loading . . . _This is part of our series of daily recaps of ICE activity in the Chicago region. Have a tip we should check out? Email_ [email protected]_.
CHICAGO — Members of the city’s police district councils are calling for a public hearing into how Chicago police officers have interacted with federal agents during the government’s local immigration enforcement blitz.
Nearly three dozen members of the local police district watchdog boards on Thursday signed a letter asking the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability to call a public hearing “to investigate the actions, communications, collaborations, and operational interactions” between local law enforcement and agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
The hearing would “document and evaluate” if there’s been any coordination, data-sharing or joint activity during the immigration raids, the councilors wrote in the letter. It would also determine whether there’s been any violations of the city’s Welcoming City Ordinance, which dictates local law enforcement can’t assist with federal immigration enforcement.
Chicago’s “Welcoming City” status, also known as sanctuary city status, has been the subject of much controversy and confusion in recent years, especially since migrants began arriving en masse to Chicago in 2022 and in the wake of operations Midway Blitz and At Large, the government’s overlapping immigration campaigns in the area.
Police officers have been spotted during intense confrontations between protestors and federal immigration officials, and there have been previous calls to investigate whether there’s been coordination. But the department has maintained that they’ve responded only to help with traffic and crowd control at scenes of immigration enforcement.
Those signing the letter are members of the city’s police district councils, which are civilian boards charged with overseeing police operations at each of the city’s 22 local police districts. Some of those members also make up the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, a citywide board charged with improving public safety and relationships between police and neighbors.
Both the local district councils and the citywide commission were created in 2021. The commission oversees the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department and the chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Calling for such a hearing is line with the district council members’ mission to promote public safety and improve relations between police and neighbors, said 12th District Councilor Leonardo Quintero.
Commissioners for the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability are currently reviewing the request and “will determine next steps as a body,” said a spokesperson for the agency.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the hearing request.
Chicago Police respond as dozens of neighbors protest ICE and federal agents conduct immigration raids in Little Village on Oct. 23, 2025. Credit: Vincent D. Johnson for Block Club Chicago
## Happening In The City
Agents were seen making an arrest near Kedzie and Byron avenues in Albany Park around 6:45 a.m. Thursday, according to the Northwest Side Rapid Response team.
## In The News
**Chicago Daycare Teacher Taken By Feds Has Been Released Ahead Of Bond Hearing** : Diana Santillana Galeano was pulled out of a North Center daycare by federal immigration agents last week. She plans to meet with parents who advocated for her release Friday at a nearby park.
**FROM PROPUBLICA:****Venezuelans Were Rounded Up In Dramatic South Shore Raid But Never Charged With A Crime** : Authorities said Tren de Aragua “terrorists” had taken over the building. A ProPublica investigation found little evidence to back up the government’s claims. For the first time, the Venezuelans arrested in a Chicago raid are telling their stories.
**6 Broadview Protestors Plead Not Guilty To Conspiracy Charges As Supporters Rally** : Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh is among a group of defendants that includes other public officials and candidates for office. They’re scheduled to return to court next month.
**FROM SUN-TIMES:****Lawyer Seeking Preliminary Injunction In Lawsuit Over Protest Hours Appears Outside Broadview ICE Facility** : Robert Held filed suit on Oct. 27, aiming to overturn the Broadview mayor’s executive order establishing time limits and designated areas for protests outside the facility.
**FROM SUN-TIMES & ILLINOIS ANSWERS PROJECT: ****Feds Deployed Tear Gas On The Far South Side Even After Cops Told Them They Had No Gas Masks, Sources Say** : The agents deployed gas, smoke and other riot-control chemicals against residents and officers, including Chicago Police Department Deputy Chief Dan O’Connor, who had asked them not to use the gas, law enforcement sources say.
**FROM TRIBUNE:****Can Federal Immigration Agents Go In Schools? Here’s What To Know** : With President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration enforcement at schools and day cares, the fear among families is palpable.
**FROM TRIBUNE:****The Tribune Got A Rare Look Inside Broadview’s ICE Processing Center In 2009. Here’s What We Saw** : In 2009, the Chicago Tribune got a rare look inside the controversial building that now holds immigration detainees during Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz.”
**FROM CBS2: Judge To Tour Broadview ICE Processing Facility Amid Claims Of Inhumane Conditions**: Attorneys and an expert will join the judge as she walks through holding cells, the processing rooms and areas where people are searched and identified.
**FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:Chicagoans Buy Out Street Vendors Amid A Federal Immigration Crackdown**: Some Chicagoans have pooled money in their neighborhoods or through local organizations while others have simply bought out taco stands while on their way to work or tamale vendors outside their local bars.
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