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10/2/2025 — 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.
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) announced flight restrictions on drones for much of the Chicago area on Wednesday, effective immediately and lasting until Oct. 12. The restrictions, “for Special Security Reasons,” apply to unmanned drones flown up to an altitude of 400 feet; the affected area extends from downtown Chicago in a radius of 15 nautical miles to include the city and all of the collar suburbs – including Broadview.
The FAA further indicated that the affected area is now considered “national defense airspace,” warning that those who violate its restrictions may face civil or criminal penalties and that the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice “may take security action that results in the interference, disruption, seizure, damaging, or destruction of unmanned aircraft deemed to pose a credible safety or security threat to protected personnel … or assets.”
Exceptions to the flight restrictions include drones flown for a commercial purpose with a “valid statement of work,” as well as drones flown “in support of an act [of] national defense, homeland security, law enforcement, firefighting … or disaster response mission.”
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More details emerged Thursday on the incident Wednesday where federal agents appeared to place a Black man in a choke hold in East Garfield Park. Agents temporarily detained and seemingly choked the man following a car crash at the intersection of Congress Parkway and California Avenue on Chicago’s West Side.
Federal agents told a witness on the scene Wednesday that they were responding to a robbery, and not conducting immigration enforcement. New video shows the agents escorting the man – with his hands behind his back – down an alley near a nearby gas station.
The Chicago Police Department told The TRiiBE late Wednesday that the man was released on scene, and that their investigation into the incident is ongoing.
A coalition of Black community organizations on Thursday also denounced the federal agents’ behavior, calling it an “unlawful, violent attack.”
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Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff’s deputies and Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills were present outside the Broadview ICE facility on Thursday afternoon. They told Unraveled reporters on scene that they were there “to check things out” and “make sure it’s safe.”
More details on what the local police were doing at the facility are not yet available.
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7:00 a.m.
Community members began reporting sightings on the Northwest Side early today. Videos shared online show what appears to be at least seven agents entering a house near the intersection of Thomas Street and Harding Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Northwest Side Rapid Response later issued an alert stating the agents detained two people, reportedly parents. The rapid response team further reported that, per witnesses on the scene, the agents broke down the house’s door without presenting a warrant.
Federal agents were also active in the west suburbs. Video shared to social media shows agents detaining at least one person on a road near the Fox River in Aurora.
Elgin Area Rapid Response confirmed that federal agents had been spotted in Elgin prior to 7:00 a.m. The agents were spotted in a blue Ford Explorer in the 1000 block of Hampshire Lane near Congdon Avenue. Video shared online shortly after 8:30 a.m. shows two masked federal agents detaining at least one person in the Steeple Hill condo complex in Hoffman Estates, near the intersection of Mesa Drive and Valley Lane.
8:00 a.m.
Video shared shortly before 8:30 a.m. shows at least four federal agents, all in plainclothes, detaining a person at a Home Depot in suburban Glenview.
9:00 a.m.
Elgin Area Rapid Response continued to confirm sightings in the west suburbs, confirming that at least five agents had been seen at 7:40 a.m. in St. Charles, in the parking lot of a shopping center off Main Street and Kautz Road.
A federal agent was seen conducting the arrest of another man in Chicago’s Hermosa neighborhood around 9:00 a.m. at the corner of Armitage and Cicero avenues. Federal agents have targeted Cicero Avenue, which runs through multiple heavily Latine and Black neighborhoods, on multiple occasions since the start of September.
Northwest Side Rapid Response later reported that four agents were involved with the Armitage and Cicero arrest, and that the man arrested had been hit by a passing car.
11:00 a.m.
Community organizing group Increase The Peace released videos of federal agents conducting arrests around 11:00 a.m. off 47th Street and Marshfield Avenue in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. The agents can be seen loading an older man into the trunk of a black minivan with no front license plate when another man in the same vehicle attempts to escape. The agents catch him and place him back into the vehicle, as he blows on a whistle.
Rapid response teams have led trainings across the city, instructing people to use whistles to alert other community members to the presence of immigration agents.
Southwest Side Rapid Response reported at least three arrests stemming from the incident on 47th and Marshfield. The rapid response team also reported that agents arrested at least three other people near 47th Street and Kedzie Avenue, and 45th Street and California Avenue, between 10 and 11 a.m.
Agents were also present in the west suburbs into the late morning. Images shared around 11:15 a.m. show two federal agents arresting one man at the Jet Brite Car Wash off the 1400 block of N. Farnsworth Avenue in Aurora.
Around the same time, at least five agents in two vehicles were spotted in the parking lot of a shopping center at the corner of Barrington Road and Walnut Avenue in Hanover Park.
State Senator Karina Villa released her own community alert just before noon, warning Aurora residents that immigration agents were present. She specified the following areas in her alert:
“Aurora Transportation Center neighborhood, on Fulton St., on High St., on East St., near Prairie St and Woodlawn on the West side, and on Galena on the west side, downtown Aurora, Indian Trail, near Sacred Heart church, Aurora Post Office.”
12:00 p.m.
Two federal agents were photographed conducting an arrest in the parking lot of the Las Brisas Del Mar restaurant, off 51st Street and Kedzie Avenue in Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood, just after noon.
Border Patrol agents used their smartphones to record an observer in a lot behind the Forman Mills clothing store off 47th Street and Damen Avenue. Video of the encounter was shared to social media around noon.
At least two federal agents were also present at the Pulaski Orange Line stop sometime after noon. It is unclear from available video if they conducted any arrests.
1:00 p.m.
Federal agents were again spotted conducting an arrest near 47th and Kedzie around 1:00 p.m. They were joined by individuals in masks and high-visibility vests taking photos of the arrest.
Berwyn-Cicero Rapid Response reports that around 1:15 p.m., federal agents arrested a fruit vendor selling produce near where I-55 passes over Cicero Avenue. The rapid response team has asked for community members to help the vendor’s family find his car, which remains near the underpass.
Federal agents were also spotted conducting arrests near the intersection of Green Bay Road and Washington Street in Waukegan around 1:30 p.m.
