Federal immigration arrests are colliding with community life in Chicago at a moment of both celebration and heightened tension. Last weekend, amid Mexican Independence Day festivities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carried out arrests across the Southwest Side and nearby suburbs—and fatally shot a man in suburban Franklin Park—under Operation Midway Blitz, a new enforcement surge in Illinois. On Tuesday, Customs and Border Patrol announced another initiative, Operation At Large, would also target the Chicago area. The crackdown comes amid President Donald Trump’s escalating attacks on immigrants.
On Friday, September 12, ICE agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez during a traffic stop in Franklin Park, a suburb west of Chicago. Silverio, originally from Michoacán, Mexico, was thirty-eight. He was a father of two and worked as a cook, WBEZ reported. A GoFundMe that was set up to help with funeral and memorial costs describes Villegas-Gonzalez as someone a “cherished friend,” and “kind soul” who “touched the lives of so many.”
ICE claimed that Villegas-Gonzalez attempted to flee and dragged an agent with his car before another officer fatally shot him. But WBEZ noted that eyewitness accounts do not all agree that the ICE agent was dragged. That detail comes directly from ICE’s account of the incident. According to WBEZ’s reporting, witnesses only confirmed what they saw after the shooting, and their accounts differed on how far, or whether the agent had actually been dragged.
“The chaos that unfolded in Franklin Park was an avoidable tragedy,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson in a statement posted to social media on Saturday. “Our prayers are with the family and friends of Silverio Villegas González as they grieve this loss. We’ve said from the beginning that the presence of federal immigration agents on city streets will make life more dangerous for our neighbors, and for all.”
At a vigil in Franklin Park on Monday, neighbors and activists gathered with candles, flowers, and handwritten signs demanding answers.
In Little Village, the arrest of Willian Alberto Giménez González on Friday has drawn outcry from community members. Kevin Herrera, Giménez González’s attorney, told the Weekly his client was arrested by ICE agents on Cermak Avenue around 11:00am while on his way to a barbershop with his wife. Agents called out his name, and after he confirmed his identity, they detained him without answering questions, “stranding” his wife, who doesn’t drive, with the couple’s car.
Herrera said Giménez González was “basically disappeared for two days.” His name also did not appear in ICE’s detainee locator until after elected officials and community members held a press conference demanding his release.
“So I headed to Broadview processing center in Broadview, Illinois, in the suburbs, hoping to locate him,” Herrera said. “No one would answer the door when I attempted to talk to the guards there, they would not talk to me or answer my questions. And so…the community around organizing to demand release.”
Herrera said Giménez González, who’s from Venezuela, does not have a serious criminal record. In 2024, he was one of several men arrested for allegedly trespassing at a Home Depot while seeking day-labor work. Herrera is representing Gimenéz González as a plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging Home Depot security guards profiled and attacked him and other day laborers.
The lawsuit, which Herrera shared with the Weekly, accuses authorities of systematically profiling Latino workers based on their skin color, language, and low-wage jobs. Herrera said he believes that lawsuit and the publicity around it is part of why ICE detained Giménez González.
“It’s terror tactics and it’s all theater for them, but it’s breaking our families’ hearts and our community’s heart,” Herrera said.
ICE Safety Guide
On September 14, ICE detained Mexican immigrants Moises Enciso Trejo and Constantina Ramirez Meraz during a traffic stop in Cicero. According to a statement released by Trejo’s attorney, Shelby Vcelka, the couple’s eldest son was also taken into custody but released two hours later. Agents questioned the couple’s younger children when they arrived at the scene.
The arrest happened on the same day as the family’s youngest child’s tenth birthday. “Their ten-year-old son watched helplessly as his parents were taken away on his birthday—a day meant for joy, not fear,” the statement read. “Moises Enciso and Constantina Ramirez do not have a criminal background. They are beloved parents and valued members of their community.”
The same weekend that federal agents carried out these arrests, families lined 26th Street for the Mexican Independence Day parade in Little Village. The sidewalks were filled with flags and food vendors.
Young girls wave from a decorated float during the Mexican Independence Day parade where community pride shone through despite fears of recent ICE activity. 
Turnout at the Mexican Independence Day parade in Little Village was smaller than in past years, as some residents stayed home amid heightened ICE activity. 
A woman holds a sign reading “Hands off Chicago” during the Mexican Independence Day parade, a message of defiance amid fears of increased ICE enforcement. Credit: Alma Campos
Among the crowd was María Hernández and her son Jesús, who traveled from Cicero to attend for their second year in a row. Jesús’s favorite part was the parade of fire trucks. Hernández said that while turnout was lower compared to last year, when “this whole street was full,” she enjoyed this year’s celebration more, pointing to the energy and community spirit along the route. She insisted that families could not let fear control them.
“Life has to go on the same, because you can’t stop your life just because of what might happen,” she said. “If you’re scared all the time, you’ll end up getting sick. Any patrol car, any noise, will scare you.”
These three cases are far from isolated. According to reporting by the Sun-Times, ICE arrested 537 more people in Illinois between mid-January and the end of July of 2025 than during the same period in 2024—a 59 percent increase. Meanwhile, detentions at the Broadview processing center and downtown Chicago jumped by 3,182 people, a rise of 185 percent over the same timeframe.
At a City Council hearing on immigrant and refugee rights held Friday, September 12, Committee Chair Andre Vasquez cited federal data showing an 800 percent rise in detentions of immigrants without criminal records.
“So while President Trump’s attention appears to have shifted to deploying the National Guard to Memphis—or so he says—make no mistake: the federal presence in our city is already here. It’s been here, and it will continue to escalate in the following months,” he said.
The recent wave of arrests began with a handful the weekend of September 6, while Trump was still threatening to deploy the National Guard to Chicago. The president has since wavered on whether to send troops here.
The Southwest Rapid Response Team confirmed ICE presence and at least three arrests that weekend of community members on a stretch along Archer Avenue near Curie High School. The arrested persons included a man who was waiting at a CTA bus stop and a flower vendor well-known in the neighborhood, who’s reportedly already back with his family in Veracruz, Mexico.
Dozens of community members and elected officials gathered near the site of the arrests on September 8, where Karina Martinez, the communications coordinator for Brighton Park Neighborhood Community Council (BPNC) said the arrests were of community members on their way to work—people with ties to the community.
“Most of them are people who are just living their daily lives”, Martinez said. The three [arrests] we saw on Archer Avenue earlier this week were people who were trying to go to work, people who were trying to sell flowers, a street vendor, someone who was just walking around the community.”
Martinez directed community members to call the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights’ 24-Hour Emergency Support hotline (1-855-435-7693) whenever they witness or hear reports of possible ICE activity.
Alma Campos is the Weekly’s immigration reporter and project editor. José Abonce is the senior program manager for the Chicago Neighborhood Policing Initiative and a freelance reporter who focuses on immigration, public safety, politics, and race.
