CPD faces ICE monitoring questions
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Chicago police talk to federal immigration agents in October 2025. Photo: Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images
As ICE apprehensions ramp up in Chicago, police officials will face tough questions Friday about compliance with mayoral directives to address potential crimes by immigration agents.
Why it matters: Six months after Mayor Brandon Johnson issued ICE on Notice, an order directing police to monitor and even seek charges against federal agents, advocates say it's unclear what results, if any, have emerged.
- The City Council's Immigration Committee is holding a hearing Friday to seek answers.
What they're saying: "It's important that we get an understanding on how the mayor's executive order is being implemented to ensure that it's not just a piece of paper and talking point," Immigration Committee chair Ald. Andre Vasquez tells Axios.
- "There are too many lives and livelihoods on the line for the mayor to say the city is doing something to protect folks and then not do anything."
Between the lines: As late as Wednesday afternoon, both Johnson and Vasquez believed that no CPD officials would attend the hearing.
- But after multiple journalist inquiries — including those from Axios — CPD officials said on Thursday morning they would attend after all.
- The agreement to attend the meeting happened after "the mayor's office had initially advised otherwise," the committee's chief of staff, Pooja Ravindran, tells Axios.
The big picture: The hearing comes amid nationwide outcry over DHS agents' fatal shooting of two people in cars in Texas and Maine. The deaths added to the killings of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Franklin Park and Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota over the last year.
- The most recent killings led DHS officials this week to declare a pause on vehicle stops, only for President Trump to override the order hours later.
Context: In recent months, DHS agents have stepped up local apprehensions in ways that appear more targeted than the street raids Chicago experienced during Operation Midway Blitz.
- Still, Brandon Lee of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) tells Axios that even if the agents now have warrants, "they don't often seem to present them."
Zoom in: Many of the recent apprehensions, Lee says, are occurring at county courthouses, in direct violation of Illinois' Court Access, Safety and Participation Act, which makes civil arrests in and within 1,000 feet of a courthouse illegal.
What's next: In the coming weeks, local immigration advocates are expected to press Cook County officials on what they're doing to enforce compliance with the Court Access, Safety and Participation Act.