Weekend Opinion: ICE Frustration Post
This is chaos; we need a plan to pressure our leaders to step up
This is a post about ICE in Evanston. I think we need ideas. Throw them in the comments. If you are not helpful, I’m going to delete your comment.
If you’re a District 65 parent, you’re probably answering questions like this today:
What is ICE doing? How are the adults going to protect the kids? Was ICE they parked in front of the school yesterday? What do their vehicles look like? Can the school district really prevent ICE from raiding a school building?
I had to explain that ICE is driving unlabeled vehicles with illegal license plates and are not wearing identification like the police. Could any Ford Explorer with tinted windows be ICE? I have no idea. Do these guys look like cops? Kind of? Look out for the guys hiding their faces, I guess.
You can see videos of yesterday’s events in Evanston in the New York Times this morning.
This is absolute disorder.
The local PTA is patrolling outside of the school.
Why are the Evanston Police always last to the scene?
9/10/2025: Updated: ICE agents make arrest in ‘criminal matter’ on Thursday, EPD confirms - The meter maid arrived before the Evanston Police, who never made it by the time ICE was gone.
10/22/2025: ‘I just screamed as loud as I could’: Anatomy of an ICE raid in Evanston - No Evanston PD on the scene.
10/27/2025: Evanston police to respond to reported federal agent activity, city says - “federal agents have left the scene by the time EPD has responded”
10/31/2025: Federal immigration agents active in Evanston on Friday; multiple arrests made - “EPD got here, I don’t know the timeline, maybe three or four minutes after. Then the crowd came, and they [the agents] eventually left.”
Mayor Biss will make a speech and a week later, another guy using a leaf blower will get scooped off the street without a warrant. This has been going on for two months now. Are they going to scoop up a kid off the playground? What about annoying local journalists?
There has been a ton of ICE activity along the Evanston boundary with Chicago - along Western near Touhy and Howard. Why aren’t the cops stationed near the city boundary when that happens?
I’m frustrated with the state and city leadership who will make statements but little action. At some point, doesn’t the City need to demand that ICE show a warrant before snatching citizens off the sidewalk? If the cops can’t even slow down someone from being kidnapped by unidentified masked men, what are we doing here?
From the Daily Northwestern story;
He added that while EPD cannot prevent or partake in any “dynamic arrests situations,” their “guiding principle” is to keep residents responding to the scene out of federal custody.
EPD will “take necessary action” based on the incidents, the city wrote in the Monday release. This includes working with the Illinois Accountability Commission — an Illinois Department of Human Rights organization creating a public record of federal agents’ conduct during Operation Midway Blitz, a federal immigration crackdown targeting undocumented immigrants in the Chicago area.
We can’t continue to just shrug and say “federal boys will be boys” forever and keep a log. If the local leaders and police don’t work to de-escalate these situations someone is going to get seriously hurt. I just hope its not involving our children.
Keep photographing what they are doing. The court order from Judge Ellis (fun fact - law school classmate) requires body cameras and visible ID. If they aren't wearing them as required, and those violations start piling up, she will hold them accountable.
Second idea - it is time to pass legislation barring anyone who is involved in this shitshow from ever working in a state law enforcement agency. And it is not just about punishing them. It's about keeping our citizenry safe once they leave ICE. The tactics they are using now - high speed pursuits, racial profiling, excessive force, indiscriminate use of tear gas, brandishing weapons on unarmed civilians - will be part of their law enforcement DNA after they leave ICE. It keeps citizens from being victimized by their conduct and our local units of government from having to shell out millions of dollars to settle the civil rights lawsuits that will inevitably follow them after they leave ICE and use their "law enforcement experience" as a way to open the door for them to get hired at local police departments, sheriff's offices and the like.
Our local police are trying to walk an incredibly difficult and fine line between enforcing the law (across the board) and risking escalating the situation for community members as well as for members of the force themselves, many of whom are BIPOC and/or immigrants or have immigrants in their close families, and/or running afoul of our country's legal structure. I strongly encourage folks to educate yourselves as much as possible about this legal structure (along the lines that Steve D. writes below, including his point that we've been here before as a country) before criticizing or judging, especially given we have a leader like Chief Stewart. Also to focus on one's own activities to ensure one is not risking escalating the situation or feeding a narrative that will set the efforts back even more, which is part of response training and a core lesson of the civil rights movement (and others like it).