As communities across the city and country gather for vigils and rallies to mourn the recent fatal shootings by ICE of two immigrant fathers during traffic stops, federal immigration agents around Chicago and surrounding suburbs continue to approach motorists during their operations.
This week, rapid response teams have documented at least four encounters in which federal agents approached people while they were in their vehicles, including one in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on Tuesday and another in the parking lot of a South Loop supermarket on Wednesday morning.
Traffic stops by ICE have become the subject of public discrepancy between President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security over whether agents should continue targeting motorists.
The department earlier this week had issued a directive to pause most vehicle stops after motorists in Texas in Maine were shot and killed by ICE officers within a matter of days. But on early Wednesday morning, Trump praised ICE on his social media site Truth Social that ICE was “doing a GREAT job” and that its work “has to be done.” He argued ICE should continue traffic stops, one of its most effective crime-fighting tools, calling them necessary to remove people he claims entered the country under the Biden administration.
DHS declined to say whether ICE agents will continue making arrests during traffic stops. However, in a statement to the Tribune, the agency confirmed a July 14 arrest in the Austin neighborhood, saying it carried out a “targeted operation,” resulting in the arrest of Victor Julio Chagnay-Simbana, an Ecuadoran national who was released into the U.S. by the administration of President Joe Biden and received a final removal order on May 22, 2026.
Meanwhile, the arrests in Chicago come amid a growing number of community reports of suspected Immigration and Customs Enforcement sightings shared on social media within the last month, fueling fear and uncertainty among immigrants. Advocates say the enforcement activity mirrors tactics used by Border Patrol agents during last fall’s Operation Midway Blitz, including aggressive vehicle stops, violent arrests and racial profiling.
“Less than 24 hours after ICE directed its agents to pause traffic-stop arrests, its agents pulled over and grabbed one of our community members off the street in Austin,” said Eréndira “Ere” Rendón, vice president of immigrant justice at The Resurrection Project. “This comes as ICE has killed two people in one week across the country and it’s just the latest evidence that ICE lies and that its officers don’t respect their own chain of command, or the rights of the people they are terrorizing.”
Grief and outrage filled the Little Village neighborhood Wednesday as community members gathered to honor those killed by federal immigration agents over the past year. The recent deaths of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican father fatally shot in Texas on July 8, and Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian father killed during an immigration operation in Maine days later, have shaken immigrant communities across the country, including in Chicago.
DHS has admitted that neither were the intended target of the operation.
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A third man died in recent days during an encounter with immigration officers in Florida Tuesday. This time, a 28-year-old man was killed after he was hit by a semitrailer while running from federal agents, authorities said.
“The killings hit close to home as we continue to grieve the death of Silverio Villegas. How many more?” asked Dolores Castaneda, a Little Village community leader. Villegas was dropping his children off at school when he was shot and killed by ICE agents during a traffic stop in Franklin Park.
Critics say ICE agents often rely on vehicle-based operations because agents prioritize their own safety when carrying out arrests, using vehicles as barriers and potentially escalating to deadly force if they perceive a threat. The recent killings, however, have renewed criticism over ICE policing tactics and raised questions whether racial profiling plays a role in who is targeted.
“This is troublesome considering that their justification for halting most traffic stops is to ensure that officers receive updated tactical training. Which begs the question: If they were not adequately trained before, then presumably they are not trained now for pulling over these so-called ‘serious criminal targets,’” said Brian Orozco, the attorney representing five Chicago-area families suing the agency after they were exposed to tear gas and experienced violence from federal agents during last fall’s enforcement operation.
During the second Trump administration, ICE and Border Patrol agents have shot and killed 11 people, according to available reports. More than 50 people have also died while in ICE custody, according to the National Immigrant Justice Center. At the same time, Congress has allocated nearly a quarter-trillion dollars toward the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, with significant funding directed to ICE and Border Patrol.
“As communities and families grieve, it is up to Congress to stop this deadly pattern and reclaim the billions of taxpayer dollars that have enabled federal agents to kill unarmed civilians in our streets, conduct warrantless arrests that violate the law and the Constitution and subject people to untimely deaths in detention centers,” said Keren Zwick, executive director of NIJC.
In Chicago, immigrant communities remain on high alert, with some residents afraid to go to work, take their children to summer school, or carry out everyday activities. Regardless of whether ICE resumes traffic stops, advocates say the agency has already shifted its tactics in Illinois, including making arrests during immigration check-ins and as people travel to and from county courthouses, which they describe as part of efforts to meet arrest quotas.
“Even without conducting stops, ICE agents have a history of impeding public safety on the roadways by driving vehicles with plates that are not plainly visible and recklessly ignoring traffic laws that all drivers are expected to follow,” said Brandon Lee of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
As the Castañon Nava consent decree, which prohibits warrantless arrests by ICE in Illinois without certain legal requirements, moves toward its conclusion, NIJC is monitoring ICE’s use of traffic stops and other enforcement tactics for potential future litigation.
“Violence, lack of accountability and disregard for due process are part of ICE’s culture and will not be fixed by one-off policy changes. Congress needs to stop sending billions of dollars to these agencies to continue putting families and neighborhoods in danger,” said Mark Fleming, interim litigation director at NIJC.
Advocates say no enforcement policy, political agenda, or immigration status should ever justify the loss of a human life.