The streets of the Pilsen neighborhood, a few miles southwest of downtown Chicago, are ordinarily bustling in September with house parties and cookouts in the weeks surrounding Mexican Independence Day.
But after the Trump administration announced the start of a crackdown on illegal immigration in Chicago, few of the usual vendors were hawking tamales or cups of elote in the neighborhood last week in Pilsen. People came out briefly for an annual parade, but hours later, only a single car was honking its way down 18th Street waving Mexican flags. Cashiers and business owners lamented that they were waiting for customers who never came.
Residents of Pilsen, which has been home to Mexican immigrants to the Midwest for decades, said the threat of raids had upended their neighborhood. They spoke of undocumented relatives and neighbors who now are mostly staying at home, and of a broad sense of worry — but also of renewed solidarity.
The Department of Homeland Security has focused on the Chicago area since last week, as part of an effort that it is calling Operation Midway Blitz. That operation has netted the arrests of several people, including some accused of robbery, assault and other violent crimes, the agency has said. In a Chicago suburb on Friday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man during a vehicle stop, after the man struck and dragged an officer with his car as he fled, the agency said.
Chicagoans throughout the city have been watchful for ICE agents and vehicles, and reporting ICE activity to hotlines and websites that track the federal officers’ whereabouts. Immigrant advocacy groups said that since last weekend, they had seen an increase in sightings of officers.
In Pilsen, residents expressed anger at President Trump, at his new focus on Chicago after crackdowns in Los Angeles and Washington, and at his push to ramp up deportations. Many people also voiced frustration at Democrats who occupied the White House before Mr. Trump, and at both parties’ failure for decades to fix what the residents see as an outdated and flawed immigration system.
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The post In a Chicago Neighborhood, Fear and Anger Over Trump’s ICE ‘Blitz’ appeared first on New York Times.
