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October 15, 2025

Trump’s Siege of Chicago

Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

Pixabay: Kalhh

Dystopia. As Manuel Castro recounts, since early September, that’s what it has felt like in Chicago, when Trump launched “Operation Midway Blitz.”

For someone who avoided military service — Trump received five deferments during the Vietnam War — he sure loves to posture as a warrior. “Blitz” is short for the German blitzkrieg: an all-out lightning strike that employed both ground forces and aerial bombing. And while Chicago has a part of town called Midway, the name also recalls the WWII Battle of Midway, where the US defeated the Japanese Navy.

Beyond the name of the operation and the ground troops and aerial equipment sent in, the comparison is laughable. What was the reason for Midway Blitz? Trump first alleged that massive numbers of “criminal illegal aliens” were on a crime wave, and Chicago was incapable of its own defense. He soon contradicted himself by stating that he simply intends to intimidate and punish cities and states held by Democrats.

Helicopters and armed masked men in desert camouflage — which would hardly be appropriate for an urban center if the troops truly needed to blend in — descended on Chicago. Who were the dangerous enemies that required all this? Mostly outraged Chicagoans protesting the detention of their friends and neighbors. Relatively few immigrants, a tiny fraction of the touted “3000 a day,” have been deported, and of those, most of the so-called hardened criminals have simply overstayed a visa.

The siege of Chicago resembles a sci-fi horror flick. The usual plot. A famous city with peaceful, happy residents gets blitzed by aliens — the real “illegal aliens.” We’re impatient for the flick to end: the city expels the invaders, and the people celebrate with joy and love. Roll of the credits: Starring the people of Chicago.

An ICE Storm Hits the Windy City

What has it been like in Chicago since ICE targeted your city?

We weren’t well prepared. Before ICE arrived, some community leaders said, C’mon, José, don’t worry! We’re essential workers! Many believed the story that ICE was only after criminals and that the agents would drive marked cars, give you their names and use warrants — after all, you’d think federal police would follow the law.

How does ICE operate?

They use helicopters. We see them hovering over certain areas, watching to see if people are grouped together at a store or standing on a corner. Then they send vans and SUVs to make arrests.

The ICE agents have lists and warrants for specific people. But if they can’t enter a house to search for that person, or if the person isn’t home, they just grab people randomly. Maybe you’re passing by on the sidewalk; they stop you and say, Show me your papers. If you don’t have any — and you’re not legally required to carry IDs — they arrest you.

They probably have quotas, so if they can’t find the person named on the warrant, anyone else will do.

Anyone else brown, that is. Say your great-great-great-great-grandfather is from Mexico; your brother has blue eyes, but yours are black. He’s fine. But if you want to go get a taco on the South Side, it could turn into a very bad day for you!

I get calls for help from people who say, My brother got arrested by ICE, and I can’t find him. When someone’s arrested, they aren’t allowed even a phone call until they’re processed and put into the system. That can take up to three days, even if they’re legal.

We got a call from someone who saw a truck still running without a driver. The guy must have gotten arrested. All his tools were in it. His life was in the truck, and anyone could have just driven it away.

Federal law enforcement agents attack demonstrators protesting outside of an immigrant processing center with a barrage of tear gas and pepper balls on September 27, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois.SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES.

How have people dealt with the fear of arrest?

As a community, we watch out for ICE and warn people through large WhatsApp chat groups. I see a helicopter in this area. ICE agents are at 1st and Union Streets; stay away. ICE is in front of such and such workplace; don’t leave until later.

It’s hard to be afraid to leave your house. Some say to me, I’m so fed up. I’m going back to Mexico. I say, Take it easy! Do you have family in Mexico? A home? A job? How much savings do you have? Because you could end up living on the street.

There are religious people on the app. Dear Lord, bring mercy. Everybody, let’s pray. I say, Go ahead; if it makes you feel good, pray! If you have a special connection to God, when ICE comes, maybe a miraculous light from the sky will shine down on you — but you’ll still be arrested. So, give us your prayers AND the information!

If you have the courage, confront ICE. But you can do other things if you’re scared. Take photos or bring food and comfort to the families of the disappeared or detained.

Some small businesspeople are creative. Say a Mexican has a Mexican restaurant; since he knows how to cook, to avoid a raid, he just changes it to an Italian restaurant. One guy I know put his restaurant in his cousin’s name; it will keep operating, and he’ll share the profits his cousin sends to him in Mexico.

“For my dad who was deported. Look at me, daddy from the sky. This is our war!”

Photo: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group

When ICE agents killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, it made national news. Why did you write to Mexico’s President Sheinbaum to ask her to intervene?

Silverio had been working in the US for many years and had two small children. After dropping them off at preschool, an unmarked car blocked his car. We don’t know why they stopped him. Two ICE agents got out and went to talk to him. Two minutes later, they shot him dead.

Why? The Department of Homeland Security claimed Silverio tried to run over one ICE agent who “thought his life was in jeopardy.” They claimed that he was injured but “in stable condition.” Videos told the real story. The agent fell and scraped his knee; he said himself it was “nothing serious.” Investigation proved Silverio was not a criminal.

I read that Dolores Huerta and other Mexican American leaders had complained to the UN Human Rights Commission about ICE’s abuses. We must take these cases to regional and international platforms. Many of us are dual citizens, and the Mexican government should be protecting us. I wrote to President Sheinbaum — and she did publicly demand an investigation into Silverio’s death.

Did the ICE operation succeed in creating terror?

This is a made-for-TV show; Trump wants the country to think they nabbed a lot of immigrant criminals in Chicago. Well, after the big hype about a September ICE blitz, about 600 people were arrested; probably 30% were legal. So maybe a few hundred were deported. Out of 600,000 Mexicanos in Chicago, that’s just a handful.

The ICE agents are cowards. They go after the small guys. They don’t raid factories with hundreds of workers, since they know they’ll resist. So, they pick up a kid on a bicycle, a mom in a car or some day laborers looking for work.

While I hate ICE, I feel sorry for them too. I saw one agent crying as she was taking someone away. When they get home, their kid might ask, Daddy, how was your work today? In a normal job you could say, I framed a house someone needs. Or I made a beautiful garden, and the people were happy. ICE agent? I arrested a 70-year-old lady selling tamales! How does it feel to think, My job is to arrest innocent people? Everyone hates me! This job will ruin many agents’ lives.

Terror? Yes, people are scared. But they’re more angry than scared!

What next for Mexican migrants and anti-ICE activists in Chicago?

Trump wants a confrontation to give him the excuse for escalating ICE violence. But the heartless treatment of little kids is turning more and more people against ICE. Does seeing ICE agents in full riot gear tie up a little grandma look scary — or stupid?

When the siege is over, we’re going to throw a big fiesta!

President Sheinbaum's Triumphant Year one

Writer, playwright, and journalist Kurt Hackbarth is a naturalized Mexican citizen living in Oaxaca. His  political commentary is regularly featured in Sentido Común, Al Jazeera, and Jacobin. 

This is part 2 of Kurt’s original article. It has been edited for length and clarity.

El Plan México   

President Claudia Sheinbaum had a strong first year, as evidenced by her 80% approval rating. But that alone won’t stymie the bullying or deranged bombing threats emanating from the US White House, nor will it adapt Mexico to a rapidly changing multipolar world.

To deal with these conditions, Sheinbaum has launched the Plan México — an industrial-planning and import-substitution initiative. It’s designed to leverage state leadership in strategic areas, such as energy, to foster a Mexican-centered model of sustainable national development.

The idea is to link AMLO’s push for sovereignty and self-sufficiency with more emphasis on science and technology. This will make possible building infrastructure, such as trains and ports, and developing Mexico’s own capacity for the production of goods such as electric cars and batteries. The plan also embraces diversifying markets to reduce Mexico’s dependence on its northern neighbor (some 80 percent of Mexican exports still go to the US) by increasing trade with more countries, such as Brazil.

On paper, this looks good. In practice, there are causes for concern.

Memories of the massive expansion of the maquiladora model in the 1990s are still fresh. The expansion was financed by the tariff advantages of NAFTA and by successive neoliberal governments providing tax breaks to multinational corporations. These incentives set up a seamy realm of low-wage, assembly employment in designated border zones.

In 2016, neoliberal president Enrique Peña Nieto attempted to import the Chinese model of special economic zones (SEZs) into four of Mexico’s poorest states. Again, the project focused on attracting foreign investment through costly tax breaks rather than on providing actual benefits for the hosting communities. It was such a failure that when AMLO became president, he pivoted to “development poles,” which attempted to balance tax incentives with social-development goals in housing, worker training and the integration of local providers into supply chains. Results so far have been uneven.

Now President Sheinbaum has introduced her own Plan México. She understands that a new industrial policy must genuinely emphasize local development in  knowledge, production, patents and intellectual property. Therefore, foreign direct investment (FDI) must be carefully targeted to carry out the overarching economic development goals, and it must anchor local industries strategically and ensure technology knowledge transfer, not simply employee training.

In practice, early efforts appear too narrowly focused on FDI for FDI’s sake, allowing foreign multinationals such as Coca-Cola or Nestlé to simply place the “Made in Mexico” label on their domestic production and chalk it up as a win. A model, in short, that veers dangerously close to the failed experiments of the past.

President Sheinbaum has held office for a year. We have five more years to assess whether Mexico will remain tethered to foreign investment or whether it can move significantly toward self-sufficiency (ed.).

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For a deeper dive into current news and analysis in English,

check out our media website and the podcast ¡Soberanía! (Sovereignty) with José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth.

New episodes will now arrive weekly on Wednesdays, not Tuesdays.

Sin Muros from José Luis and Kurt is a weekly Spanish language Mexican TV show on Canal Once that analyzes Mexico-US relations. It's also on YouTube, with English subtitles.

And those of you with mad skills and/or interests we want to hear from you! Get in touch to find ways to plug in to the work. Drop a line to meizhului@gmail.com.

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Compiled by Jay Watts.

Tallis Boerne Marcus, 400,000 in Mexico City’s Zócalo celebrate one year of Claudia Sheinbaum’s government People’s Dispatch. In her speech to a full Zócalo, Sheinbaum reviewed her government’s major accomplishments in a year of global turbulence largely amid a US tariff war and military threats.

Brugada resume su Gobierno: no hay nepotismo, es popular, austero y con un PIB al 3% Sin Embargo. La Jefa de Gobierno capitalina reafirmó su compromiso con una Ciudad de México más justa, segura y solidaria.

Global Sumud Flotilla’s Mexican and French Activists Return Home Telesur. They denounced mistreatment by Israeli authorities after interception in international waters.

José Blanco, El neoliberalismo y la 4T La Jornada. Pero es posible atemperar esa tendencia con una correlación de fuerzas políticas favorable al pueblo. En México, encabeza ese proceso la 4T. El pueblo lo hace posible.

Enrique Dussel Peters, New Triangular Relations Phenomenal World. Security-shoring and trade between Mexico, China, and the US.

Anahí Del Ángel, Sader cedió a presiones de la industria de plaguicidas tóxicos Revista Contralínea. La industria de plaguicidas cabildeó directamente con la Secretaría de Desarrollo Rural –que encabeza Julio Berdegué– la no prohibición de los herbicidas altamente tóxicos de mayor uso en México.

Salvador Rivera, Mexico’s president says Trump open to individual trade deals instead of USMCA Border Report. Trump also discussed the trade agreement with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney during a meeting earlier this week in Washington.

Lucha de Cuba es la de los pueblos del continente, afirman en México Prensa Latina. La cita reúne desde el jueves a cientos de delegados de 25 países de América Latina y el Caribe, además de España, Líbano y Estados Unidos.

Luis Pablo Beauregard & Patricia San Juan Flores, Claudia Sheinbaum has higher approval ratings than López Obrador after first year in office El País. According to respondents, the President’s success lies in continuing the extensive portfolio of social support programs initiated by Morena during the previous administration.

René González, Consejo Nacional de Morena, una bandera para la esperanza Revista Memoria. Los nuevos lineamientos se inscriben en la ruta de esfuerzos colectivos por “corregir a tiempo”. La tarea es difundirlos y que el movimiento los haga suyos.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of Mexico as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and Mexico’s national sovereignty.

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs, Pedro Gellert.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

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