'Terrifying Escalation' as Trump's Federal Troops Bring War-Like Scenes and Chaos to Chicago

Federal immigration enforcement officials have been ramping up operations in Chicago in recent days, including in a violent confrontation on Tuesday in a neighborhood in which agents deployed smoke grenades, pepper balls, and tear gas against local demonstrators.

As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, the confrontation began when federal agents deliberately rammed into a car that they had been pursuing on the Southeast Side of Chicago.

The collision with the vehicle forced the car's two occupants to exit the vehicle and flee from law enforcement officials on foot. Shortly after this, a crowd of local residents came out of their homes and began protesting against the actions of the immigration agents.

According to the Sun-Times, "a large number of armed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents responded to the crowd by hurling smoke grenades, shooting pepper balls and deploying at least three rounds of tear gas over the area, even with children and seniors in the area." By the end of the confrontation, four protesters were placed under arrest, as were the two men who were targeted for arrest by immigration enforcement officials.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker expressed outrage over the incident and demanded accountability from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over what he described in a social media post as "unchecked attacks on Chicago residents."

"[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is an out-of-control danger to our peaceful communities," he added.

Andre Vasquez, a Chicago City Council member, told The New York Times in an interview that federal immigration officials are causing chaos throughout the city.

"Chicago’s been doing just fine, and then these guys showed up," he said. "There is big concern about what these unidentified, masked men are doing in this city without accountability. Chicagoans are just trying to live their life. We’re not going to tolerate unconstitutional authoritarianism."

As Common Dreams has reported, the Trump administration has deployed federal agents to several cities that it claims are overrun with crime—but statistics have shown violent crime on a significant decline in recent years in Chicago and other cities targeted by the president.

Oscar Sanchez, who volunteers for a local rapid response network that tracks immigration enforcement activities, told the Sun-Times that the latest actions by CBP agents mark a significant escalation in law enforcement aggression.

“When you’re using these tactics, you are asking people to be hospitalized,” he said. “You see elderly folks on the [ground], so you just ask yourself, what is this for? Why is the aggression needed? Why are these elevated tactics even being used?”

Sanchez's words were echoed by six Chicago activists who took part in 1960s demonstrations against the Vietnam War, and who wrote an editorial for the Sun-Times in which they described the tactics being used by law enforcement as a "terrifying escalation" beyond anything used by law enforcement officials during the famous anti-war demonstrations outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

After describing the actions taken by the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois National Guard during the 1968 protests—including "clubbing, corralling, gassing protesters, dragging many of us into patrol wagons"—they said that what the Trump administration is doing today is even worse.

"Flouting the Constitution, President Donald Trump has declared war on the very people he was elected to serve," they wrote. "The Trump administration, weaponizing the Department of Homeland Security against ordinary Americans, is occupying Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Memphis, Chicago, and Portland, deploying military tactics to stifle free speech, staging performative raids under the pretext of pursuing dangerous criminals, and subverting democratic norms without accountability."

The end goal of these operations, the activists warned, is "a brazen attempt to instill fear in and demand obedience of all Americans."