A modern civil war has broken out between the sanctuary city of Chicago and the federal government over immigration
Well, it was inevitable. Given the nature of our democratic socialist wing of the Chicago City Council, the city has finally initiated open conflict with the federal government over immigration enforcement. Several aldermen, rather than representing the interests of the citizens who elected them, have thrown their bodies — literally— into the gears of federal law enforcement, obstructing immigration agents as they attempt to carry out lawful orders.
This is Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Chicago. After all, his entire administration has been one long exercise in putting the interests of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers ahead of the people who’ve lived here for decades — sometimes generations. He’s spent more political capital defending temporary arrivals than fighting crime, reforming schools, or fixing our budget. And now the City Council’s most radical elements are escalating the fight — by physically confronting federal officers in the streets.
The flashpoint came Wednesday morning at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on South Michigan Avenue. That location, which houses the so-called Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), typically operates under the radar. It provides alternatives to detention for migrants going through immigration proceedings — ankle monitors and check-ins instead of a cell. However, on this day, the building became ground zero for a highly organized showdown between federal agents and progressive Chicago politicians.
It began when Yolanda Chavez, a Honduran national in asylum proceedings, went into the ISAP office for a routine check-in and never came out. According to activist Antonio Gutierrez, whose nonprofit Organized Communities Against Deportations has made obstruction of ICE its mission, Chavez had been in the U.S. for 10 years and has a child. When her absence was noted, organizers quickly swarmed the site. By afternoon, three aldermen—Anthony Quezada (35), Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25), and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33) — joined the growing crowd outside the building.
These officials didn’t merely show up to “observe.” They physically blocked a white van attempting to enter the lot. Federal agents, responding to what was essentially a coordinated attempt to prevent them from executing lawful arrests, forcibly cleared the driveway. What happened next is being treated by activists as a civil rights emergency. Sigcho-Lopez claimed that Quezada was shoved to the ground, and Rodriguez-Sanchez texted that she was “bruised but okay.” To hear them tell it, the agents might as well have been wearing swastikas.
“This is the Gestapo,” Sigcho-Lopez told the Tribune without a hint of irony. One wonders if Mr. Sigcho-Lopez has ever read a history book.
Sigcho-Lopez added: “This is a really sad day for the city.”
Yes, it is a sad day for Chicago — but not in the way he means. It’s a day in which the city exposes itself to massive retribution from an already hostile Trump administration, which could cost us all substantial federal funding. It’s also a day in which elected officials — whether on the City Council or in higher office — expose themselves to potential arrest in what increasingly looks like a staged attempt to make themselves into martyrs. This is not a good place for the city to be. It takes the sanctuary city problem to another level — one that could be truly damaging to our collective interests.
But the narrative doesn’t stop with aggrieved aldermen. The protestors had help from well-funded advocacy organizations and rapid-response teams that patrol immigrant-heavy neighborhoods like Little Village and Pilsen. These groups operate as mobile opposition squads, designed not to facilitate justice, but to thwart it —shadowing ICE agents, broadcasting their whereabouts, and intimidating them with phones, cameras, and public pressure.
According to the Tribune, ICE has declined to say how many people were detained Wednesday, but community groups estimate more than 10. These are not refugees plucked at random. These individuals have exhausted their appeals and received final orders of removal. Yet even that is not enough to satisfy Chicago’s activist machine. In their eyes, anyone trying to enforce immigration law is a fascist — and anyone attempting to deport someone, no matter how lawful the process, is engaged in ethnic cleansing.
The city’s clash with ICE is part of a broader pattern. Over the last month, similar confrontations have erupted in San Diego, Minneapolis, New York, and San Francisco. In all these cities, progressive activists are rapidly mobilizing to interfere with enforcement operations, disrupting hearings and pressuring courts not to comply with federal agents. These are not peaceful protests. They are strategic, confrontational acts of defiance. And now Chicago has joined the resistance in full.
In the latest escalation, ICE is detaining migrants directly after court hearings — particularly those who have entered the country within the last two years and whose asylum claims don’t meet the legal threshold. That’s the law, plain and simple. If someone lacks a credible fear claim and a judge agrees, deportation is the next step. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem clarified this plainly: ICE is simply following long-standing legal mandates that had been previously ignored.
Nevertheless, to our local leaders, the idea of enforcing immigration law is offensive in and of itself.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, another vocal opponent of ICE, accused the federal government of “weaponizing hope.” Think about that. Telling people the truth about their case status and following up with legally mandated removal is “weaponizing hope.” In other words, the law is cruelty, and anything short of blanket amnesty is terrorism.
The situation has become so chaotic that many immigrants are skipping court dates entirely. Lawyers report seeing ICE agents patrolling courtrooms with lists in hand —apparently looking for names with recent arrival dates. Once their case is dismissed or denied, arrest follows. This, we are told, is an abuse. But what’s the alternative? Should we simply ignore immigration law altogether?
Some local officials seem to think so. In Little Village, Alderman Mike Rodriguez (22) and community organizers ran interference when ICE showed up in unmarked vehicles, chasing them off before they could make arrests. In Pilsen, ICE allegedly entered a private apartment above a business without a judge’s warrant — a violation if true, but conveniently lacking hard proof. The stories always lean toward sensationalism: Jackbooted thugs smashing down doors, ripping mothers from children, all without cause or oversight.
And Brandon Johnson? Ever eager to pander, the mayor issued a statement condemning what he called an “assault” by ICE on elected officials. “Federal agents should never be allowed to come into our city and assault elected officials or any Chicagoan,” he said, framing the day’s events as if we were dealing with a military invasion rather than a lawful removal operation.
Let’s be honest about what’s happening: Certain elements of the Chicago City Council have declared war on the federal government — not metaphorically, but physically. They are interfering with law enforcement operations in real-time. They are obstructing officers executing lawful orders. They are using their offices not to uphold the law, but to sabotage it.
This isn’t activism. It’s nullification.
And while Mayor Johnson didn’t personally block the van, he might as well have. His administration has been an ongoing obstacle to ICE, prioritizing sanctuary policies even as the costs mount. Overburdened shelters, overwhelmed schools, rising tension in majority-Black wards — all of it collateral damage in a war he insists on fighting.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out politically. Johnson has been positioning himself as the anti-Trump, bold progressive who will stand against federal overreach as though he’s running for mayor of America, not just Chicago. But his core Black and Hispanic constituents may not be as thrilled about these symbolic stunts as he thinks. Many of them feel abandoned — replaced by a new political cause that prizes people who’ve been in the city for a few months over neighbors who’ve lived here since before the Great Migration, some whose families have been in America since 1619.
So stay tuned. The battle lines are drawn, but they’re not just between the city and ICE. Increasingly, they’re between the people who built Chicago and the politicians who’ve decided they don’t matter anymore.
