Did Chicago cooperate with ice
Executive summary
Chicago officially maintains sanctuary-city policies that limit routine cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the state has taken legal and administrative steps to resist federal enforcement tactics, yet federal operations like “Operation Midway Blitz” still made hundreds of arrests in the region and activists and residents allege local police sometimes assisted or failed to block ICE actions — a contested reality with competing narratives from city officials, federal agents and community groups [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Chicago’s formal posture: sanctuary rules, FOIAs and “ICE‑free” messaging
City policy and local leaders have publicly framed Chicago as limiting cooperation with ICE: the city and Illinois state officials describe legal restrictions on local assistance to federal immigration enforcement, the city documents efforts to monitor federal activity via FOIA requests and even offers “ICE‑Free Zone” materials to inform residents of rights — all signals of an institutional stance of limited cooperation [1] [5].
2. Federal enforcement on the ground: Midway Blitz and hundreds of arrests
Despite that posture, the Department of Homeland Security deployed a concentrated enforcement surge — called Operation Midway Blitz — in Illinois and Chicago beginning in September 2025, and ICE officials reported making hundreds of arrests in the Chicago area during that campaign, which plainly shows federal capacity to operate in the city even when local policy resists collaboration [6] [2].
3. Allegations of local police assistance: community accounts and oversight demands
Residents and elected officials have publicly alleged that Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers at times appeared to assist ICE operations, citing specific incidents — including an account that CPD helped ICE leave a scene after arrests in the South Loop — and those concerns prompted calls for the city’s oversight commission to investigate CPD cooperation with federal immigration agents [3].
4. Legal pushback from state and city leaders against federal tactics
State Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the city of Chicago joined a lawsuit challenging what they described as unlawful and retaliatory tactics by DHS, CBP and ICE in Illinois, asserting that federal actions included violent, warrantless conduct; that legal challenge underscores a political and institutional rift and constitutes formal non‑cooperation on legal grounds [4].
5. Conflicting narratives: ICE’s claims of targeted arrests and federal rationale
ICE and DHS framed the Midway Blitz as a targeted campaign against “criminal illegal aliens,” with agency officials saying a significant share of arrests were targeted rather than random, a point the agency uses to justify its presence in sanctuary jurisdictions and to counter charges of indiscriminate sweeps [2] [6].
6. The practical picture: confrontation, protest and unresolved oversight
On the streets, the federal surge produced protests, community organizing to support other cities, and high public anxiety; local activists decry both the federal presence and any hint of local cooperation, while some federal commentators and former ICE officials note that sanctuary jurisdictions sometimes do cooperate on serious criminal cases — leaving a disputed, mixed picture where formal policy, federal power, local practice and public perception diverge [7] [8] [9].
7. Bottom line: did Chicago cooperate with ICE?
The factual record gathered in reporting shows Chicago upholds sanctuary policies and has taken legal and administrative steps to resist and monitor ICE activity, yet federal operations have carried out mass arrests in the city and residents have reported episodes where CPD presence appeared to facilitate ICE actions; therefore the answer is not a simple yes or no — Chicago formally restricts cooperation (and litigates against federal tactics), but in practice federal agents have still operated widely in the city and allegations of localized police involvement remain subject to oversight and investigation [1] [4] [2] [3].