Amid a blitz of immigration enforcement activity in the Chicago area earlier in the day, elected officials and community leaders on Tuesday urged all people in the U.S. illegally to stay home as much as possible — and those who can to use their protections to support the city and its most vulnerable as federal operations persist.

“This is an engineered crisis,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said at a news conference at Daley Plaza Tuesday evening, “a spectacle designed for headlines, not for the safety of our neighborhoods. … (This administration is) targeting hardworking people who have been our neighbors for decades. People who run local businesses, sell flowers at the corner, and have shown up every day to build a better life here.”

Early Tuesday — just over a week since the Department of

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