CHICAGO — Federal agents will no longer be able to use city-owned property as staging areas, according to an executive order filed Monday by Mayor Brandon Johnson. The order also encourages private property owners to put up signs to deter agents from assembling on their property.
The order follows reports that federal agents recently used city-owned lots at Harrison and Kedzie and at 46th and Damen for immigration operations, actions that city officials said erode community trust and violate Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance.
The order does not restrict execution of lawful judicial warrants or criminal investigations; it applies only to civil immigration enforcement, according to the Mayor’s Office. The executive order is not mandatory for private property owners, and leaseholders can decide whether they want to put up city signs letting federal agents know their property is off limits.
The free signage will clearly state that no law enforcement official may enter for civil immigration enforcement and that the property may not be used as a staging area, processing location or operations base, according to the Mayor’s Office.
Businesses, nonprofits, churches and faith-based institutions, and other private entities are eligible for the program.
“Our school parking lots are not for ICE to load their weapons. They are for Chicagoans who drop their kids off to learn. Our libraries are not for ICE to prepare for a raid. They’re for Chicagoans to read and relax. Our parks are not for ICE to set up checkpoints. They are for Chicagoans to play and enjoy,” Johnson said at a Monday morning press conference announcing the order.
When asked how the city will enforce the new order, Johnson said the city will take legal action against federal officers who violate the order. However, it doesn’t explicitly authorize Chicago police to arrest federal officers.
“If the federal government violates this Executive Order, we will take them to court,” Johnson said.
The mayor also suggested his administration plans to take more “dramatic action if this administration continues to escalate,” specifically in the form of another executive order possibly coming this week, Johnson said. He did not provide details.
“If Congress will not check this administration, then Chicago will,” Johnson said.
The executive order follows Trump’s call for the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops and 400 Texas National Guard troops to Chicago over the weekend. The troops’ objective would be to guard ICE facilities in Illinois, the Tribune reported. It’s not immediately clear when troops are expected to arrive.
In a memo to Illinois National Guard leadership Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the troops could be called into service “effective immediately” and be used in the area for 60 days, according to the Tribune.
Illinois leadership immediately responded by filing a lawsuit Monday seeking an emergency order to block the deployment of the National Guard in Illinois. The lawsuit argues that deploying federal troops in Chicago would be unconstitutional and points to a recent decision in Oregon, where a judge blocked the federalization of troops over the weekend.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit said.
The deployment comes after weeks of back and forth between the Trump administration and state and local officials — and as clashes between protesters and federal immigration officers have intensified. Trump has threatened multiple times to send troops to Chicago, calling the city crime-ridden and local leaders incompetent, despite data showing crime decreasing across the city.
Over the weekend, U.S. Border Patrol agents shot a woman Saturday morning on the city’s Southwest Side.
The shooting happened in the 3900 block of South Kedzie Avenue, according to Chicago police. Agents on patrol in vehicles were “rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars,” one of which the woman was driving, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement posted Saturday on social media.
The officers left their cars and were “forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots” at one of the drivers ramming and boxing in federal agents’ cars, McLaughlin said.
The driver, 30-year-old Marimar Martinez, was struck by the gunfire and managed to drive away, McLaughlin said. Marimar, who was identified in federal charging documents, drove away from the scene but was discovered at a nearby auto repair shop. She was brought by paramedics to Mount Sinai Hospital where she was treated and released, according to the Sun-Times.
Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, were charged with assaulting, impeding and interfering with a federal law enforcement officer in the Saturday incident, federal prosecutors announced Sunday. Martinez and Ruiz were part of a caravan of cars who followed Border Patrol agents in suburban Oak Lawn Saturday morning, according to the charging documents.
Community immigrant advocacy groups, however, disputed the government’s narrative that officers’ vehicles were rammed or boxed in by civilians’ cars.
Rapid response teams, which work to document immigration enforcement activity, said they did not see officers being boxed in. Instead, federal agents crashed into a civilian car and caused a multi-car crash on Kedzie Avenue, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and the Southwest Rapid Response team said in a joint statement.
Also over the weekend, federal agents again attacked protesters outside ICE’s processing facility in suburban Broadview while other officers deployed smoke grenades on a crowded street in Logan Square. Officers also briefly detained Chicago Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) as she confronted them Friday at Humboldt Park Hospital.
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