Frenzy of developments cement Chicago as epicenter of immigration crackdown
By Cindy Von Quednow, CNN
(CNN) — As attorneys face off in courtrooms and federal agents on the ground clash with protesters, Chicago is being cemented as the epicenter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown after a flurry of developments in the last 24 hours.
Now – with the city heading into its first weekend since a fence outside the Broadview immigration enforcement facility has come down, and with the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Chicago field office ordered to appear in court Monday – the stage is set for a reckoning on crowd-control measures.
Several developments on Thursday put the Windy City under the national spotlight, including a federal appeals court upholding a lower court’s ruling temporarily denying the federal government’s effort to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois and a judge separately demanding answers on violent encounters with protesters in Chicago.
Tensions have flared as federal agents were deployed across the city in recent weeks for what the Trump administration calls “Operation Midway Blitz,” an ICE effort that has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests of migrants across Illinois between September 8 and October 3, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The ICE building in Broadview, outside Chicago, has been the site of multiple confrontations as protesters have come out to decry the immigration arrests. Meanwhile, DHS has said it “won’t let this violence deter us from arresting the worst of the worst and making Illinois safe again.”
Over 100 protesters gathered outside the facility Friday morning, with Broadview police officers, Cook County sheriff’s deputies and Illinois State Police gathered to keep demonstrators in the area designated for them. The protest, though loud, has remained calm. As of 5 p.m. CT, 15 arrests had been made, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said.
A small group of protesters that remained outside the facility Friday evening were ordered by authorities to disperse at 6 p.m. per a curfew put in place earlier this month by Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson.
It came a day after 13 people were arrested in a federal raid at a Chicago flea market, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. Those arrested are “illegal aliens with criminal histories including DUI, battery causing bodily harm, and domestic violence,” the department said in a post on X.
Here’s a roundup of what has transpired in the Windy City area ahead of more planned anti-ICE protests on Friday and a second ‘No Kings’ rally and march planned for Saturday, with more than 75,000 expected to attend.
Federal judge orders use of body cameras
One week after issuing a sweeping order trying to quell the intense response of federal agents to protests against immigration enforcement activities in Chicago, US District Judge Sara Ellis told attorneys on both sides of the case to come back to her courtroom to have their own discussion.
Ellis said she had “serious concerns” about her order being followed and eventually announced she will be expanding her restraining order and will require all federal agents involved in the immigration crackdown in Chicago to have body cameras on when encountering protesters.
The judge originally required all agents to wear cameras but agreed to some flexibility after an attorney representing the Trump administration said it would be logistically impossible to immediately provide all agents with the cameras.
The Department of Justice still opposed the body camera order, arguing it’s not a simple matter to record the videos and consistently turn them around for reviewing and redacting video based on every allegation.
Ellis also demanded that ICE Field Director Russell Hott appear in court on Monday, “to explain to me why I am seeing images of tear gas being deployed and reading reports that there were no warnings given before it was deployed out in the field.”
Democratic US Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin on Friday called on ICE and Customs and Border Protection to enforce body camera requirements in compliance with the federal order, saying the footage “plays a vital role in promoting responsible law enforcement tactics and verifying DHS accounts against facts on the ground and, ultimately, is in the best interest of agents, officials and individuals involved in use of force incidents.”
Order bars ICE from county property
An executive order, signed Thursday by the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, prohibits ICE from using county-owned “property, resources, and personnel for civil immigration enforcement activities,” including staging for and debriefing from enforcement actions.
The new order builds on prior resolutions and a 2011 county ordinance that prohibits the use of county facilities and personnel time for ICE investigations without a criminal warrant.
“Local law enforcement and County employees rely on public trust to effectively serve residents. Allowing federal civil immigration operations on County property would erode that trust, discourage cooperation with public safety agencies, and jeopardize the sense of security that all residents deserve,” a release from the county about the order said.
CNN has reached out to ICE for comment.
Federal vehicle moved more than 1,000 miles away
The federal vehicle that American citizen Marimar Martinez is accused of ramming earlier this month before she was shot by a CBP agent has been moved more than 1,000 miles away to Maine, a Department of Justice attorney said at a Thursday hearing.
Her attorney accused the DOJ of moving the vehicle – key evidence in the case – despite knowing he would likely need to examine it.
The judge in the case ordered the vehicle be returned via flatbed truck after Martinez’s attorney expressed concern that evidence would not be preserved after it was driven to Maine and back.
Martinez, 30, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a charge of assaulting, resisting and impeding officers.
She is accused of ramming the federal law enforcement vehicle with her car on October 4 as protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown took place in the city.
Her attorney has disputed this, saying unreleased body camera footage shows it was a federal agent who swerved into Martinez.
ICE arrests police officer
On Thursday, ICE agents arrested a police officer in the Chicago suburb of Hanover Park, alleging he is an unlawful immigrant from Montenegro.
DHS said the officer, Radule Bojovic, overstayed a tourist visa that expired in 2015.
Bojovic was “encountered during a targeted enforcement action as part of Operation Midway Blitz,” the department said.
“Radule Bojovic violated our nation’s laws and was living ILLEGALLY in the United States for 10 years – what kind of police department gives criminal illegal aliens badges and guns? It’s a felony for aliens to even possess a firearm. A law enforcement officer who is actively breaking the law,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CNN Thursday.
CNN has reached out to the Hanover Park Police for comment and has attempted to contact Bojovic.
Appeals court denies effort to deploy National Guard troops
In a loss for the Trump administration, an appellate court on Thursday denied the government’s effort to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois.
However, the troops can remain in the state under federal control, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said.
The opinion details the court’s reasoning in a decision issued Saturday and comes a week after US District Court Judge April Perry issued a scathing oral ruling from Chicago that granted a temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration’s deployment of soldiers in Illinois for two weeks.
“I have seen no credible evidence that there has been rebellion in the state of Illinois” that would justify federalizing National Guard soldiers, Perry said at the time, calling Department of Homeland Security assessments of the protests “unreliable.”
The denial is the latest in a court saga over whether President Donald Trump is exceeding his authority by deploying troops to quell demonstrations outside ICE facilities near Democratic-led cities like Chicago.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand, Amanda Musa, Bill Kirkos, Josh Campbell, Andy Rose, Rebekah Riess and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
