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What role did ICE and Chicago Police Department play in arrests of undocumented immigrants in 2023 and 2024?
Executive summary
ICE was the primary federal actor conducting large-scale immigration operations in Chicago in 2023–2024, including targeted enforcement that the agency characterized as aimed at "criminal noncitizens" and which included arrests tied to operations reinstituted on June 28, 2023 (ICE statements) [1]. Local police involvement is more contested in available reporting: many accounts show federal agents operating independently or with state police and sheriff’s deputies during later 2025 surges, while local Chicago police officials and mayors have at times pushed back against cooperation — reporting that local law enforcement did not lead the ICE actions in Chicago [2] [3] [4]. Available sources do not provide a comprehensive, contemporaneous catalog of every CPD role in 2023–2024 arrests; much of the detailed litigation and criticism in the record concerns 2025 operations that built on tactics used since 2023 (not found in current reporting).
1. What ICE says it did in 2023–2024: federal-led arrests and targeted operations
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) describes arrests tied to nationwide and Chicago-area operations that were reinstated in mid‑2023 and framed as targeting noncitizens with felony or serious misdemeanor convictions — domestic violence, sexual abuse, firearms, drug trafficking, DUI and those with final orders of removal — with ERO evaluating cases case-by-case for detention or referral for prosecution [1]. Federal press releases and ICE briefings in the record present ICE as the principal domestic immigration enforcement authority carrying out arrests and detentions during that period [1].
2. How local police involvement is described in reporting: limited cooperation, contested lines
Reporting shows variation and dispute over the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) role. Some national coverage and civil‑rights groups emphasize federal agents were the actors conducting raids and arrests — sometimes without local warrants — and that local officials criticized or resisted those moves [2] [4]. Other accounts from later operations show Illinois State Police, Cook County sheriff’s deputies, and municipal police present at scenes or guarding facilities; but multiple news reports and litigation allege ICE made warrantless arrests in the Chicago region that violated a 2022 consent decree, a dispute that centers on federal rather than local police conduct [3] [5].
3. Legal disputes and judicial findings that shape the record
Immigrant‑rights groups sued, and federal judges have scrutinized ICE conduct around warrantless arrests in the Chicago area; reporting says a judge ruled agents violated a consent decree governing warrantless arrests, and that hundreds of people arrested in later enforcement surges were the subject of release orders and legal challenges [5] [6]. Those rulings question ICE’s arrest procedures and whether federal agents met requirements (probable cause, community‑ties assessments) that the consent decree spelled out for warrantless arrests in the six‑state Chicago Field Office region [5] [6].
4. On-the-ground incidents that clarify tactics and actors — examples and controversies
Multiple investigative and national outlets documented aggressive federal tactics in Chicago raids — helicopter insertions, pre‑dawn apartment raids, and arrests that sparked community outrage when they occurred at or near day cares and schools — and these reports identify ICE, CBP, Border Patrol, and other federal units as the main actors carrying out arrests [2] [7] [8]. The Department of Homeland Security at times defended or corrected specifics of individual incidents (for example contesting claims that ICE targeted a daycare) while acknowledging federal agents pursued suspects who fled into local facilities [9].
5. Conflicting narratives and political context
Federal officials have framed the operations as necessary to remove dangerous criminals and to restore "rule of law" in sanctuary jurisdictions [1] [9]. Local elected officials, immigrant‑rights groups and investigative outlets counter that many detainees had no serious criminal histories, that arrests sometimes lacked required procedural safeguards, and that tactics have terrorized communities and chilled cooperation with local police [10] [11] [12]. These competing narratives inform litigation and public protests documented in the reporting [11] [13].
6. Limitations in the available reporting and what’s not documented
Available sources do not present a full, day‑by‑day accounting of every arrest in 2023–2024 or enumerate CPD‑level directives on cooperating with ICE during that exact window; much detailed reporting and judicial action in the dataset focuses on later 2025 operations that built on prior policies and tactics (available sources do not mention a comprehensive CPD‑ICE operations log for 2023–2024). Where sources do report precise incidents, they attribute arrests predominantly to federal agents or mixed federal/state law enforcement rather than to CPD as the primary arresting agency [7] [3].
Bottom line: the sources show ICE led federal arrest operations in Chicago beginning in 2023 and escalated thereafter, with contested involvement or cooperation by local law enforcement and mounting legal challenges that accuse ICE of unlawful warrantless arrests — a dispute that has produced court orders, community protests, and conflicting public narratives [1] [5] [2].