The people from the community lined up early Tuesday in the drizzling rain outside a quiet strip mall in Back of the Yards. They weren’t there to shop at the Dollar Tree or work out at the Planet Fitness.
More Top Picks Pour Over
Instead, the activists came with a demand that the management company of the 260,481 square foot plaza at 46th Street and Damen Avenue stop allowing immigration agents to stage their operations on the property.
For the past month, the out-of-state company that runs the plaza has allowed federal immigration agents to use its location while blocking activists from being able to film them, activists said.
Back of the Yards, the Southwest Side neighborhood made famous in Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle” about meatpacking, is a heavy immigrant community alongside a stretch of working-class neighborhoods such as Brighton Park that have been hit hard by Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the past month.
Yards Plaza is also across the street from Back of the Yards College Prep, a high school serving the neighborhood.
“Today we ask local businesses if they choose to support their people, their community base or side with the … fascist aggressors,” said Corina Pedraza, an activist joined by dozens of residents and organizers outside the plaza Tuesday.
The Trump administration is calling its escalating immigration crackdown in Chicago and its suburbs “Operation Midway Blitz,” with arrests reported and federal agents sighted near local schools, courthouses and workplaces. The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it had made 800 arrests in the area since the mission began at the beginning of September.
Activists at the plaza said they have seen federal immigration agents repeatedly use the shopping center for staging, sometimes as early as 6 a.m. Karina Martinez told the Tribune there have been up to 10 to 15 cars using the plaza just behind the Dollar Tree.
“We believe it’s been used for staging while planning where they’re going and also to transfer people they’ve detained,” Martinez said. “We’ve seen this on a consistent basis.”
A sign on the property advertises vacancies at the plaza by Friedman Real Estate, which lists its headquarters in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The company said it “operates in the Midwest and Southeast with additional coverage in 23 states.”
Yards Plaza was built in 1990, according to Friedman. But it has experienced significant turmoil in recent years. The property was owned by a Brazilian billionaire who defaulted and was later sued by the bank for allegedly failing to disclose that the property was sinking.
More Top Picks Best Avalanche Beacons For Backcountry Skiing
Since then, Friedman Real Estate has been retained as an adviser for the sale of the property.
On Monday, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed executive orders aimed at blocking federal immigration agents from public and private buildings as the arrival of Illinois and Texas National Guard troops sent by Trump loomed.
Johnson said one measure establishes “ICE-free zones” at city property and “unwilling” private businesses. The order prohibits federal immigration authorities from staging and carrying out operations on city-owned land, including parking lots, vacant lots and garages, according to the mayor’s office.
Johnson also plans to support private property owners in banning ICE from working on their property without warrants by distributing signage stating that they are unwelcome.
David Friedman, the company’s co-CEO, did not return a message seeking comment.
Ald. Julia Ramirez, whose 12th Ward includes the plaza, said the company has rebuffed their request that they ask ICE not to use their property. She said businesses within the community have a responsibility to “pick a side now.”
“This plaza profits from many of our community members, hundreds who are immigrants, who comes here to patronize their business” she said. “People should not live in fear.”