Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is calling for federal agents to pause immigration enforcement in the Chicago area until after Halloween, amid widespread condemnation of violent arrests and confrontations with residents. Meanwhile, the person at the center of much of Chicago’s enforcement, Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, did a five-hour deposition Thursday in a case challenging federal agents’…
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The Department of Justice is charging Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh and five others with conspiracy to impede a U.S. law enforcement officer and impeding a U.S. law enforcement officer. Abughazaleh is running in the Democratic primary against incumbent Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw and 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt were also charged in the…
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“It’s all hands on deck and we have to fight. This is the only way,” says Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. In this episode of Movement Memos, Simpson and host Kelly Hayes discuss lessons from Simpson’s book Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead and the ongoing struggle against ICE in Chicago, where Hayes is involved in rapid response efforts. Music: Son Monarcas and Leanne…
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As the Trump administration turbocharges the growth of a nonstop dragnet, turning daily life into a data trail ready to be weaponized, Chicago is serving as one of its most visible targets. The city has long been a flashpoint for the oppressive expansion of digital surveillance. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), universities, and local police have all deployed powerful new technologies to…
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Oct. 28, 2025. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
In an effort to further ratchet up its already brutal and indiscriminate mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration has begun a sweeping purge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership across US cities. The agency’s leaders are expected to be replaced with even more aggressive officials from the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection.
In what was dubbed a “midnight massacre,” the Washington Examiner reported that over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quietly relieved the ICE field office directors in five US cities—Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego—of their duties.
It is expected to be just the beginning of a broader overhaul, carried out “in hopes of netting more arrests and ratcheting up its flashy, high-profile deportation campaign.” Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin later reported that up to 12 of the agency’s 24 regional directors may be replaced, including those in El Paso, Seattle, Portland, and New Orleans.
The replacements are expected to come from the ranks of the US Border Patrol, which—to an even greater extent than ICE—has carried out indiscriminate mass arrests of immigrants, regardless of whether they have criminal records.
Many of the replacements are expected to be handpicked by Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander currently leading President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, where he’s faced widespread criticism for his ruthless tactics against protesters and for his apparent authorization of explicit racial profiling when carrying out arrests.
Under his watch, federal immigration enforcement carried out the infamous overnight raid on a South Shore apartment building earlier this month in which agents rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters and indiscriminately broke down residents’ doors, smashed furniture and belongings, and dragged dozens
A district court judge in southwest Nebraska will let the state move forward with Gov. Jim Pillen’s plans to convert a state prison into a detention center for migrants facing deportation proceedings. Red Willow County District Judge Patrick Heng, in a 17-page ruling Monday, ruled that Pillen and Rob Jeffreys, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, did not violate the…
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