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09/17/2025 — WHAT WE’VE HEARD TODAY:
The TRiiBE is working in collaboration with indie investigative newsroom Unraveled Press and alt-weekly Chicago Reader to bring you confirmed sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents in the Chicago area.
This morning, the Northwest Side Rapid Response Team announced through its Instagram page that federal agents were spotted in Chicago’s Belmont Cragin and Logan Square neighborhoods at 9:30 a.m. The rapid response team said that the agents were last seen on Fullerton Avenue and Pulaski Road.
Other Chicago neighborhoods are reporting sightings of federal agents as well, including Wicker Park.
Also this morning, in a video one user posted on the BlueSky social media platform, a masked agent can be seen driving around the parking lot of a Target in west suburban Cicero around 6:30 a.m. The sighting was confirmed by the Berwyn-Cicero Rapid Response Team.
Today, Gov. JB Pritzker asked Illinoisans to join him in demanding answers from the Trump Administration about the execution of “Operation Midway Blitz.” Some of the questions he shared on social media also include: How many of those who have been detained, arrested, or deported are U.S. Citizens? How many Legal Permanent Residents? How many visa holders or other legal immigrants?
According to media reports, some U.S. citizens were among those arrested in an early-morning home raid in Elgin that was conducted Tuesday by Customs and Border Protection agents alongside Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
On Tuesday, local community leaders and some elected officials encouraged undocumented residents to stay home as much as possible as federal agents lurk around Chicago and surrounding suburbs, according to reporting by the Chicago Tribune.
Additionally, ICE agents were not wearing body cameras when one of them fatally shot Silverio Villegas González during a traffic stop in suburban Franklin Park on Sept. 12, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. According to the Sun-Times, ICE launched a $25 million body camera pilot program in 2021, which was discontinued after President Donald Trump took office this year.
Last month, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order that “urges all federal law enforcement and U.S. armed forces commanding offices and personnel who may be ordered to operate in Chicago adhere to the following policies and operational requirements CPD officers uphold everyday” such as wearing and activating body cameras and not wearing masks. His order applies to law enforcement operations within the city limits, but it’s unclear how much power it has as witnesses are reporting sightings of masked federal agents in Chicago, too.
On Tuesday, Johnson signed the “Right to Protest” executive order, which seeks to protect the free speech of Chicagoans and ensure that Chicago police officers protect the First Amendment rights of residents.
5:00 p.m.
One person was reportedly detained as federal agents were said to be active on Archer and Western avenues in Chicago’s Little Village community between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. today, according to the Southwest Rapid Response Team.
The Berwyn-Cicero Rapid Response Team posted on IG nearly 30 minutes ago that federal agents are continually patrolling Cicero Avenue from “Roosevelt to Pershing, and entering the parking lots at Home Depot, Target, and Menards.” According to Berwyn-Cicero Rapid Response, the agents “start in the early morning around 6am and continue throughout the day.”
The Little Village Community Council has encouraged residents to use whistles to alert others when federal agents are present, an idea that came about after the group talked to people in Los Angeles, Block Club Chicago reports. Neighbors reportedly distributes bright orange whistles after their Know Your Rights workshops at the Little Village arch at 3100 W. 26th St. on Wednesday evenings.
3:00 p.m.
Federal agents were spotted in the south suburb of Evergreen Park this morning near 91st Street and Western Avenue. Video footage taken by a witness at the scene shows agents driving off after they seemingly arrest a driver of a vehicle that is then left on the side of the road across from the ice cream shop Rainbow Cone, which sits in the neighboring community of Beverly.
A follow-up video taken at the scene shows the abandoned vehicle with both driver and passenger windows busted out. The Spanish caption of the video reads “conpartan que la familia reconozca el carro,” which translates in English to “share so that the family can recognize the car.” It is not clear what time this arrest happened.
2:00 p.m.
A woman was threatened by a federal agent who held pepper spray up to her face as she recorded their actions in Bensenville, a suburb that sits next to O’Hare International Airport. In the video, the woman asks several questions, including, “Do you guys have warrants?”
Per Southwest Rapid Response, federal agents were seen at the Home Depot on 47th Street and Western Boulevard near Brighton Park between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. At least five people were detained at the scene, according to the Southwest Rapid Response Team.
11:00 a.m.
A witness video posted to Facebook about an hour ago shows two agents making an arrest at S & L Food and Liquor on Lavergne Avenue and Fullerton Avenue in Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood. In the footage, a masked agent can be seen recording a video as the other agent seems to be handcuffing a man. The voices that can be heard in the video say that the individual was “just walking” before the agents encountered him.
10:00 a.m.
Federal agents were spotted this morning in suburban Wheaton, which is 25 miles west of downtown Chicago. According to Chicago Reader news editor Shawn Mulcahy, bystanders recorded agents as they boxed in a person’s car outside a convenience store. According to Mulcahy, the agents left the scene after a “back-and-forth” between them and the witnesses.
An eyewitness account from the Chicago-based investigative platform Lucy Parsons Labs shows pictures of two masked agents on Chicago’sWicker Park neighborhood at 10:10 a.m. According to Lucy Parsons Labs, the two agents with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “pulled up on our neighbor, threw him in the back of their car, and sped [off].”
9:40 a.m.
According to the Chicago Far South Rapid Response Team, federal agents were spotted on 79th Street and Cicero Avenue in south suburban Burbank at the Lowe’s Home Improvement store at 9:40 a.m. today. The store also neighbors the Chicago neighborhood of Ashburn.
In their post, Chicago Far South Rapid Response said multiple unmarked federal cars were at the scene and “federal agents chased an individual across the parking lot at the Lowe’s location at 79th & Cicero, tackling and detaining one person.”
A witness video of the encounter shows a federal agent running after a person as the recorder of the video reacts, saying, “No! They got him!”
6:55 a.m.
In a summary of ICE activity and sightings for Sept. 17, Elgin Area Rapid Response posted on its Facebook page that there was an immigration-related traffic stop reported in West Chicago at 6:55 a.m.
Elgin Rapid Response also confirmed that two vehicles that were seen at a “home invasion” in Elgin on Sept. 16 were in the “vicinity of Laurel Elementary School in Hanover Park.” The rapid response team is using the term “home invasion” to describe the immigration enforcement activity witnessed.
Hanover Park is a village located about 33 miles west of downtown Chicago.
