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The protest began at 5 p.m. at the intersection of Ida B Wells Drive and Michigan Avenue near Grant Park.
“We cannot accept the divide and conquer rhetoric that calls our neighbors criminals, calls our siblings illegals,” Kobi Guillory, CAARPR Activist, said.
Thousands flocked to the area to condemn what they call a dangerous agenda by the Trump administration targeting immigrant communities under the false pretext of crime reduction.
“Terrorizing our communities by sticking the National Guard against its own people,” said Viviana Barajas of Palenque LSNA.
With reports of a potential federal intervention, safety marshals stayed alert along the march route.
Prior to the protest, President Donald Trump shared a photo on Truth Social on Saturday morning, hinting at the potential raids.
“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning..'” the president’s image post read. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the department of war.”
In the photo, which appears to have been generated using artificial intelligence, the president can be seen sitting on a beach in Vietnam era military fatigues, with the Chicago skyline behind him as a fire burns to his left and a collection of military helicopters fly nearby.
Additionally, the image has the words “Chipocalypse Now” written on it.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson took to social media to respond to the president’s threat. He wrote:
“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution. We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
Governor JB Pritzker also chastised Trump on the social media platform X. The governor wrote:
“The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”
Demonstrators say the image was another attempt to incite fear, vowing to continue their fight for immigrant rights and against the targeting of their communities.
“Every single immigrant is a human. Every single immigrant has every single right to have their families stay together,” Francisco “Paco” Amador, Pastor of New Life Community Church Little Village, said.
In the northern suburbs, ICE agents and possibly the National Guard will be working out of the Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago.
Over a hundred protestors mobilized there outside of the naval station earlier in the day Saturday in opposition of the administration’s plans.
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