Obstructing justice is a crime. Chicago is guilty as charged
In this country, we have immigration laws. They were passed by Congress, signed by presidents, and upheld by the courts. These laws make clear who can be here, under what conditions, and what the penalties are for violating them. Yet here in Chicago, large numbers of residents are openly in violation of those laws. Instead of enforcing the law, city officials — from the governor’s mansion in Springfield down to the aldermen and the activists in the street — have chosen to obstruct justice.
The Trump administration has made it clear that immigration law will be enforced, and that sanctuary cities do not get to nullify federal authority. Chicago’s response has been to escalate confrontation with federal agents. They call it exercising constitutional rights. In reality, it is an organized obstruction of justice. That makes Chicago, quite literally, a criminal city.
The alderman who wanted to be arrested
Friday’s incident with Alderman Jessie Fuentes (26th) of Humboldt Park lays bare just how far city leaders are willing to go.
Fuentes stormed into Humboldt Park Health to confront federal agents who had detained a suspect. The alderman, representing herself not as a legislator but as a street agitator, demanded to see a warrant. She was told to leave. Rather than obeying a lawful order from federal officials, Fuentes pressed the agents, waving cameras around, and was promptly handcuffed and escorted out.
Fuentes was not formally arrested — despite media outlets like Block Club Chicago spinning it that way. She was detained because she was interfering with law enforcement in a hospital ER. Federal agents had every right to put her in cuffs. She was impeding. Period.
The irony is that Fuentes likely wanted the arrest. That’s the playbook of the Democratic Socialists of America, to which she and her allies belong: Provoke federal authority, get cuffed, then race to the cameras to claim martyrdom. It’s a theater. It’s politics. But it’s also dangerous.
The escalation everyone saw coming
The Fuentes episode is not happening in a vacuum. Chicago is now ground zero for Operation Midway, the Trump administration’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration, with an especially heavy focus on criminal gangs. In South Shore, federal agents picked up three dozen members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang known for violence in New York and Florida. These are not dreamers or “neighbors.” They are transnational criminals who came here illegally and built networks in our neighborhoods.
When ICE and DHS moved against them, Chicago politicians screamed “Gestapo.” Protesters stormed the Broadview detention facility, prompting Governor J.B. Pritzker himself to backpedal and caution his supporters not to get too aggressive. Why? Because he knows someone is going to get hurt. In fact, people already have.
Block Club’s reporting documents chaotic street clashes: agents lobbing tear gas in Logan Square, protesters surrounding ICE SUVs, residents choking in the smoke. Whether you sympathize with immigrants or not, this is no way for a city to function. It’s not free speech anymore. It’s mob action against federal law enforcement.
What the mayor and governor won’t say
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s reaction to Fuentes being cuffed was as predictable as it was inflammatory:
“Chicago’s elected officials have a First Amendment right to document ICE’s actions and to inform their constituents of their rights without federal interference,” Johnson said in a statement. “Any attempt to block this work is a direct attack on democratic accountability.”
No, mayor. It is not “a direct attack” on democracy when federal agents tell a local politician to step aside while they carry out an arrest. It is law enforcement. What Fuentes committed was obstruction. What Johnson did was give cover to obstruction. And what both of them are doing is playing into Donald Trump’s hands.
Every day this circus continues, Trump gets stronger. He can point to Chicago’s criminal obstruction of justice as the reason why the National Guard is necessary. It’s exactly what happened in Los Angeles: Local authorities lost control and federal troops restored order. The more “criminal” Chicago becomes in its resistance, the easier it becomes for Trump to justify boots on the ground.
The real consequences: Federal retaliation
Already, the city is paying the price. Trump has put a hold on funding for the CTA Red Line expansion, one of the crown jewels of Chicago’s public transit future. It will not be the last project frozen. Federal money props up Metra, CTA and Pace. It builds our highways. When the mayor and the governor declare war on Washington, they put every one of those dollars at risk.
Do they care? Not really. They’d rather grandstand for the cameras, hoping their “resistance” credentials help them fend off political rivals. Meanwhile, ordinary Chicagoans — black, brown, poor, working class — will lose the infrastructure investments they need to get to work, to school, to the doctor. However, Johnson and Pritzker will still have their state cars and security details. The game is power, not service.
The media are activists, not reporters
The press, too, has chosen sides. Block Club, the Tribune, and the Sun-Times breathlessly report every clash as if ICE were invading a foreign country. Those who obstruct justice are “activists” and “resistance.” Criminal illegal aliens are “neighbors”, “new arrivals”. ICE is “Gestapo,” and aldermen in handcuffs are “civil rights heroes.” Never mind that federal agents are enforcing laws passed by Congress and signed by presidents of both parties. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of Americans, including legal immigrants, and blacks who were the intended beneficiaries of civil rights legislation, support deporting criminal aliens. The media in Chicago doesn’t care. They want the clicks, the subscriptions, and the adulation of the progressive base.
Laws are to be changed, not ignored
Here is the hard truth: If you don’t like immigration laws, work to change them. That’s how democracy works. Congress has debated comprehensive reform for 20 years. Democrats and Republicans alike have failed to deliver. But the answer is not to let mobs storm detention centers. The answer is not to let aldermen shove their way into ERs to obstruct arrests. The answer is not to let mayors and governors nullify federal law.
What Chicago is doing is lawlessness dressed up as righteousness. The appropriate word for it is "crime."
Chicago’s shame
For those who insist that “no human being is illegal,” here’s the response: No, but entering and remaining in the country illegally is illegal. Harboring those who do is illegal. Obstructing those enforcing the law is illegal. That is what Chicago is doing.
Fuentes’ handcuffs tell the story. A city that once prided itself on grit and law enforcement now elevates obstructionists to the status of martyrs. Aldermen want to be arrested because they know the cameras are rolling. They incite mobs because they believe chaos helps their cause. But chaos doesn’t help Chicago. It destroys it.
The path ahead
The City of Chicago is at a crossroads. If Johnson and Pritzker continue to defy the federal government, Chicagoans will pay the price in lost funding, increased crime, and possibly federal intervention. If they continue to encourage confrontation, there will be blood in the streets. And if they continue to obstruct justice, they will confirm what many already believe: that Chicago is no longer just a sanctuary city — it is a criminal city.
