Over 300 people gathered on Oct 11 for the Protect Rogers Park demonstration at the intersection of Lunt Avenue and Clark Street, protesting recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in the neighborhood. The enthusiastic crowd—the largest Protect RP turnout to date—filled the Wild Onion Market/La Michoacana parking lot and lined the intersection, chanting in resistance as passing cars and trucks honked in solidarity.
The demonstration was sparked by ICE activity on North Clark Street between Lunt Avenue and Howard Street on Oct 9 and 10. In her October 11 49th Ward Newsletter, Alderwoman Maria Hadden wrote:
“Thursday and Friday they [ICE] were more active in our area than they’ve been. This was no targeted enforcement to arrest criminals—they kidnapped neighbors while they were selling tamales by Walgreen’s, while they were walking down Clark St., and while they were doing laundry on a day off from work.”
Gabe Gonzalez, one of the Protect RP organizers, shared a moving account of his experience living in Rogers Park’s diverse and inclusive community. Gonzalez praised the neighborhood’s embrace of cultural variety and mutual respect, condemning ICE’s “tactics of fear and violence” that threaten the area’s sense of harmony, safety and business vitality.
Protect Rogers Park has been active in organizing neighborhood patrols and ICE Watch programs, signing up volunteers and providing on-the-ground support for residents at risk. Within minutes of the first confirmed ICE abduction on the morning of October 9, dozens of trained Protect RP members were patrolling Clark Street by car, bike, and on foot to offer immediate assistance and ensure community safety.
State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D–Chicago, 14th District) delivered a spirited defense of the civil rights of Rogers Park and all Illinois residents. She pledged to introduce legislation in Springfield aimed at protecting residents from what she called “the abusive police-state tactics of ICE.”
Alderwoman Maria Hadden thanked demonstrators for their continued support and urged the community to sustain peaceful protest efforts “until our streets and neighborhoods are safe for all residents to live without fear and intimidation.” She reminded participants that “the struggle is long” and encouraged them to care for themselves and one another as they continue their work to protect their neighbors, families and community.
Recent ICE actions have targeted members of the press. Historian and columnist Heather Cox Richardson reported in her Substack column that masked border patrol agents pinned WGN-TV producer Debbie Brockman to the ground and arrested her after she recorded them detaining a Latino man. The agents claimed she had been detained for “obstruction.”
The charges were dropped, but “the agents accomplished their goal of terrorizing a journalist as a warning to others.”
I have not participated in a public protest like this since 1968, when I joined demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. These recent violent ICE incursions into my own neighborhood have compelled me to stand up once again—something I thought I would never do.