Immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago

Immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago Nation Oct 6, 2025 2:07 PM EDT

CHICAGO (AP) — Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital.

Activists, residents and leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest city.

“They are the ones that are making it a war zone,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Sunday on CNN. “They fire tear gas and smoke grenades, and they make it look like it’s a war zone.”

More than 1,000 immigrants have been arrested since an immigration crackdown started last month in the Chicago area. The Trump administration