ICE agents make arrests in Chicago, including alleged gang member, while immigration activists speak up

CHICAGO (WGN) – The Trump administration sent top Homeland Security leaders to Chicago on Tuesday to tout the next stage of their immigration crackdown.

Among those arrested by ICE on Tuesday was a 37-year-old alleged gang member, according to ICE spokespeople.

Aldo Salazar Bahena was also arrested Monday in Elgin and was convicted of murder in 2005, according to Homeland Security spokespeople. Illinois law prohibits prison officials from honoring ICE detainer requests and Bahena was released from Stateville Prison in Crest Hill on Friday, only to be arrested again Monday.

ICE also released details on the arrest of another man, whose criminal history is said to include arrest for DUI, resisting a police officer and vehicular burglary.

The news follows Tuesday’s formidable show of strength by federal agents near 87th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chatham.

“The way they rolled up on them like they were looking for straight up criminals, jumping out of Range Rovers, jumping out of pickup trucks,” general contractor Lorenzo Stacy, who saw the ICE operation in Chatham, said.

“Operation Midway Blitz,” as it’s described by the federal government, converged on a group of day laborers at around 9 a.m. in the parking lot of the Home Depot located on 87th Street near the expressway.

Stacy said it was a heart-wrenching scene with day laborers trying to evade capture. At least one injury was reported and required an ambulance, according to paramedics with the Chicago Fire Department.

According to Stacy, federal agents even made a military helicopter helping them.

“Targeting these people like they’re animals. Go after the bad guys, go after the gang bangers, go after the killers. These guys are just trying to work, that’s all,” Stacy said.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted videos of ICE arrests in Elgin Tuesday morning, saying she’s on the ground to make it clear the department isn’t backing down.

“Just this morning, DHS took violent offenders off the streets with arrest for assault, DUI, and felony stalking,” Noem wrote on social media.

The scene woke some neighbors up at around 5 a.m. Tuesday.

“It was a military helicopter and I woke him up and I said, ‘Something’s going on,’ and the search light was going. Drones were up in the air. I saw a second helicopter kind of duck off to the side, so they were working in tandem,” Elgin resident Angie Hurst said.

Some emotional video from Little Village recorded Monday shows ICE arresting a man despite pleas from his wife that he’s in the United States legally.

“The people they are targeting are our mothers, our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors. Every day working class people whose only fault is to believe the American Dream,” Berto Aguayo of the Latino Leadership Council said.

The Latino Leadership Council spoke out as deportation efforts expand. The Border Patrol’s head of Operation at Large announced that operation, which began in Los Angeles, has officially arrived in Chicago. That’s in addition to the ongoing “Operation Midway Blitz.”

“Let me be clear, this is not about safety. This is an engineered crisis, a spectacle for headlines, not safety,” Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said.

ICE spokespeople in a written statement criticized what happened Monday in West Chicago, which included State Sen. Karina Villa (D-25th District) and others confronting ICE agents.

ICE called them “agitators” for allegedly inserting themselves into law enforcement efforts and, according to ICE, endangered the public.

WGN News reached out to Villa for comment and has not yet heard back.

There has been no official word yet on how many individuals ICE agents took into custody on Tuesday, but on Monday, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois) said ICE has arrested 250 people since Operation Midway Blitz began earlier this month.