Sign in Subscribe
Politics

ICE fear is pushing Chicago immigrants into night shifts. It's costing them pay and sleep.

Nearly a year after Operation Midway Blitz, ICE made 1,560 Cook County arrests in 2026 through early August, a Sun-Times/WBEZ analysis found.

ICE fear is pushing Chicago immigrants into night shifts. It's costing them pay and sleep.
Stock photo. Photo by Nick Petty on Unsplash

Gustavo Dominguez loads trucks at a warehouse. Patricia Dávila, his wife, cleans hotel rooms. Nearly a year after the federal immigration crackdown called Operation Midway Blitz wound down, the Chicago couple still plan their days around the chance of running into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a report published Wednesday, Oct. 21, by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ.

The report, by Sun-Times reporter Alma Campos, found immigrants moving work, shopping and errands into nighttime and pre-dawn hours to avoid ICE, at the cost of lost shifts, sleep and doctor visits. A Sun-Times/WBEZ analysis of government records obtained by the Deportation Data Project counted 1,560 ICE arrests in Cook County from the start of 2026 through the first week of August.

We found no new, named ICE operation in the Chicago area this October. The arrests never fully stopped, and the fear is doing the rest.

The Blitz faded. The arrests didn't.

The Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area on Sept. 8, 2025, the Associated Press reported. Within two weeks, DHS claimed almost 550 arrests. The fall brought a fatal shooting by an ICE officer in Franklin Park and a Border Patrol shooting in Brighton Park, according to a Sun-Times timeline. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino left Chicago on Nov. 13, 2025, though sources told CBS Chicago the operation was "not over."

ICE later told Illinois' congressional delegation that it made 4,570 arrests in Illinois between Sept. 5, 2025, and Feb. 17, 2026, and that about 81% of those people had no criminal convictions, the Sun-Times reported.

After the cameras left, ICE arrests in Illinois dropped in mid-November 2025 and started climbing again in April 2026, Borderless Magazine reported on Oct. 16, citing Deportation Data Project figures. The project, run by UC Berkeley and UCLA researchers, gets ICE records through public records lawsuits. Borderless also reported that local groups have confirmed more than 80 ICE arrests across Chicago each month since June, more than double the March count. Advocates told the magazine that agents now favor quieter arrests at courthouses and traffic stops. In June, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said agents would take an approach that is "less public-facing," in remarks obtained by CBS Chicago.

Groceries at 5 a.m.

The Sun-Times/WBEZ report describes workers rearranging their lives around that risk. During the early weeks of the Blitz, Dominguez paid for Uber rides to work, and the couple have saved about two months of rent in case one of them is detained, the outlets reported. Dávila has work authorization; Dominguez does not have legal status.

A childcare worker without legal status, identified by a pseudonym, now takes only occasional evening babysitting jobs, according to the report. Guillermo Flores, a licensed street vendor for about 16 years, told the outlets he now buys supplies around 5 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. and sometimes stays home entirely after hearing of ICE activity nearby.

The damage reaches past the paycheck. Dr. Hugo Solari, a psychiatrist at Cook County Health, described patients losing sleep, struggling with anxiety and postponing preventive care, the outlets reported. "It doesn't have to happen to you for it to traumatize you," Rosemary Magaña, a therapist and program director at the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health, told the Sun-Times and WBEZ.

Why the pressure isn't letting up

Chicago's quiet grind fits a national push. CNN reported, citing two unnamed sources, that ICE leadership told agents on Oct. 6 to make 1,000 more arrests a day; DHS denied having quotas. We covered that report, and what to do if agents come to your job, along with a similar squeeze in California's Central Valley.

The people paying for this load trucks, clean hotel rooms, watch children and sell food on the street. When they lose hours, their families lose rent money and their employers lose staff. Their kids pay too: children are playing outside less, the report found.

If you or someone you know is at risk

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights runs a Family Support Hotline at 1-855-435-7693 (1-855-HELP-MY-FAMILY). It takes reports of ICE activity, helps families find a detained relative and a lawyer, and handles referrals including workplace discrimination, in a dozen languages.

The Illinois attorney general's Know Your Rights guide explains that you can stay silent, that you do not have to open your door to agents without a warrant signed by a judge, and that you can ask for a lawyer before signing anything. Save it and the hotline number in your phone. For the stress the Sun-Times/WBEZ report describes, the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health offers virtual support groups for immigrants in the Chicago area, regardless of status.

Sources

Read next

Comments ()