After a spate of appalling federal immigration operations in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday signed an executive order to curb abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the city—which has already incensed the White House.
The executive order establishes “ICE-free zones,” limiting ICE agents from using “city property and unwilling private businesses” as “staging grounds” for their raids, Johnson said at a press conference.
Under the order, private businesses can choose to display signage indicating that ICE cannot enter without a warrant—thereby designating “their property as part of a city-wide network of community spaces that stand together in affirming the safety, dignity, and belonging of all of our residents,” the mayor said.
Johnson touted the order for building “a broad civic shield that limits the reach of harmful enforcement practices. It strengthens neighborhood solidarity and it reaffirms Chicago’s role as a welcoming city.”
According to the mayor, while federal agents in violation of the order would not be arrested by Chicago police, the city will take the federal government to court if necessary.
“Our school parking lots are not for ICE to load their weapons,” Johnson said. “They are for Chicagoans who drop their kids off to learn. Our libraries are not for ICE to prepare for a raid. They’re for Chicagoans to read and relax. Our parks are not for ICE to set up checkpoints. They are for Chicagoans to play and enjoy.”
Donald Trump’s rapid-response White House X account decried the move. “This is SICK,” said the president’s team, accusing Johnson of “aiding and abetting criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, traffickers, and gang bangers.”
The order came after a series of high-profile instances of brutality by federal immigration agents in the city.
Last week, for example, some 300 agents conducted a massive raid on an apartment in the middle of the night, reportedly rappelling in from helicopters, deploying flash bangs, and tearing tenants—including naked children—from their units. Several tenants, including U.S. citizens, said they were zip-tied and held for hours. In a separate incident, agents detained a local elected official for peacefully inquiring about the due process rights of a detainee being treated in a hospital.
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