NEWS: ICE agent charged with drunken driving after shift at Broadview detention center. Car crash into a hedgerow. Trump’s Midway Blitz is claimed to be inspired by an undocumented drunk driving death. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/05/i...

His face uncovered and wearing dress clothes in place of his military fatigues, CBP agent Paul Delgado strode to the front of a federal courtroom Wednesday morning to testify about the minutes preceding the arrest of a Lakeview comedy club manager. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/05/i...

911 calls in Little Village, an epicenter of "Operation Midway Blitz," have dropped like a rock. Neighborhood crime is way down but fear of federal agents is way up. Reported by @samjcharles.bsky.social, @lauranrodriguez.bsky.social and Rebecca Johnson www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/03/9...

In fact I have had it up to here with your west country talk and I do think it is going to rain today www.youtube.com/watch?v=tas2...

Some tags from the last few weeks: Gangster Party People at 18th/May or so, 18th/Wood; Latin Kings from somewhere on 99th Street in Calumet Park

Seen outside Kimball brown line stop following border patrol activity at Kedzie and Lawrence

NEWS: Feds made another arrest in an O’Hare parking lot that led to them tasering the guy they were trying to apprehend and a three-car crash. Mayor Brandon Johnson issued an EO barring fed enforcement from city property like ORD earlier this month. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/31/b...

A lawsuit just filed against DHS alleges that federal agents refused arrestees medical care or showers, called them racial slurs and "only gave them food and water for what they felt was good behavior.” Via Madeline Buckley + @royalpratt.bsky.social www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/31/b...

East Siding

NEWS: Bovino won't have to make a daily court appearance. For now. DOJ motion argues that would hamper mission of "ensuring the Nation’s immigration laws are properly enforced by waylaying a senior executive official critical to that mission on a daily basis.” www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/29/b...

Border patrol in 3 pm traffic. 19th and Ashland.

NEWS: Cmdr. Gregory Bovino has to appear in court daily at 6 p.m. to report on Border Patrol's enforcement activities. Directive follows multiple alleged violations of court order not to tear-gas bystanders, among other provisions. via @jmetr22b.bsky.social www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/28/j...

"One man... came with a Mason jar with a goldfish inside and a dog collar and leash around the neck of the jar, and tried to convince her that his entry was an Afghan hound who was dressed as a goldfish." - Rick Kogan, giving us all a break from Midway Blitz. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/28/c...

A South Side drill rapper with close ties to Chicago musician Lil Durk was shot and killed in Little Village Saturday. via @samjcharles.bsky.social www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/27/t...

Gig workers and street vendors and day laborers hit by feds in Chicago immigration crackdown www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/27/d...

In case you wanted to know what was going through the heads of some Chicago police as the feds throw tear gas and make arrests throughout the city, Jeremy Gorner and I have you covered here. What they have to say may surprise you. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/26/c...

Seen at 21st and Damen.

I am seven kinds of in love with Chicago

ICE responded two days after I asked for a statement on Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle making county property “ICE free zones.” I’m not sure they know who SHE (a cis woman in her position for 15 years + 19 on Chi City Council) is. They use “he” and “his” so it’s not a spelling error.

MORE NEWS: Heavily redacted video footage released by CPD offers a brief window into the night that federal immigration agents stormed a South Shore apartment building as part of so-called "Operation Midway Blitz" W @samjcharles.bsky.social and Rebecca Johnson www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/17/s...

A guy told federal agents parked in a McKinley Park alley outside his family's auto shop that they were "Nazi skinheads." He and others said they saw agents transferring arrestees between cars in the alley. Same morning as a raid on the Swap-O-Rama at 41st/Ashland. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBYD...

Morning dispatch from Broadview. Photos by the indefatigable @staceywescott.bsky.social www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/17/b...

ISP just arrested at least seven people including a woman with an accordion we they pushed protesters back down beach street. State cops in riot gear, sheriffs police and Broadview cops all on scene. People in fatigues closer to the building but can’t tell if they are Feds

Good morning from outside ICE’s Broadview, Ill. processing center, where the fence is down and a lot of concrete barricades are up. No protesters really yet — technically they are not allowed to start til 9 but we’ll see how that holds up.

Federal judge orders immigration agents to turn on any bodycams they may be wearing during interactions with the public in Chicago. Says she is "profoundly concerned” that agents are her earlier order restricting use of tear gas on media and protesters. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/16/j...

As a rule I am more inclined toward the old @themountaingoats.bsky.social catalog over their newer stuff but have been really enjoying COLD AT NIGHT. "Let yourself go in the current Only rise and fall as the angles allow Finally make a break for the surface" www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qm7...

DHS claims a “high-ranking Latin Kings member” from Chicago, solicited the murder of top Border Patrol chief. But at his indictment, there was no mention of gang ties. His lawyers & family say DHS’s narrative of Juan Espinoza Martinez, is false. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/15/c...

Feds swept a parking lot of rideshare drivers near O'Hare last Friday. Read to the end. @taliasoglin.bsky.social (one of my best humans) on working people caught up in the story of the times www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/15/i...

Dispatch from this morning/afternoon in East Side, with @samjcharles.bsky.social and photos by Terrence A. James

Chaos at 105th Street and Avenue N. A couple bricks and possibly an egg got thrown at a squad of federal agents who were standing in the intersection. Two cars — a white SUV and a red one — got trucked out after a chase and a crash, per neighbors. At least three detained from this confrontation.

....Driving along with your hand out squeezing the air, a meadowlark waiting on every post. Behind a shelterbelt of cedars, top-deep in hollyhocks, pollen and bees, a pickup kicks its fenders off and settles back to read the clouds. "So This is Nebraska" www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42625/...

Went to church and a bunch of other places with Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson as she navigates an intense chapter in the life of the village and the country as a whole. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/11/r...

VERY IMPORTANT NEWS: New Dem Atlas open.spotify.com/album/0kn3jS...

“Who knows what tomorrow may bring… tomorrow the feds may be on unicycles.” - a transit oriented friend as we are (trying) to make plans in a rapidly changing news landscape

Journalism is so glamorous pt infinity: sitting in the grass in an industrial corridor writing and peering around for national guard troops

A man came home from work yesterday to find his roommate dead and tied up in their Bridgeport apartment following an apparent burglary, per a police report. No firm ID yet on the victim. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/08/a...

Standing room only for the Broadview, IL village board meeting this evening. Like it’s 2022 again — follow along, yes?

Chaos in Brighton Park. This is representative of the amount / direction of pepper and smoke sent into the neighborhood, in this case, for no reason I can discern other than because they were leaving. Feds had a clear path out in a different direction, and residents were vocal but not violent here.

Kedzie and Pershing. 3 p.m. Feds v. Protesting civilians

Kedzie and Pershing. 3 p.m. Feds v. Protesting civilians

Greg Bovino in the middle of this arrest. I have counted six so far. Agents and protesters are standing off at the intersection with ISP and other agencies scattered around. ISP masking up.

Broadview, 9:18 a.m.

Broadview, 9:15 am.

Broadview, 7:25 a.m. ISP on scene in riot gear

Hebrew prayer on the grass

Broadview, 7:10 a.m. Group just roughly doubled in size

Two Broadview public works trucks are parked on the sidewalk. People are marching around them.

Broadview, 6:40 a.m.

I look up and it’s October