CAIR-Chicago, CUFC, Community Organizers, & IL Electeds Condemn Armed ICE Agents in Downtown Chicago—Demand an End to Family Separations & Racial Profiling

- For Immediate Release and Distribution -

CUFC’s Kalman Resnick, a longtime immigration attorney and member of CAIR-Chicago’s Legal Advisory Board, alongside fellow Legal Advisory Board member Waleed Naser, document ICE agents during Sunday’s escalation of force in downtown Chicago (via Chicago Tribune photographer Eileen T. Meslar)

(CHICAGO, IL, 9/29/2025) - The Chicago United Families Coalition (CUFC), comprised of Legal, Communications, Organizing, and Political Committee advocates, today joins the condemnations issued by immigration organizations and elected officials denouncing the deployment of fully armed, masked ICE agents in Chicago's downtown area. Around 1:00 pm on Sunday, September 28th, ICE agents arrived at Grant Park and appeared to detain a family, forcing their 8-year-old daughter  to translate the detainment of her own parents. ICE continued to patrol downtown, into the River North neighborhood, and even on boats along the Chicago River. This follows a weekend of protests outside of the Broadview, IL ICE Detention Center, where demonstrators were subjected to rubber bullets, pepper balls, tear gas, and brutal arrests, including a CBS Reporter whose vehicle was targeted with chemical agents by ICE while she was driving.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab added, “Sending an army into our streets to pick up ‘suspicious looking brown people’ is NOT an immigration policy. And they know it. This is a scam. A very expensive and destructive one. They are not actually interested in solutions or fixing anything. Only performative tough guy optics designed to instill fear and eke subservience, which is all you get for your tax dollars when ruled over by egotistical charlatans.”