Communities across Chicago are preparing for Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to begin as soon as Saturday, which President Donald Trump appeared to confirm in a bizarre Truth Social post this morning.
For weeks, the Trump administration has said Chicago is its next target in fulfilling the president’s mass deportation agenda. But they’ve provided few details about when it could begin or what law enforcement officials would be involved.
On Saturday morning, the president appeared to confirm Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s suspicion that operations would begin this weekend, ahead of Mexican Independence Day celebrations, with an AI-generated image of himself boasting about deportations.
“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” Trump’s post read.
Attached was an AI-generated version of Trump in a cowboy hat, U.S. Army fatigues and aviator sunglasses with military helicopters flying low over the Chicago skyline, engulfed in flames. On the image was written, “Chipocalypse Now”, appearing to reference the 1979 Vietnam War movie, “Apocalypse Now” directed by Francis Ford Coppola. “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” is perhaps the film’s most famous line.
The Independent has asked the White House and ICE for comment.
Pritzker had already warned Chicago communities that he believed ICE was coordinating raids in tandem with Mexican Independence Day celebrations in the city, which are to begin on Saturday with a parade in the Pilsen neighborhood.
While the Pilsen parade is still scheduled to go ahead, officials said there would be more volunteers “maintaining vigilance” and keeping an eye out for immigration law enforcement.
But other celebrations have been postponed or canceled in light of the potential immigration raids.
Organizers of El Grito Chicago, a two-day festival in the downtown area, said they were postponing the event that was set to begin September 13.
"To proceed in spite of the advice we've received directly from city and state officials and potentially expose our community to becoming collateral damage would be irresponsible,” German Gonzalez, the El Grito Chicago organizer, said in a statement. “That's a risk we are not willing to take."
Organizers of the Wauconda Latin Heritage Festival said they were canceling the September 13 event in light of the potential ICE raids. Wauconda is a village in the north suburbs of Chicago where approximately 20 percent of its population is Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2020 census.
Little Village, a neighborhood with a high concentration of Mexican–Americans, said its parade scheduled for September 14 would still occur but with increased private security, immigration lawyers, and a rapid response team for immigration raids.
Homero Lopez, a 51-year-old born and raised Chicagoan living in Little Village, told the New York Times that the energy of the city was different under the threat of immigration raids.
“The fear has never been this bad,” Lopez said. “They are really about targeting Hispanics,” he said.
Lopez, who runs a mobile food stand, told the Times that in past Mexican Independence Day celebrations, the streets would be busy with vendors and patrons well into the night. Now, the streets are mostly empty.
Plans for the Little Village parade could change quickly, though, depending on how aggressive the immigration raids are and the city’s response.
Earlier this year, protests erupted in downtown Los Angeles when the Trump administration sent ICE into communities with higher populations of Hispanic or Latino residents. While the protests were mostly peaceful, the minor disruption they caused the city led the president to deploy the National Guard and Marines to protect ICE officials.
Vianney Alarcon, a 42-year-old resident of Chicago, told the Associated Press she still plans to celebrate her heritage despite the fear of immigration enforcement.
"I'm still going to celebrate my heritage," Alarcon said. "And I know for a fact that a lot of the people I know and the people commenting on Facebook are going to show up, too. What are they going to do? We're not being disruptive if we're celebrating properly."
Alarcon said she expected ICE to target people regardless of their legal status. She plans to bring her passport along to the events.
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