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7:35 p.m.
“I,” “I believe,” “I believe that,” “I believe that we will win,” is the final chant that Guillory leads the crowd through.
The crowd cheered loudly to thank the march marshals and leaders.
Two organizers from Houston, Texas, came to Chicago to participate in this anti-Trump march.
“We going through the same thing in Texas with the redistricting. They [Republicans] are taking away our representation,” said LaWanda Thomas, an accountant for Protest Organize & Participant (P.O.P.)
She said we all need to band together to fight against Trump’s fascist agenda.
“It’s not just happening in one city,” Thomas said. She traveled to Chicago with P.O.P. CEO Gion C. Thomas.
He said it’s time for Black people to get off the sidelines and get into the fight against Trump’s agenda.
“It’s time for us to get in the fight. It is our fight, because we’re next up on the plate. They’re coming after us next after they get the Hispanic community out of here. They’re coming after us. So we have got to get back in this fight,” he said.
The crowd is beginning to disperse. The Coalition Against the Trump Agenda organizers encouraged everyone to look out for each other and to be prepared for more movement actions.
7:20 p.m.
The march is coming to a close. Everyone is gathering back where it started on Michigan Avenue and Ida B. Wells Drive.
“When they come, we don’t freeze,” is the chant being said. “We organize, we take the streets!”
7:00 p.m.
Members of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration are ahead of the march, walking with the Chicago Police Department in a show of solidarity for protestors exercising their First Amendment rights.
“We’re always excited to see people express their First Amendment rights and let the federal administration know how they feel about what they’re trying to do to our city. This is a beautiful demonstration,” said Garien Gatewood, the city’s first-ever Deputy Mayor of Community Safety.
“We’re out here to support the people and make sure their First Amendment rights are protected and that people don’t try to interrupt them,” Gatewood explained. “We’re out here with our police department, Mayor’s Office of Community Safety, and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Rights, our Deputy Mayor of Infrastructure, we’re all here to support people have the ability to express their First Amendment rights. We want to make sure they can do that.“
Asked about what went through his mind when Trump posted an AI-generated meme threatening war against Chicago, Gatewood said, “Somebody using AI to send out a tweet to the city of Chicago don’t shake us, like, you see what we doing in the city, man.”
Gatewood continued, “It’s not lost on me that when we had homicides in the 800s, 900s, he wasn’t talking about coming to the city then. We’re on a 60-year low, and now you want to come to the city? C’mon, man, you know what it is.”
6:55 p.m.
The march is heading north on Michigan Avenue past Lake Street. Northbound traffic is at a standstill but supportive of the march. Many are honking their horns in solidarity.
6:46 p.m.
March leaders stop the protest in front of Trump Tower. “Get the hell out of our backyard, fund the schools, not the Guard,” is the chant being said here now.
“Chicago isn’t licking boots,” the leader on the loudspeaker says. “No to Trump, and no to troops.”
As the march continues its route down Wacker Drive, they recite “f—ck Trump” and “f—ck ICE.”
At Wacker and Michigan Avenue, a line of Chicago police on bicycles are blocking the street, which curves the march to go back south down Michigan Avenue.
6:45 p.m.
The march is moving east down Wacker Drive near Wabash Avenue toward the Trump Tower. The city’s Streets and Sanitation trucks are blocking the bridges to go on the north side of the river.
6:30 p.m.
Activist Kobi Guillory was on the loudspeaker in a red pickup truck leading the crowd, but is now walking along with the march north down State Street.
We spoke along the march route.
“I tend not to pay attention to Trump’s words. We’re responding to his actions right now, which is the action of sending federal troops here to terrorize our Black and brown children. So regardless of what words he uses when he does that, we’re going to fight back,” he said.
“If he’s going to talk about the Department of War…this is a union town. This is a movement town. This is the city of Fred Hampton. This is a city that does not take sh—. I don’t know if you can print that, but this city doesn’t take sh— from anybody. So he can say what he wants to say. He can send the troops; send all the troops he wants to send. We’re gonna fight back, and we’re gonna win because we’re standing together. As you can see, this is a very diverse crowd. It’s a very diverse coalition of organizers. When you have that, as history has shown, whether it’s in South Africa, whether we’re fighting for the end of slavery, fighting for the end of Jim Crow, when the people are united, you can’t lose,” Guillory explained.
6:15 p.m.
Omari Jones learned about today’s protest online through a friend. Asked about Trump’s meme threatening war on Chicago, Jones said that’s typical Trump, trying to be intimidating.
“But I don’t think it’ll work,” Jones said.
Jones said troops are not needed in Chicago.
“Chicago is a very peaceful place of love and community. There’s no need for them here,” Jones said.
The march has stopped near Jackson Boulevard and Plymouth Court. A couple of blocks back, an SUV marked Homeland Security drove down Federal Street off Jackson Boulevard.
“This is where they kidnap migrants”, the march leader said on the loudspeaker.
6:05 pm
“We are walking past that building of that evil institution…” the march leader on the loudspeaker says.
We’re turning north on Clark Street and Ida B. Wells, which is the corner of an ICE facility with a Customs and Border Patrol logo on the front. The address is 101 Ida B. Wells Drive.
5:55 p.m.
“From Chicago to DC, we will fight till we are free” is the chant that marchers are speaking as we approach State Street.
The chants are being said to the rhythm of drums and bells within the crowd.
5:45 p.m.
“Whose streets?”
“Our streets!”
The crowd has begun marching west on Ida B. Wells Drive, as the sun begins to set in front of the march.
As far as Chicago police presence, there are a line of police on the south side of the march. Police are on foot and walking with bicycles.There are also march safety marshals creating a barrier between marchers and the line of police.“Who keeps us safe?”“We keep us safe!”As the march crosses west past Michigan Avenue, they’re chanting, “the people united will never be defeated” in English and Spanish.
5:30 p.m.
Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, of LIVE FREE Illinois, spoke about locking arms and resisting evil head-on, together.
“We have to lock arms and resist evil head-on, because this is pure evil, and we must remember Jesus himself was an immigrant, the Son of God knew what it was to be displaced to flee violence, and to live under Empire,” Bates-Chamberlain said. “If Jesus was the immigrant, then we know without a doubt that God is on the side of the oppressed, the vulnerable and those fighting for freedom today.”
She ended her speech with a call-and-response chant, “We ain’t free til we all free.”
5:25 p.m.
One speaker, Viviana Barajas of Palenque LSNA, is walking the crowd through how they can document ICE or any other federal agents.
Among the instructions are:
- Stay at least an arm’s length apart.
- Film horizontally.
- Focus your filming on the agent’s actions
- Do not share your footage publicly without permission from the people detained or their families.
- Call the FSN (Family Support Network) hotline and speak with an operator about what you’ve captured.
5:20 p.m.
An organizer with the Black Voter Project is speaking about how Chicago has organized for liberation and justice, particularly when they fought to oust former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and former Chicago police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
The Black Voter Project organizer also mentions that Chicago is witnessing historic lows in crime.
The crowd boos at the name of the current State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, who has been silent as President Donald Trump has increased removals of immigrants in Chicago, a sanctuary city.
5:15 p.m
“We want justice! We want justice!”
A good-sized crowd has gathered on Ida B. Wells Drive and Michigan Avenue near The Bowman and the Spearman statues.
Some of the signs in the crowd read the words “ICE out of Chi” and “Occupation is a crime.”
3:30 p.m.
According to PSL Chicago, hundreds of protestors joined the organization’s “No Federal Crackdown on Chicago” action outside of the Naval Station Great Lakes today.
At 5:00 p.m., protestors are expected to gather in downtown Chicago for the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda’s emergency “Chicago Says No Trump, No Troops” protest. The meetup location is the corner of Ida B. Wells Drive and Michigan Avenue, a short walk away from the Metropolitan Correctional Center, which is a federal prison.
The TRiiBE will cover this action.
Earlier this afternoon, Mayor Brandon Johnson responded to Trump’s “Chipocalyse Now” post, threatening war against Chicago.
“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” Johnson wrote on social media. “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
12:00 p.m.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker shared a screenshot of President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social, in which he wrote, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.”
Trump’s post is accompanied by some sort of AI-generated imagery of him in a war general hat surrounded by fire, smoke and helicopters with Chicago’s skyline in the background.
Pritzker shared a screenshot of the post to his Bluesky account just after 11:30 a.m. The governor responded with, “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”
As hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other unidentified federal agents assemble just outside of Chicago at the Naval Station Great Lakes, Chicago organizers have already begun their resistance to President Donald Trump’s desire for a federal takeover.
On Friday, dozens of anti-ICE protestors blocked the path of masked agents in unmarked cars as the vehicles arrived at a federal immigration detention and processing site located in Broadview, a western suburb about 12 miles away from downtown Chicago. The First Presbyterian Church Rev. David Black and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) was among the crowd.
Today, organizers are leading protests across the Chicagoland area: one outside of the Naval Station near North Chicago, a suburb in Lake County, and another in downtown Chicago.
At 12:00 p.m. today, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) Chicago has scheduled an emergency protest, titled “No Federal Crackdown on Chicago.” The meetup location is on the corner of Sheridan Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, just outside the Naval Station Great Lakes.
“ICE has arrived at Naval Station Great Lakes and Trump says he’s sending in troops, too,” PSL Chicago wrote on its Instagram page. “It’s time to defend our communities. When we unite and fight, we win!”
Later today at 5:00 p.m., several organizers under the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA) banner are leading an emergency protest in downtown Chicago, titled “Chicago Says No Trump, No Troops.” The meetup location is the corner of Ida B. Wells Drive and Michigan Avenue, a short walk away from the Metropolitan Correctional Center, which is a federal prison.
“In response to Trump’s threats to send federal troops into Chicago despite no requests from local or state leaders, the CATA and Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) are calling all of Chicago to take a stand in mass demonstration in opposition to any increase in federal troops or militarized forces,” CATA wrote on its Instagram page. “When they come, we don’t freeze. We organize, we take the streets!”
Earlier this week, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge could begin today. CBS News obtained an internal government memo in which the Department of Homeland Security asked the Pentagon to accommodate roughly 250 federal agents and 140 vehicles at the Naval Station.
Local leaders still haven’t received any confirmation that Trump is sending in the National Guard or any other military force.
Chicago Police Department (CPD) Supt. Larry Snelling has said that CPD cannot and will not interfere with federal agents’ work. He said CPD officers alone won’t be dispatched to calls related to immigration.
“What we will do is send a supervisor to that location to assess,” he said. “Once the assessment is made, and we know that it’s only immigration enforcement going on, our officers will not be in those areas assisting in any way when it comes to immigration enforcement.”
Outside the Broadview federal immigration facility on Friday, according to Unraveled Press, suburban police were on the scene. According to a press release from the nearby Berwyn Police Department, which was posted on the department’s Facebook page, the Broadview Police Department requested help for additional police assistance during the anti-ICE protest.
“The Berwyn Police Department answered the request and has dedicated resources to support the Broadview Police and the citizens who attend this event in the peaceful exercise of their First Amendment rights,” according to the press release. “The Berwyn Police Department has not had any contact or communication with any federal agency regarding this planned demonstration. We continue to support all our city ordinances and state statutes without wavering.”
Unravaled Press is back outside the Broadview immigration facility today, along with other members of the press. In a Bluesky thread, the indie newsroom is posting reports from the scene.
Two men in camo with an ICE Special Response Team (per patch) are inside the gates of the processing center outside Chicago this morning. Hard to make out, but one of them is also sporting a patch with what looks like the Chicago flag on it.
— unraveled (@unraveledpress.com) September 6, 2025 at 10:14 AM
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