The Trump administration is expected to begin a large-scale crackdown on illegal immigration in the coming days in Chicago, a push that could bring hundreds of additional federal agents to the city and ignite tensions in Latino communities.
President Trump has been mentioning the effort for weeks as part of his broadening immigration enforcement across the country, which aims to arrest people in cities including Chicago that typically don’t coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Recently, Mr. Trump has described Chicago as a “mess,” the latest volley at a city that he has long criticized for its Democratic leadership and crime rate. He has already sent federal agents and troops to Los Angeles and Washington, and has said the moves are necessary to fight street crime and enforce immigration laws.
An internal document obtained by The New York Times indicated that Department of Homeland Security officials would arrive at the Naval Station Great Lakes this week and that there would be 30 days of operations in the Chicago area.
In Chicago, at least 150,000 people in the city of 2.7 million are undocumented, estimates show, making up about 8 percent of households.
Both political leaders and residents say they are uncertain what exactly is about to take place.
Hundreds of Chicago residents have vowed to gather in protest downtown at the first sign of I.C.E. raids, and metal barricades were placed around the federal courthouse on Thursday night in the heart of the Loop.
In the suburbs north of Chicago on Friday morning, protesters unfurled banners in opposition to I.C.E. along on a highway that leads from a naval station that is being used as a staging ground for the federal government’s operations.
Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, said that his administration was ready to fight Mr. Trump in court if the president expanded the operations beyond immigration and ordered National Guard troops to enter the city. Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to send troops to Chicago, saying that policing in the city needs federal help. But violent crime has dropped there in the last several years, and city officials said this summer recorded the fewest homicides since 1965.
Legal experts have questioned whether Mr. Trump has the authority to send National Guard troops to Chicago over the governor’s objections.
Chicagoans, particularly those who are undocumented immigrants, have been anxiously monitoring news of the federal involvement. Some say they fear they could be arrested and deported.
“We are all afraid, but we also feel a sense of resignation,” said Francisco, a Mexican man who asked that his full name not be used because he was not authorized to be in the country. He said he had been working in Chicago as a janitor, cleaning offices and stadiums since 2010.
Immigration officials have been under increasing pressure to make more arrests and deport a growing number of people to fulfill Mr. Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.
In Illinois, I.C.E. has made at least 1,400 immigration arrests since Mr. Trump took office through the end of July, a much lower rate per capita than in other immigrant-heavy states like New York. More than a thousand of those arrests have been in the Chicago area.
The anticipated crackdown coincided with a typically raucous time in the city as celebrations of Mexican Independence Day were to begin on Saturday with a parade in the Little Village neighborhood on the Southwest Side. Most Latinos in Chicago are of Mexican descent, and each year, thousands attend parades, fly Mexican flags from their cars and form caravans, honking horns and causing gridlock around the city.
The holiday was expected to be muted this year because of the prospect of federal law enforcement. Some organizers said they would cancel events altogether. El Grito Chicago, a two-day musical festival set to take place in mid-September in Grant Park, the city’s front yard, was postponed.
“It was a painful decision, but holding El Grito Chicago at this time puts the safety of our community at stake, and that’s a risk we are unwilling to take,” organizers said in a statement.
Chicago Public Schools has also been monitoring the situation with alarm.
Latinos make up nearly half of the city’s public school system’s 325,000 students, and some administrators worry that families will choose to keep their children home out of caution. Most of Chicago’s 800,000 Latino residents are legally in this country, but advocates say they worry that families will still fear being caught up in raids even if they have legal status.
Teachers planned to hold “solidarity walk-ins” on Friday, handing out brochures to parents or passers-by with details on their legal rights, should they be confronted by I.C.E. agents.
In the suburb of Broadview, Ill., on Friday morning, several dozen people showed up at an I.C.E. processing facility in protest.
The group included some holding a prayer vigil and others carrying signs and chanting “all power to the people, no one is illegal.” Some members of the group have been protesting outside the facility weekly for almost two decades
The windows and the front door of the facility, a two-story building on a quiet, industrial street, were recently covered with plywood. Asked about the reason for the plywood, ICE officials did not provide an explanation.
City leaders encouraged protest against what they have described as a military occupation, but urged a peaceful, nonviolent reaction.
Former Representative Luis Gutiérrez, a Democrat, stood in Federal Plaza downtown on Thursday and denounced the Trump administration, while acknowledging that a violent response from the public could spur the president to bring in the National Guard.
“Lift your voice but not your hand,” Mr. Gutiérrez said. “The only one who wins when there is violence is Donald Trump, because he wins by saying that the people of the city of Chicago need the National Guard because it is a city of violence.”
Protests and incidents of arson over I.C.E. arrests in Los Angeles led Mr. Trump to send thousands of National Guard members into the city over the summer.
Support for Mr. Trump’s plans for Chicago has been quiet in the city, relative to the opposition. But some Chicagoans said they would welcome troops to enforce the laws in their neighborhoods.
Wanda Williams, 49, sat on a bench in Federal Plaza on Friday. She said that while she was not in favor of deportations, she would not be upset if Mr. Trump brought in the National Guard to contend with problems other than immigration.
“I say bring them, I’m sick of the crime,” said Ms. Williams, a resident of the Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side, where she said drug sales were common on her block.
On the streets of Pilsen and Little Village — neighborhoods known for sizable Mexican American populations — immigrant residents, some undocumented and others with varying degrees of legal status, said they had closely followed the news of the crackdowns in Los Angeles and Washington and feared that Chicago could become the next target. Many had long ago started limiting their outings to banks and grocery stores and not leaving home without first scanning TikTok or Facebook, or “el Feis,” as most called it, for sightings of immigration agents.
One 14-year-old girl waiting for the bus in the Pilsen neighborhood said her undocumented parents, like those of many of her friends, were scared to go outside over the next few days. Rumors of raids were already proliferating online, some complained, putting only more stress on communities already on edge. The National Guard seemed to be on everyone’s mind.
Maricela, 50, who declined to use her full name because she was undocumented, said the constant sense of worry and nervousness could be damaging to peoples’ health.
On a corner in Little Village, Homero Lopez, 51, who was born and raised in Chicago, was working at the mobile food stand that had been passed from his grandmother to his mother and now to him.
But he said he was missing the usual camaraderie along the street — and the business. Any other year, this close to Mexican Independence Day, the street where he was selling aguas frescas, chicarrones and cups of fruit would be dotted with vendors selling similar items and Mexican flags for the upcoming festivities. The sales would go late into the night.
Instead, on Thursday evening, Mr. Lopez stood alone.
“The fear has never been this bad,” he said, adding that he didn’t believe the expected crackdowns were about tamping down crime or illegal immigration. “They are really about targeting Hispanics,” he said.
Still, some celebrated. As darkness fell, a lone S.U.V. paraded a giant Mexican flag around an outdoor plaza a few blocks away as cars on the streets honked in support.
Albert Sun and Robert Chiarito contributed reporting.
Julie Bosman is the Chicago bureau chief for The Times, writing and reporting stories from around the Midwest.
Jazmine Ulloa is a national reporter covering immigration for The Times.
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
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