Chicago Bans ICE In Public Areas After Withholding Police Backup

Fully embracing anarchy, Democrat leaders in Chicago, a sanctuary city; and in Illinois, a sanctuary state, are using every possible method to thwart federal immigration authorities from removing illegal aliens and curtailing rampant crime there.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson issued an executive order Monday creating an ICE Free Zone, preventing ICE from using city property, such as parking lots, as staging areas, or for enforcement actions. City agencies are directed to use physical barriers like locked gates to limit access to city property, and report to the mayor any attempted use of city property for immigration enforcement. Chicago taxpayers will fund a city-wide distribution of “Know Your Rights” materials for employees, tenants, and security staff, training them to deal with federal agents wishing to use city property.

Gov. JB Pritzker announced the state filed a lawsuit Monday seeking a temporary restraining order to block President Donald Trump from using Illinois and Texas National Guard troops to manage crime in Chicago.

“Illinois is going to use every lever at our disposal to resist this power grab and get (DHS Sec. Kristi) Noem’s thugs hell out of Chicago,” Pritzker said in a Monday afternoon press conference. He also said several times that Texas troops should, “stay the hell out of Illinois.”

Over the weekend, Oct. 4, Border Patrol agents were conducting a patrol in Chicago when their vehicle was rammed by other vehicles and they were boxed in by 10 cars, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement.

“The officers exited their trapped vehicle, when a suspect tried to run them over, forcing the officers to fire defensively,” the statement said. “One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon. Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fired defensive shots at an armed U.S. citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds.”  

An angry crowd gathered around ICE agents and instead of offering back up assistance, Chicago Police offers on the scene left, according to DHS, and those on the way were instructed to stage blocks away, leaving ICE on its own, according to reporting from FOX News.  

This incident alone underscores how out of control crime is in Chicago. It is not every city where goons feel comfortable ramming a law enforcement vehicle and surrounding it. There were 22 shootings in Chicago over the weekend.

Yet local officials insisted that crime is down, and federal help is not wanted or needed.

During the press conference, Johnson spoke of people showing up to “organize, to build the resistance.”

“It’s going to take everything, litigation, executive orders, legislation, and I believe, most importantly, the people of this city and county, the state, and throughout the country, pushing back against tyranny,” Johnson said.  

Reporters asked provocative questions such as what measures officials are willing to take if they don’t win in court, and are they calling for a civil war?

Pritzker said the federal government is “creating an environment in which they’re inciting people to do something more than just peacefully protest.” And he fearmongered, claiming federal officials were “firing at people who are doing nothing more than yelling” and “saying what they believe, or holding signs.” He makes it sound like calm people are just standing around getting shot by the federal government, totally unprovoked, and in the same press conference people were urged to “organize” and “build a resistance” against Trump. The politicians are trying to whip the public up into a frenzy.

Pritzker planned on going to court before Trump called up the National Guard. His legal team has been working, “for weeks,” he said, writing the case that was filed Monday, in anticipation of the arrival of federal troops.

Pritzker is also upset that the U.S. Border Patrol has been sent to the city.

“They have declared that the border is at the shores of Lake Michigan. That is why they’re allowed to operate now, or at least why they’re being told they’re allowed to operate in the city of Chicago. That doesn’t seem right to me,” Pritzker said. He said as far as he knows, the border is on the other side of Lake Michigan.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.