often all three at once). As the house lights came up and fans wiped happy tears from their faces, one thing was clear: KAI left an indelible mark on the Windy City, and if this show was any indication, the man is more than capable of selling out arenas and hearts wherever he goes next!
Image Source: Courtesy of SM Entertainment What did you think of KAI’s show in Chicago? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments below or over on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT KAI:
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INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | YOUTUBEWant more K-Pop content? Check here!
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Asia M.
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What can Trump do in his sanctuary cities crackdown – and what can’t he do?
The Department of Homeland Security ramped up immigration raids in Illinois on Monday afternoon in an operation they dubbed “Midway Blitz,” a continuation of military-themed rhetoric promoting Donald Trump’s larger crackdown on sanctuary cities. Chicagoans have turned out by the thousands in protest suggestions that the president would attempt to send national guard troops into the city, and in opposition to similar acts that courts have rules as illegal or unconstitutional.
“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” DHS said on X today. “President Trump and Secretary Noem stand with the victims of illegal alien crime while Governor Pritzker stands with criminal illegal aliens.”
But as the administration has signaled similar pursuits in Democratic-led cities across the country, the legal parameters of federal law enforcement could be tested. Here’s what Trump can, and cannot, do in cities such as Chicago.
Related: Chicago-area residents warned federal agents may be about to arrive
What are the limits of the civil authority of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers?
Ice, which is housed in the Department of Homeland Security, primarily engages in enforcement and removal operations – finding, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants. Ice agents can arrest any undocumented immigrant who has a deportation order issued by an immigration court. An Ice agent can arrest someone who in plain view is in the process of attempting to enter the United States unlawfully or if it has “reason to believe” that someone is unlawfully in the United States and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.
Those reasons can be flimsy. More than 300 Korean employees working for firms building a battery plant in south Georgia were arrested last week in a raid that warrants suggest had targeted Central American construction workers. The US supreme court on Monday temporarily set aside a lower court’s order barring agents from stopping people without reasonable suspicion they are in the country illegally aside from an accent or the color of their skin.
How else might Homeland Security agents engage in law enforcement in Chicago?
A different DHS unit – homeland security investigations (HSI) – targets border-related crimes such as the trafficking of weapons, drugs and people, as well as the kind of fraud, money laundering or counterfeiting that rises to a national security risk. HSI is part of Joint Task Force Alpha, partnered with the Drug Enforcement Agency, FBI and other federal agencies to fight human trafficking from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and other countries. The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced last week that Joint Task Force Alpha would expand to cover the Canadian border and all maritime borders, which includes Chicago’s port.
Under other circumstances, HSI might also partner with state investigators and local police to track down fugitives who are also violating immigration law, to work on counterterrorism cases or to investigate and prosecute gangs and cartels that are violating both state and federal law.
However, the legal, moral and political conflict between the Trump administration and state leaders like Illinois governor JB Pritzker or Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson makes this kind of partnership unlikely. Johnson signed an order on 30 August declaring that Chicago cops “will not cooperate with or enable any unlawful or unconstitutional actions undertaken by federal law enforcement or U.S. Armed Forces within the City of Chicago”. Illinois law largely prohibits law enforcement from participating in actions to enforce immigration law.
What does this federal immigration enforcement surge look like?
About 300 federal agents are using North Chicago’s Naval Station Great Lakes as the logistical hub for ramped-up operations, according to ABC Chicago. That’s consistent with earlier reports that the White House intended to use the port as a staging area. The White House has not announced how many federal agents will be redeployed from other states to the Chicago area for this operation.
Related: US supreme court ‘effectively legalized racial profiling’, immigration experts warn
Has Trump called in the national guard?
Not yet.
Trump threatened – as he has done many times – to deploy the national guard to Chicago to “clean up” the city’s crime, despite decreasing gun violence rates there. But his activation of national guard units in the federal takeover of Washington DC’s policing and the use of troops during an immigration enforcement surge in Los Angeles in June gave the threat more teeth.
A federal judge in California sharply chastised the administration for its use of military troops during the Los Angeles operation, declaring it a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law prohibiting the use of troops in law enforcement. And the attorney general of Washington DC is suing the administration to force an end to the use of national guard troops there as well.
What is the Posse Comitatus Act?
The act consists of just one line. “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, or the Space Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
It means, in essence, that the military cannot and should not meddle in the affairs of civilian government. In practice, it bars commanders from ordering troops to conduct “arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants”, as given in the order rebuking Trump’s use of troops in Los Angeles.
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Is Trump’s troop buildup in U.S. cities a declaration of war — or something else?
Over the weekend, President Trump shared a doctored AI image of himself as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, the crazed cavalry commander in the 1979 Vietnam War film, “Apocalypse Now,” crouched in a black Stetson hat in front of a flaming Chicago skyline abuzz with black helicopters.
“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
Trump has long promised to deploy the National Guard to America’s major urban hubs. But his unprecedented push this summer to deploy military convoys into Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. — and drumbeat of threats to send yet more into cities from Baltimore to San Francisco — has left many Americans divided on whether his administration is trying to protect people in Democratic-controlled cities or wage war on them.
When Trump first sent troops into L.A. in June, he argued federal immigration agents needed protection from locals who tried to obstruct them from fulfilling their mission. In August, he deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., seizing on instances of violent crime to claim a public emergency.
And now he has paired the issues of crime and immigration as he threatens Chicago, deploying militaristic imagery and rhetoric that break longstanding American norms.
As Trump goads Democratic-led cities, dubbing them poorly run “hellholes,” Americans are grappling with a fundamental question of American democracy: Is Trump simply fulfilling his election mandate to ramp up deportations and combat crime, as he and his supporters argue, or ushering in a new era of American authoritarianism?
Trump’s critics warn that he is exaggerating crime in American cities to score political points. In deploying troops to Los Angeles and D.C., they argue, Trump is setting up a military police state that targets political opponents, tramples on due process, installs loyalists over institutionalists, and erodes longstanding distinctions between the military and domestic law enforcement.
“This is how authoritarians behave, this is not how the leader of a free democracy behaves.” said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “He is taking a page from authoritarian rulers around the world who have used crime as an excuse to consolidate power and suppress rights.”
Conservatives tend to brush aside such concerns, arguing that Trump’s deployment of troops simply delivers on a campaign promise. They note he ran on a platform of mass deportations and fighting crime in major cities.
“There’s a problem to be dealt with there,” said James E. Campbell, professor emeritus of political science at the University at Buffalo. “He has the constitutional authority to employ the National Guard, and that’s part of the powers of commander in chief in Article II. What’s peculiar here is some cities don’t want the help — or at least the leaders of the cities.”
While the courts will ultimately settle the legal questions of what Trump can do, he seems to be betting that he can put Democratic leaders in a defensive position at a time when polls show the vast majority of Americans are worried about crime.
When Illinois’ Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed back this weekend against Trump’s Chicago plans, accusing the president of “threatening to go to war with an American city,” Trump insisted he was not spoiling for a fight.
“We’re not going to war,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re going to clean up our cities.”
Democrats say Trump is scaremongering about crime in American cities to score points against his political enemies, noting that homicides and other violent crimes have dropped over the last five years in cities across the nation.
According to a recent analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice, a policy think tank, violent crime is lower in most cities than the pandemic peak of 2020-21. But the report noted that most of the decline in the national homicide rate has been driven by large drops in cities with high homicide rates, such as Baltimore and St Louis. More than half of sample cities continue to experience homicide levels above pre-2020 rates.
For many Americans, crime remains a potent political issue.
About 81% of Americans and 68% of Democrats, according to a recent survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, see crime as a “major problem” in large cities.
But it remains to be seen if Americans will warm to Trump’s hard-line tactics: about 55% of Americans in the AP poll said it’s acceptable for the U.S. military and National Guard to assist local police in big cities, but less than a third support federal troops taking control of city police departments.
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Throughout the 2024 election, Trump threatened to deploy the National Guard to fight crime.
“In cities where there has been a complete breakdown of law and order, where the fundamental rights of our citizens are being intolerably violated,” he promised in his Agenda47 campaign platform. “I will not hesitate to send in federal assets including the National Guard until safety is restored.”
Still, there was some shock when Trump deployed the National Guard and U.S. Marines to L.A. in June after a clash erupted in the heavily Latino city of Paramount as immigration agents ratcheted up his deportation agenda.
The conflict fell short of an all-out collapse of law and order. After Border Patrol agents were spotted setting up a staging area outside a Home Depot, hundreds of protesters gathered, some hurled rocks at federal vehicles as agents fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades at the crowd. Within hours, Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard soldiers to L.A.— against the will of California Gov. Gavin Newsom — to protect federal agents and property.
Sending in the National Guard without a governor’s consent was a highly unusual step. The last time it happened was in 1965, when Lyndon B. Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard to protect civil rights marchers marching from Selma to Montgomery.
But L.A. was not a one-off for Trump. In August, Trump announced he would take federal control of Washington, D.C.’s police department and activate National Guard troops to help “reestablish law and order.” The city, he said, had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.”
Dist. Atty. Brian Schwalb, the elected attorney general of the District of Columbia, argued “there is no crime emergency” in D.C. “Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year,” Schwalb noted, “and is down another 26% so far this year.”
But Trump put Democrats on the defensive as he seized on a handful of violent cases in the nation’s capital: two Israeli embassy staffers fatally gunned down in May, a congressional intern shot dead in June and an administration staffer assaulted in an attempted carjacking in August.
And he has adopted a similar strategy as he threatens to send troops to Chicago, highlighting a violent Labor Day weekend, in which nine people were killed and more than 50 injured across the city.
Chicago has long struggled with violent crime, but city officials note that homicides and shootings have declined, putting the city on track for its lowest homicide rate in half a century.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said homicides are down 30% in the last year in Chicago and his police department has taken 24,000 guns off the street, most of which came from Republican-led states, since he took office in May 2023.
“This stunt that this president is attempting to execute is not real. It doesn’t help drive us towards a more safe, affordable, big city,” Johnson said last month as he called on Trump to release $800 million in violence prevention funds that the federal government cut in April.
Already, Trump has declared implausibly quick results in curbing crime in Washington, D.C..
“D.C. was a hellhole and now it’s safe,” the president declared less than two weeks after deploying troops to the nation’s capital. “Within one week, we will have no crime in Chicago.”
When asked about Trump’s strategy, Adam Gelb, the president and chief executive of the Council on Criminal Justice, said the obvious challenge was the Trump administration’s solutions tended to be, “by definition, short term dopamine hits and not sustainable long term solutions.”
“That’s what history tells us: we can have short-term impact with shocks to the system like this, but they tend to be fleeting.”
Asked what would happen if the shock to the system was permanent, Gelb said he did not know.
“It hasn’t been tested,” Gelb said, “not in this country with respect to deployment of troops in massive numbers.”
Ultimately, Gelb said, Trump’s incursion into cities was “testing Americans’ tolerance for crime and militarization.”
“If there’s a perception that these tactics are responsible for dramatic reductions in crime,” he asked, “will people become more tolerant of them?”
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Trump has suggested that Americans will allow him unlimited powers if he is perceived as stopping crime.
“Most people are saying, ‘If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants,’ ” Trump said last month in a televised Cabinet meeting. “I am not a dictator, by the way,”
“I’m the president of the United States,” he added. “If I think our country is in danger — and it is in danger in these cities — I can do it.”
Daniel Treisman, a professor of political science at UCLA, said Trump is “the most extreme case yet of a leader who comes to power in a long-established democracy and wants to act like an authoritarian — to break down all restrictions on his power and intimidate his enemies.”
Most alarming of all, he said, was the Trump administration’s purging of professionals from federal agencies such as the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation in favor of loyalists.
The co-author of “Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st century,” Treisman said Trump’s aims appeared to closely resemble those of Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, or Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador.
“I would like to believe that he will face a lot more obstacles than those leaders did,” Treisman said.
Even if a majority of Americans think Trump is right that crime is a problem — or a substantial number support indefinite occupations of American cities or the elimination of due process — some argue that doesn’t make it democratic.
“There’s no such thing as electing a president to undo democracy and violate the rule of law,” Goitein said. “He can’t say, ‘Well, the American people elected me to shred the Constitution.’ ”
Jenny Jarvie
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What to know about Trump’s plan for immigration crackdown in Chicago and Boston
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What to know about Trump’s plan for immigration crackdown in Chicago and Boston – CBS News
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Chicago isn’t using salt trucks to block ICE operations
Chicago has been bracing for a surge in federal immigration raids and a potential National Guard deployment, but social media posts saying the city is fighting back with a salty plan aren’t true.
One TikTok post featuring the song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” by Gil Scott-Heron shows footage of salt trucks lined up on a street as traffic moves past them.
“Municipal salt trucks form a blockade to keep ICE out of the city,”the video’s caption says.
“In Chicago, city salt trucks and IDOT plows were used overnight to slow traffic and block access points in response to an incoming ICE operation,” the post says “The effort created a moving wall across major highways including I-294, the Edens, and I-94. Officials described the maneuver as a way to limit federal enforcement actions inside the city.”
(Screenshot of TikTok post.)
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Other TikTok and X posts also shared the footage of the salt trucks in the streets of Chicago.
But the trucks weren’t sent by the city to block ICE operations. Chicago regularly uses these trucks to help with safety and traffic flow.
A Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation spokesperson told PolitiFact on Sept. 8 that the department deployed salt trucks to support public safety efforts related to a Sept. 6 planned protest and the Taste of Chicago, an annual culinary event held at Grant Park from Sept. 5 to 7. The spokesperson said the trucks’ deployment is a routine practice. They are typically positioned in places such as intersections to keep vehicles from passing through.
The posts also said the trucks were trying to block and slow traffic across major highways including I-294, the Edens and I-94, but the Chicago Sun-Times reported that didn’t happen.
These posts come after large crowds marched Sept. 6 through downtown Chicago protesting the expected ICE surge.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said ICE told him it would be ramping up operations starting Sept. 6. As many as 300 immigration agents, who are supposed to deploy to Chicago each day, have offices at Naval Station Great Lakes, according to ABC7.
Trump also posted Sept. 6 on Truth Social a parody image of “Apocalypse Now,” a 1979 action film, showing helicopters and the city in flames with the caption “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.” Pritzker replied to Trump’s post saying Illinois won’t be intimidated.
Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, told CNN on Sept. 7 that people can expect immigration action “in most sanctuary cities across the country” this week.
Pritzker and Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, have opposed Trump’s threats to send immigration agents and the National Guard to Chicago, but this salt truck operation isn’t real.
We rate this claim False.
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Homeland Security announces
The Department of Homeland Security said it was moving forward with ramped-up immigration enforcement in Chicago this week in an effort dubbed Operation Midway Blitz.
“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American Streets,” the department said in a statement Monday. The department said the mission would be carried out “in honor of Katie Abraham,” who was killed in a drunk driving hit-and-run crash that happened in Urbana, about 130 miles south of Chicago, earlier this year.
Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the operation “will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago.”
The department did not specify how long the operation is expected to last, but a spokesperson with ICE said, in a statement: “ICE has always operated in Chicago, targeting enforcement around the dangerous criminal aliens that are drawn to this sanctuary city. … We will continue our law enforcement and public safety mission, undeterred, as we surge ICE resources in the city in coordination with our federal partners from across Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.”
In a post on X, Gov. JB Pritzker accused the Trump administration of failing to communicate or coordinate their immigration enforcement effort with state and local leaders.
“Once again, this isn’t about fighting crime. That requires support and coordination — yet we’ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks. Instead of taking steps to work with us on public safety, the Trump Administration’s focused on scaring Illinoisians,” he wrote.
The announcement of the immigration operation in Chicago comes after President Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Saturday, invoked imagery from the movie “Apocalypse Now” and wrote, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning …’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accused the Trump administration of ramping up its campaign “to arrest hardworking immigrants with no criminal convictions.”
“These actions don’t make us safer. They are a waste of money, stoke fear, and represent another failed attempt at a distraction,” Durbin said in a statement.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to add Chicago to the list of other Democratic-led cities he’s targeted for expanded federal enforcement, including Los Angeles and Washington. The move marks the latest flashpoint in a broader national struggle over how far the federal government can push local authorities to cooperate with its immigration agenda.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Tension grows as Trump insists he wants to send U.S. troops to Chicago
President Trump on Monday continued to flirt with the idea of mobilizing National Guard troops to combat crime in Chicago, just a day after he had to clarify that he has no intent to “go to war” with the American city.
The push to militarize local law enforcement operations has been an ongoing fixation for the president, who on Saturday used war imagery and a reference to the movie “Apocalypse Now” to suggest that the newly rebranded Department of War could descend upon the Democrat-run city.
Trump clarified Sunday that his post was meant to convey he wants to “clean up” the city, and on Monday once again floated the possibility of deploying federal agents to the city — a move that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has staunchly opposed.
“I don’t know why Chicago isn’t calling us saying, please give us help,” Trump said during a speech at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. “When you have over just a short period of time, 50 murders and hundreds of people shot, and then you have a governor that stands up and says how crime is just fine. It’s really really crazy, but we’re bringing back law and order to our country.”
A few hours earlier, Trump posted on social media that he wanted “to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them” — a statement that Pritzker mocked as insincere, saying that Trump had “just threatened an American city with the Department of War.”
“Once again, this isn’t about fighting crime. That requires support and coordination — yet we’ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks,” Pritzker said in a post on X. “Instead of taking steps to work with us on public safety, the Trump administration’s focused on scaring Illinoisians.”
The White House did not respond when asked whether Trump would send National Guard troops to Chicago without the request from the governor. But the Department of Homeland Security announced in a news release Monday that it was launching an immigration enforcement operation to “target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago.”
For weeks, Trump has talked about sending the military to Chicago and other cities led by Democrats — an action that governors have repeatedly opposed. Most Americans also oppose the idea, according to a recent CBS/YouGov poll, but the Republican base largely sees Trump’s push as a means to reduce crime.
If Trump were to deploy U.S. forces to the cities, it would follow similar operations in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles — moves that a federal judge last week said was illegal and that amounted to Trump “creating a national police force with the President as its chief” but that Trump sees as victories.
In his Monday remarks, Trump claimed that he “saved Los Angeles” and that crime is down to “virtually nothing” in Washington because he decided to send military forces to patrol the cities. Trump downplayed instances of domestic violence, saying those are “much lesser things” that should not be taken into account when trying to discern whether his crime-fighting efforts have worked in the nation’s capital.
“Things that take place in the home, they call crime. They’ll do anything they can to find something,” Trump lamented. “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime. Now, I can’t claim 100%, but we are a safe city.”
Trump said “we can do the same thing” in other cities, like Chicago and New York City.
“We are waiting for a call from Chicago,” Trump said. “We’ll fix Chicago.”
As of Monday afternoon, Pritzker’s office had yet to receive any “formal communication or information from the Trump administration” about potential plans to have troops deployed into the city, said Matt Hill, a spokesperson for the Illinois governor.
“Like the public and press, we are learning of their operations through social media as they attempt to produce a reality television show,” Hill said in an email. “If he cared about delivering real solutions for Illinois, then we would have heard from him.”
Pritzker, in remarks posted on social media Sunday, said the Trump administration was trampling on citizens’ constitutional rights “in the fake guise of fighting crime.”
“Once Donald Trump gets the citizens of this nation comfortable with the current atrocities committed under the color of law — what comes next?” he said.
Ana Ceballos
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Federal immigration operations ramping up in Chicago and Boston as other sanctuary cities are on alert
(CNN) — Immigration enforcement operations are ramping up in Chicago and Boston, marking the latest escalation between the Trump administration and Democratic-led cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday announced “Operation Midway Blitz” aimed at targeting “criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor (JB) Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets.”
The heightened rhetoric from President Donald Trump and his top officials aligns with how the White House plans to push forward its aggressive agenda aimed at undocumented immigrants. Ongoing arrests in Chicago are expected to expand as a federal presence builds up in a weeks-long, phased approach, according to officials familiar with the plans who stressed it’s still in flux.
Operations in Boston and Chicago are modeled after the June immigration sweeps in Los Angeles that the Supreme Court ruled Monday can continue under certain circumstances. The Homeland Security official charged with immigration operations in Los Angeles, Gregory Bovino, was deployed to Chicago to do the same there, officials told CNN, with one describing Chicago as “Los Angeles on the road.”
The escalating actions also follow a massive raid last week at a Hyundai plant in Georgia that, while not in a sanctuary city, previews forthcoming worksite operations, border czar Tom Homan told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday.
“You can expect action in most sanctuary cities across the country,” Homan said, decrying as “problem areas” the next targets of the sweeping nationwide immigration enforcement agenda that helped propel Trump to a second term but Americans largely oppose.
In tandem with those moves, more Democratic-led cities also are bracing for the Trump administration to decide — “over the next day or two,” the president said Sunday — where to further deploy National Guard troops to crack down on violent crime, a purported problem the White House sometimes has linked with immigration.
This image from video provided by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows a person being handcuffed at the Hyundai Motor Group’s electric vehicle plant in Ellabell, Georgia, on Thursday. Credit: Corey Bullard / AP via CNN Newsource The Department of Homeland Security on Sunday blamed Boston Mayor Michelle Wu for sanctuary polices that “not only attract and harbor criminals but also place these public safety threats above the interests of law-abiding American citizens.” Crossing the border or overstaying a visa and being undocumented in the United States generally is a civil infraction, not a criminal one.
Calling up the National Guard is “always on the table” for Chicago, Homan told CNN, even after a federal judge last week ruled Trump broke federal law by using the US military to help with law enforcement activities in and around Los Angeles — while use of the guard in Washington, DC, is unlike anywhere else.
“We used them in Los Angeles, and we use them in Washington, DC,” Homan said. “They’re a force multiplier.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said in a statement Monday that such enforcement won’t make people feel safer.
“They are a waste of money, stoke fear, and represent another failed attempt at a distraction,” he said.
Cities push back against Trump threats
In Washington, DC, where more than 2,200 armed National Guard troops have roamed for weeks, officials are suing the Trump administration, accusing the president of violating the Constitution and federal law by sending soldiers into the city without consent from local leaders.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday by DC’s attorney general, claims the troops — many from out of state — have been deputized by the US Marshals office and are patrolling neighborhoods, conducting searches and making arrests, despite federal laws that generally bar the military from acting as local police.
The Trump administration has touted its efforts in the capital city, pointing to a sharp drop in violent crime since ramping up federal law enforcement last month. But critics argue the National Guard deployment is unnecessary and costly, with taxpayers footing an estimated $1 million a day, while troops take photos with tourists, pick up trash and lay mulch.
Members of the National Guard patrol inside the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on August 28. Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images via CNN Newsource Trump has also repeatedly slammed nearby Baltimore for its crime, calling the city a “hellhole” and suggesting the National Guard could be deployed there next.
“We don’t need an occupation,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told CNN’s Manu Raju on Sunday. Scott said he’d explore all options when asked whether he would sign an order like Chicago’s that tells local police not to cooperate with federal law enforcement should they be deployed.
On Sunday evening, Trump told reporters Chicago is a “very dangerous place,” adding to anticipation of troops there. The president said he could “solve Chicago very quickly,” but stopped short of committing to deploy the guard.
The next morning, he lashed out at Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, questioning the Democrat’s supposed aversion to federal intervention: “WHY??? … Only the Criminals will be hurt” by any federal efforts, Trump wrote on his social media platform, adding crime is “ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE!!!”
Pritzker denounced DHS operations in the state Monday, saying in a post on X that the operation “isn’t about fighting crime.”
“That requires support and coordination — yet we’ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks,” he said, adding that the administration has chosen to focus “on scaring Illinoisians.”
The governor’s office has still not recieved any “formal communication or information” from the Trump administration and that they are often learning of operations through social media, said Matt Hill, spokesperson for Pritzker.
Seven people were killed in Chicago from Friday evening through Sunday, preliminary police figures show. At least six victims were men, ages 21 to 42.
Still, fatal shootings in the city are down 34.2% this year through September 6 compared with the same period in 2024, with 237 killed in 2025, mayor’s office data shows.
The Windy City has prepared for more than a week for looming National Guard deployments and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, from the governor bracing for a court fight to parade planners postponing.
Fears gripped Chicago over the weekend
On the Lower West Side of Chicago, the start of Mexican Independence Day celebrations typically marks a raucous weekend of parties and parades drawing hundreds of thousands of attendees. While some crowds did gather Saturday waving green, white and red flags in the predominantly Latino Pilsen neighborhood, an undercurrent of caution persisted.
As costumed performers and children with baskets of treats paraded through the community, bright orange whistles swung from their necks, each one ready to cut through the music should federal immigration agents appear.
Keilina Zamora prepares to participate in the Mexican Independence Day parade in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood on Saturday. Credit: Scott Olson / Getty Images via CNN Newsource 
People watch the Mexican Independence Day parade in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood on Saturday. Credit: Scott Olson / Getty Images via CNN Newsource Elsewhere, celebrations were muted.
In Wauconda, a village northwest of Chicago, the annual Latino Heritage Festival was canceled due in part to “immigration concerns in our area,” the Wauconda Police Department said in a Friday social media post.
One of the largest events of the Fiestas Patrias, the parade for the Mexican Independence Day in Waukegan, has been postponed for the first time in its 30-year history to November 1 from September 14. The festival is celebrated every year in the suburb along Lake Michigan just north of the Great Lakes naval base, the facility Gov. JB Pritzker said Trump is set to use as a command center for incoming immigration agents.
Communities throughout the nation’s third-largest city are preparing for ICE presence by handing out flyers reminding families they have the right in the face of immigration enforcement to remain silent and don’t have to consent to be searched or share their birthplace or citizenship status, among other rights.
In Pilsen, neighbors gathered this weekend to celebrate Latino culture, choosing joy despite fear: “I think now more than ever is when we need to demonstrate that we are united and we are a community,” longtime resident Araceli Lucio said.
CNN’s Kit Maher, Alison Main, Samantha Waldenberg, Lily Hautau, Chris Boyette and Gabe Cohen contributed to this report.
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Priscilla Alvarez, Danya Gainor and CNN
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Trump appears to again threaten sending troops to Chicago for immigration enforcement
President Trump appeared to once again threaten sending troops to Chicago for a widespread immigration and crime crackdown similar to that seen in Los Angeles when the National Guard was recently deployed there.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Mr. Trump shared a screenshot that reads “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning …’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” The AI-generated image appears to parody the movie “Apocalypse Now.”
On Sunday, the president told reporters at the White House that his administration is not “going to war” in Chicago.
“We’re going to clean up our cities,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going to clean them up, so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war, that’s common sense.”
Mr. Trump has targeted Chicago and other Democrat-led cities for expanded federal intervention. His administration has said it will step up immigration enforcement in the Windy City, as he did in Los Angeles, and would deploy National Guard troops to help fight crime. In addition to sending troops to Los Angeles in June, Mr. Trump deployed them last month in Washington, D.C., as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover of the nation’s capital.
A federal court in California ruled this week that the Trump administration violated federal law when it deployed Guard and active-duty U.S Marines to Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer found that the administration violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
Although details about the promised Chicago operation have been sparse, local opposition is already widespread and is building in the suburbs. State and city leaders have said they plan to sue the Trump administration.
“We’re going in. I didn’t say when, we’re going in,” Mr. Trump said in an Oval Office event Tuesday, after a reporter asked if he plans to send the Guard to Chicago.
Mr. Trump did not specify whether his administration will primarily send Guard forces or federal law enforcement agents to Chicago.
On Sunday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker responded to Mr. Trump’s Truth Social post, saying in a post X, “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city.”
“This is not a joke. This is not normal,” Pritzker wrote. “Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”
The city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, in a post on X, said Mr. Trump’s threats are “beneath the honor of our nation.”
“But the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” he wrote. “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
An internal government memo obtained by CBS News this week showed that the Department of Homeland Security asked the Pentagon to accommodate roughly 250 federal agents and 140 vehicles at the Naval Station Great Lakes – the largest military base in Illinois and the Navy’s largest training station.
The request was officially made last week, and Homeland Security personnel and equipment began arriving at the naval station earlier this week, a U.S. official familiar with the operation told CBS News. The naval station is located about 50 miles north of Chicago on Lake Michigan.
The internal memo said Homeland Security officials would need the base for 30 days, suggesting the immigration crackdown in Chicago could last for weeks.
In a statement to CBS News, DHS said it will “go to wherever these criminal illegal aliens are — including Chicago, Boston, and other cities.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, nowhere is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens,” the department said. “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.”
Activists, church groups and schools in the nation’s third-largest city have been preparing for the operation. Organizers postponed a downtown Mexican Independence Day festival scheduled for later this month because of fears in the community about the planned immigration crackdown. They did not set a new date.
Kaia Hubbard and
contributed to this report.
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Trump not at war with Chicago but with cartels, Tom Homan says
White House border czar Tom Homan is doubling down on President Donald Trump’s stated plans to send the National Guard to Chicago, telling CNN that the next steps in the White House crime crackdown could come to the fore next week.
“Absolutely,” he told Jake Tapper on Sunday on “State of the Union.” “You can expect action in most sanctuary cities across the country. President Trump’s prioritized sanctuary cities because sanctuary cities knowingly release illegal alien public safety threats to the streets every day. That’s where the problem is.”
Trump dispatched National Guard troops to Washington and took control of the city’s police department in August — much to the chagrin of city residents who overwhelmingly oppose the takeover. But boasting that the nation’s capital is “NOW A CRIME FREE ZONE,” the president has looked to cities such as Chicago, New Orleans and Baltimore as perhaps next in his nationwide immigration and crime crackdown.
“We’re going in,” he said of a coming National Guard deployment to Chicago last Tuesday.
“They’re a force multiplier,” Homan told Tapper. “They’re on the table. I mean, they have been used by every administration since I have been working for the government starting in 1984. Every administration has used the Guard and the military on the border. And they have been very beneficial.”
But Trump only further inflamed tensions on Saturday, when he took to Truth Social with an image depicting himself as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore from the 1979 Vietnam War epic “Apocalypse Now.”
“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War,” the post read, referencing an order he signed Friday rebranding the Defense Department.
Immediately, Democrats in Illinois and throughout the Windy City raised alarm at the veiled threat.
Homan played down their concerns, telling Tapper that Trump’s quip was taken out of context, and that the president intends to go to war not with the city of Chicago, but with its criminal cartels.
“President Trump and this administration, yes, we’re at war with the criminal cartels and those who want to murder and rape American citizens,” he said. “You’re damn right.”