🚨 HUGE ANTI-ICE PROTEST FORMING IN CHICAGO.
VIDEO: @AZ_Intel_
— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) October 9, 2025
BREAKING: Massive protests taking place right now in Chicago against Trump this evening.
Keep it up! pic.twitter.com/dsyCj7X5MH
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) October 9, 2025
Hundreds of folks hit the streets in downtown Chicago yesterday afternoon, October 8, marching down Michigan Avenue past Trump Tower to slam ICE raids and the fresh wave of National Guard troops that rolled in after President Trump’s October 4 order to federalize 300 Illinois guardsmen plus 200 from Texas, all to back up agents in spots like Broadview where a woman got shot during a car ramming on October 4 that left feds boxed in by 10 vehicles. This blew up from Operation Midway Blitz kicking off in early September, with DHS hauling in over 100 arrests across neighborhoods like South Shore and Brighton Park, often snagging U.S. citizens and kids in the mix, and it smells like the 1957 Little Rock dust-up where Eisenhower sent troops to enforce school integration but without the civil rights win—instead, it’s Trump testing how far he can push blue-city pushback to lock in federal muscle for good. The crowd, pulled together by the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda with groups like the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Chicago Teachers Union, and United Working Families, swelled to about 1,000 by evening, chanting against what Alderperson Jessie Fuentes called an assault on every Chicagoan, vowing to use every city tool to stall ICE. Trump’s team bets these blowups give cover for more boots on the ground, turning sanctuary spots into flashpoints that justify overriding governors like JB Pritzker, who sued over the Posse Comitatus snag. Look for bigger turnouts at Broadview this weekend, with arrests already topping 13 from Friday’s clash where agents fired pepper balls and tear gas, even nailing over 20 Chicago cops in the mess, and by spring, this could drag lawsuits into 2026 races, splitting voters and tanking turnout in swing wards. Fuentes told the march she’d fight for neighbors door to door, Mayor Brandon Johnson doubled down with his third anti-ICE order calling it straight occupation, while DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin spun the violence as domestic terror from radical leftists, and even Air Force vet Dana Briggs got pinched protesting outside the facility last week. Reports say CBP nabbed mostly non-criminals in these sweeps, with Chicago murders down half in four years per police logs, so the gang takeover line from ICE chief Todd Lyons rings hollow unless you count the real harm from rubber bullets hitting journalists and bystanders.
BREAKING: People are now following ICE vehicles in Chicago, honking their horns and yelling out to make sure that immigrants are warned about their impending arrival. pic.twitter.com/EPdJPtGTYq
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) October 8, 2025