Ahead of another announced surge in immigration enforcement in the Chicago area, the city of Evanston announced Monday there is a strong likelihood that immigration agents will also be present in the north suburban city in the next few days.
Mayor Daniel Biss told a news site he had been alerted that a helicopter operated by the Department of Homeland Security was reported flying around Evanston’s lakefront Monday afternoon. President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security dubbed the renewed efforts in the Chicago area “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Biss took to CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront program Monday evening to express his concern about the renewed immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.
“I got information from a senior state official last night (Sunday night) indicating that they had good intel that they thought it was likely that ICE would be coming to Evanston today and in the coming days,” Biss said on the CNN program.
“We just felt we had the responsibility to let our residents know, so they can work to protect themselves.”
Evanston Now’s Matthew Eadie posted on X Monday evening that a reported helicopter owned by the Department of Homeland Security circled the lakefront above the North Shore suburbs and the North Side of Chicago.
The helicopter’s flight path, logged on FlightAware, shows the helicopter departed Waukegan National Airport shortly after 1 p.m., headed south to near Chicago’s Navy Pier and circled the area before landing at DuPage Airport Authority at 2:45 p.m. The aircraft circled Evanston’s lakefront four times, traveling between 80 mph and 130 mph.
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A city spokesperson said Tuesday the city had not received any official confirmation about the helicopter.
On CNN, Biss told Burnett the city of Evanston cancelled its contract with its automatic license plate reader camera provider, a police tool used to monitor vehicles in select intersections of the city. The city’s staff terminated the city’s contract after its provider was audited by the Secretary of State’s office and linked to being vulnerable to surveillance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Biss also said city updated its Welcoming City Ordinance days before Trump’s second term in office began. The City Council also approved a resolution urging the state of Illinois and the U.S. Congress to ban law enforcement agents from wearing masks on the job, as seen in other immigration raids. Defenders of the practice say the agents wear masks to protect their identities and families.
The city’s statement asks community members to be aware of and report sightings of federal agents to the Illinois Coalition of Immigrants and Refugee Rights. The city committed to have its police department wear clearly marked “Evanston Police” uniforms as well.
In a phone call with Pioneer Press, Biss declined to specify who his source inside the governor’s office is.
Skokie’s director of communications and community engagement, Patrick Deignan, told Pioneer Press in an email that the village was not notified of any federal immigration actions planned in Skokie.
The U.S. Department of Justice included the two neighboring municipalities in a now deleted list of sanctuary cities published earlier this year, the Associated Press reported. The list was riddled with typos and inaccuracies, including municipalities that do not have a welcoming city ordinance in the books.