“To summarize a sense of what it’s like in the affected neighborhoods and suburbs (and it’s a growing area here): Fearfulness.”
Last week, ICE raided a Chicago apartment as if it was a terrorist cell, sparking a wave of backlash still reverberating around the country.
Of course, Chicago is not taking this federal invasion lying down; Chicagoans are organizing across the city. Lynn Sweet, Special Correspondent at the Chicago Sun-Times, joins Jen to provide key updates in the city’s strong response to ICE, federal overreach, and the upcoming No Kings Day Protest on October 18th.
Sweet also gives us an inside peek at the internal politics at play in Illinois and its capital city. Don’t miss out on this delectable, vital insider scoop straight from the Windy City itself.
Lynn Sweet is the Chicago Sun-Times’ special correspondent for Chicago Public Media, and was previously their Washington Bureau Chief. She appears frequently on CNN & other outlets as an analyst and previously worked at the late PoliticsDaily.
The transcript below has been edited slightly for clarity.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, editor-in-Chief of The Contrarian. I am thrilled to have my long-term friend, Lynn Sweet, from the Chicago Sun-Times, long-time reporter. Lynn, it is so great to see you. Welcome, welcome to The Contrarian.
Lynn Sweet
It’s great to be on the contrarian, and I am speaking to you right now from Chicago, which seems one of the epicenters of the ICE protests in the United States.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. What’s Chicago like as of today? We had a bunch of court rulings last week. What’s changed and what’s not changed?
Lynn Sweet
Well, let me just tell you what happened this morning on my way to our offices, which is on, by the way, Navy Pier in Chicago, a landmark a lot of your listeners, might know about. So a friend was giving me a ride to here, and we pass a grammar school on the north side of Chicago, and I see a lot of parents outside, and usually parents, you know, come and go, so I ask my buddy to stop, and I walk out, and these are parents in a neighborhood of Chicago called Ravenswood, who are there, on guard against ICE raids, and there is a teacher there, wearing, you know, a t-shirt, you know, pro-immigrant t-shirt, who’s handing out warning whistles. And they are afraid, this special ed teacher told me, of children at this school of just being abducted by ICE agents. There is a system of warning whistles, that has grown up pretty much organically around the city, where people have whistles, or you could do this with your car horn, you know, one blast if you see, if you think there’s something, two blasts if somebody’s near, three. And so, to summarize a sense of what it’s like in the affected neighborhoods and suburbs, and it’s a growing area here, is fearfulness.
Jen Rubin
I could understand. We had seen, scenes of really unbelievable violence from ICE. We all read and saw images of the apartment building that was emptied out in the middle of the night. Is that still going on, as far as you can see, or has that been reduced somewhat?
Lynn Sweet
Well, that was, to fill in our listeners, that was one of the most dramatic instances of just overreach. The agents were using Black Hawk helicopters to rappel down the side of a building in a neighborhood called South Shore in Chicago, it’s just right near Lake Michigan. And not that far, again, for those who know Chicago, it’s not that far from the new Obama Presidential Center being built, Museum of Science Industry. And this is a building that was down and out anyway. We’ve done a lot of terrific coverage at the Sun-Times, including one of our reporters found a map that ICE agents accidentally left behind, kind of showing what apartments they want to go to. But they were just pulling people out. They didn’t seem to have a plan, and it was scary and unnecessary. There is a way to serve warrants. There’s even a way to make surprise raids. You might make a mistake during the course of it, to do this wide-ranging attack on a building where you had to know not everybody there. Not everybody there in the middle of the night is somebody who should be picked up by ICE. It just is not the… it seems not the behavior of a force that is interested in conducting in an orderly, professional way a search for the worst of the worst, which is how, of course, the Trump administration handled it. Now, having said that, we have not had a repeat of Black Hawk helicopters having agents repelled down into buildings, but the tactics are getting more aggressive. They also are centered a lot on protesters. Now, I have covered protests, as you may have also in your time. One of the techniques you can do with protesters is ignore them. Or you could look at the slightest thing they do, and take it as a provocation. Someone was arrested as trying to, or stopped for trying to, hurt, an officer, I’m not sure if it was ICE or Border Patrol, because the car was said to, be going forward. Everyone, I would bet a lot of people who’s listening to us drive, and you know when you put your car in park, it sometimes jumps forward a little bit. And that’s why you have to be careful if you have someone in the car, don’t let them out. Make sure it’s a stop. That should not be a reason as to be taken into custody. So, the conditions on the ground are also serving. As things get more aggressive, and protesters have been more outspoken and forceful, but more or less, with some exceptions, of course, peaceful, the response has been disproportionate in my analysis, to any perceived threat that protesters face. I want to also say in case people need reminding. Yes, Chicago is a sanctuary city, and Illinois is a sanctuary state. Most of the suburbs are, too. That does not preclude any federal agent from making a lawful arrest. Now, immigration agents are not allowed on any government property. The mayor of Chicago just issued an order making it more explicit that you don’t have to let anyone private property. They had signs printed up. You know, we’ll see if that stops anyone. But the posture, seems, is to get more aggressive, wear masks, have no badges. We’ve done a story, about how some cars don’t have license plates, and the show of force and aggressiveness shows no signs of abating anytime soon.
Jen Rubin
And just to reiterate the point you’re making, Lynn, sanctuary City simply means that state and local authorities have determined that their law enforcement officers have better things to do than aiding and abetting ICE. And there was recently a couple court rulings that upheld that that was perfectly okay, that they’re under no obligation, and the federal government cannot dragoon, cannot force local authorities to do this. So the notion of sanctuary city has been something the administration has kind of tossed around. Now, come… Saturday, as you know, there are going to be no Kings Day protests all over the country, and given all of the provocation, I would expect them to be larger and more plentiful than ever before. Do you expect those to go off in Chicago? Are people willing to turn out? Are you seeing any signs that the authorities are trying to discourage it at all? What are you expecting for Saturday?
Lynn Sweet
I’m expecting very large crowds, not only in Chicago, but in suburban areas, because there’s, I think the organizers here are kind of smart. They want to make it convenient for people to show up, and not everybody wants to come downtown. you know, if this was Washington, D.C, and you live in Manassas, or Fairfax, or further out, or, you know, some, Frederick, Maryland, you may not want to come to the city, but you will come to someplace within 10 miles, and that’s why when you look at all these events taking place, I think part of it, and what’s understood implicitly, if not explicitly, that one of the tools, one of the reasons you have these marches is, yes, to have the show a protest on the 18th, it’s also to help organize. Organize and organize. So. Organization often takes place most effectively on a local level, so having these smaller protests serves a big purpose, too.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely, and I think, what we’ve come to understand, and there’s research to back this up, is once people begin to protest. They’re much more likely to participate in other political activities, much more likely to turn out to vote, and the chances of, in real authoritarian societies of overthrowing the regime are much higher once you reach a critical mass of people.
Jen Rubin
Lynn, what’s, as we reach the end of our time, what’s been, kind of, the reaction of a city as a whole? Has it been somewhat unifying in the sense that they feel they’re under siege? Has there been a rally around the mayor or the governor? Has there been a greater sense of connectivity amongst Chicago residents?
Lynn Sweet
Okay, let me give you a yes or no to that. This is a Democratic city and a Democratic state. Every Democratic official, from the governor on down, is against ICE. and Border Patrol operations, and the way they’re being carried out, absolutely against having any federalization of the Illinois National Guard, or bringing in troops from Texas or any other state. Now, having said that, does this help Mayor Brandon Johnson’s, low… Popularity ratings? Probably not. Governor Pritzker has taken, possible 2028 candidate has taken a very high profile on this. He had a hilarious spit on Jimmy Kimmel the other night, where he was, dressed in a body armor on a bridge in Chicago, saying, I’m here to tell you a reporting from war-torn Chicago, where the Milwaukee Brewers had the nerve to invade to play the Chicago Cubs. Sad to say the Cubs lost.And he also had a great line. These people are also making people hot dogs… eat hot dogs with ketchup, which, for those of you not from Chicago is the worst thing you could do. It is, the word… a word that some of you might understand, that’s a shanda. You do not eat on hot dogs. But anyway, it was funny, but, Governor Pritzker as some other, especially Governor Newsom, have appeared on… very much as the face of resistance. President Trump returned the favor recently, as you know, by saying the two of them, the mayor and the governor, should be in jail. Now, there’s a lot of undergoing politics in the city that have to do with this and have not. Now, there’s still the issues with budget and, you know, safety. big cities like Chicago do have problems with crime, does not mean you need the National Guard. So, on the whole, right now, the city is unified in its, support of the Democratic Officials who run this place, especially fueled by The increasingly aggressive behavior and performative behavior to a degree of the immigration agents. A few weeks ago, they marched down Michigan Avenue. totally performative. There was no immigration action they took. They had some of their, the Border Patrol brought some of their, boats to the Chicago River and floated down. performative. And they are doing, as you know, many, many videos, here, where they’re taking, sometimes out of context, things that happen. And, you know, certain individual scenes do stand out as when, when a Chicago minister from First Presbyterian Church.
Jen Rubin
Yes.
Lynn Sweet
Slack was the, subject of, being chaircast.
Jen Rubin
Yes, yes. Well, Lynn, it’s fascinating talking to you. You always have your finger on the pulse, Lynn, thank you so much. We’ll look forward to having you back soon, and keeping tabs on what’s going on in Chicago. So, thanks so much.
Lynn Sweet
Thanks for having me.
