'Shadow surge' overhaul of ICE tactics laid bare by highway smash

When ICE agents smashed their vehicle into a pick-up truck last week and detained a man on a Chicago highway, protests erupted — and an impromptu action meeting was called to hit what the community is calling a "shadow surge."

The urgent ICE Watch and Community Defense session came together on Friday to address what's being seen as a stealth rise in action rise in actions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Last year, federal immigration agents very publicly descended on the city in what the Department of Homeland Security called Operation Midway Blitz.

The immigration enforcement surge involved two shootings — including the killing of Silverio Villegas González — excessive and violent use of force, frequent publicity of former U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino and highly visible immigration raids.

By comparison, the latest wave of ICE activity in Chicago is “not always quiet,” but is “something that they're trying to do in the shadows,” said Jill Garvey, executive director of States at the Core, which hosted last week's meeting and works to combat authoritarianism and political extremism.

“We talk about the shadow surge as a way to distinguish it from what people saw last summer and fall and into the winter. We are not seeing DHS announce where they're going to go like they were a year ago,” Garvey said.

“They would be openly out there even as they were obscuring their identities with masks and stuff. They were a visible presence in these cities.”

ICE activity in Chicago now feels “much less visible” and more “targeted,” said Gabe Gonzalez, a community organizer with Protect Rogers Park, which organizes ICE neighborhood patrols on the far North Side of the city.

“When the Border Patrol was here, it was really obvious. They were highly confrontational and violent and scary to a lot of people, and there were instances of them beating people and tear gas and pepper balls and all of that, and large numbers of them roving around trying to scare people,” Gonzalez said.

“It feels different, but it is definitely a lot more activity than there had been.”

Illinois State Sen. Graciela Guzmán said communities on Chicago's Northwest Side saw "multiple detentions per day, every day" last week. Her office works with the Northwest Side Rapid Response Team and is activating School Watch across all schools in her district area given the increased ICE activity seen around local schools.

"These detentions are not only, I think, really speeding up in frequency, but they're increasingly becoming across multiple geographies," Guzmán said.

"It's really feeling like the sustained targeting of individuals, and they're being, in many instances, scouted and chased for across many, many miles."

Guzmán said "there's much more surveillance" happening instead of the "broad community tactics" employed during Operation Midway Blitz, which were "wildly unpopular." Those being targeted include people whose Temporary Protected Status or asylum protections have been revoked, Guzmán said.

The arrests are happening in residential areas where sometimes the only evidence is an abandoned car or work truck left running, Guzmán said. She said her own vehicle was boxed by ICE agents a few weeks ago.

"They are increasingly doing these stops very, very quickly, and it is clear that they are using an exorbitant amount of resources to really be able to surveil people's patterns like when they leave the house, when they come back. Do they go alone?" Guzmán said.

In response to Raw Story's questions, a DHS spokesperson sent a list of "public safety threats" arrested by ICE in Illinois. Listed convictions for the "criminal illegal alien" men include homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, domestic violence, child abduction, larceny and burglary, according to the spokesperson.

“Since Day One, DHS law enforcement has been delivering on President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists. We will continue to deliver on the president’s promise to make America safe again," the spokesperson said.

“Our message is clear: if you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you. ICE enforces the law as written. What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is whether or not they are illegally in the U.S.— full stop.

“Nationwide, our law enforcement is targeting public safety threats — including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists. Nearly 70% of illegal aliens ICE arrested across the country have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the U.S. This statistic doesn’t account for those wanted for violent crimes in their home country or another country, INTERPOL notices, human rights abusers, gang members, terrorists, etc. The list goes on."

'Going to hurt more people'

ICE’s tactics in Chicago have been “quieter” recently, but there’s been a “return to some of these violent clashes” like with the highway crash on Aug. 24, Garvey said.

DHS’ account of the incident said a Venezuelan man, Robinson Mendez-Gutierrez, fled from immigration officers and rammed an officer’s vehicle during a traffic stop before he was arrested.

"From reports on the ground, an ICE officer activated his emergency lights to conduct a vehicle stop, but Mendez-Gutierrez refused to comply and weaponized his pickup truck against the officer by ramming it into the officer’s vehicle. The officer was able to stop Mendez-Gutierrez's pickup truck and arrest him without further incident," a DHS spokesperson told Raw Story.

“Mendez-Gutierrez has a criminal history including arrests for possession of a controlled substance, failure to reduce speed, driver's license not on person, driver's license expired more than a year, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and illegal possession/transportation of liquor by driver. He illegally entered the United States in 2023 and was RELEASED into our county by the Biden administration. He will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings."

Neighbors and protestors showed up to the site where the immigration agents’ SUV needed to be towed. One tow truck company refused to assist the agents.

“These various agencies and their leadership are showing some cracks in their ability to mount different tactics,” Garvey said.

“There are not easy or necessarily quiet ways to abduct people over and over again from a community that gets organized.”

States at the Core has trained at least 55,000 people nationally, many in documenting and responding to ICE activity. As community groups see how “incredibly effective” community defense training is, there’s been interest in other trainings such as de-escalation tactics and election protection, Garvey said.

“It’s really setting in that the mass deportation agenda is a thing that has limitless funding and resources and isn't going to stop just because DHS and ICE experienced defeats in Chicago and Minneapolis,” Garvey said.

“These different tactics will march forward. The agenda will keep moving. The motivation behind the rounding up millions of people and deporting them hasn't changed, and that's hard because I think folks are wondering how much, how long they can sustain this.”

Between 2,000 and 3,000 federal immigration agents were deployed to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in January, with two community members, Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, fatally shot by agents. Federal agents started retreating from Operation Metro Surge in February.

ICE returned to Chicago this year with “less confrontational” tactics but has been seemingly “grabbing people,” particularly "anybody who's got any sort of difficulty in the immigration system … [which] has got to be the majority of them because the system doesn't work,” Gonzalez said.

ICE still frequently targets people at Home Depots, he said.

“When this ‘shadow surge’ started off, the agents seemed a little bit more tentative. They seemed a little bit more unsure of themselves, and that has disappeared,” Gonzalez said.

“They are much more aggressive … it's obvious where that comes from. It comes from the top. They're being told that they will be protected no matter what they do. If they crash their cars into somebody, they'll be protected. If they hit somebody or wrestle them to the ground and push their face into this concrete, they'll be protected,” Gonzalez said.

While the aggressiveness isn’t quite to the level it was during Operation Midway Blitz, it’s “getting there,” Gonzalez said. Organizers have observed “individually aggressive people” among immigration agents, including some using racial slurs," he said.

“It's getting bad. They're going to hurt more people. We can see this coming,” said Gonzalez as he was responding to a report of ICE agents in his neighborhood.

“We knew this was going to happen in Chicago, and we knew it was going to happen in Minneapolis. We are absolutely certain that if something isn't done to hold them accountable for their violent activities, it's just going to get worse, and they're going to hurt other people. We’re certain of it.”