Consider This from NPR

Episode: How Chicago's ICE Resistance Was Born
Date: November 19, 2025
Host: Juana Summers

Overview

This episode delves into how Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood and activists built a playbook for resisting mass deportation enforcement, focusing on local efforts to disrupt federal immigration raids. With the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz targeting "criminal illegal aliens" in Chicago, the episode highlights the community-organizing roots, real-time resistance tactics, and how these actions set an example for cities facing similar government crackdowns.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Federal Immigration Enforcement Escalates in Cities

• Pattern of Raids: The episode opens with a familiar script: federal agents flood cities, conduct mass sweeps, and arrest people in unmarked cars.
  • “Federal agents flood into cities for massive enforcement sweeps... Videos pop up on social media showing masked agents in unmarked cars arresting people who appear to be going about their daily lives.” (A, 00:01)
• Local vs. Federal Authority: Despite local outcry, federal law prevails over state efforts, causing tension.
  • Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem: “If members of Congress, senators, governors, don't like the law, then they should go through the work of changing them.” (B, 00:32)
  • California Gov. Gavin Newsom: “We do not impede upon federal authority to enforce federal law with federal resources. Period. Full stop.” (C, 01:09)

2. Community and Political Response

• State and City Policies:
  • California bans masks for law enforcement; Illinois sets up an accountability committee to document abuse.
    • Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker: “When the time comes, Illinois will have the testimony and the records needed to pursue justice to its fullest extent.” (D, 01:36)
• Local Representation and Tools:
  • Information and protection kits, protest endorsement, and support for detainees.
    • Rep. Mike Quigley: “What we can do is tell people what's happening. My office has created an immigration protection kit... We also can find information about finding friends and family who might have been detained.” (E, 01:58)
    • On protest: “I always endorse peaceful protesting. Now's the time to step up and let people know just how serious this has gotten. This is a president who has weaponized the tools of democracy.” (E, 02:23)

3. Birth and Tactics of Rogers Park Resistance

• Protection Network Origins:
  • Protect RP formed in 2017 anticipating federal crackdowns.
  • Renewed activity and importance now as mass raids occur.
    • NPR’s Odette Youssef introduces field segment: “Some activists have been preparing, preparing for this moment for years.” (A, 04:17)
  • Encrypted rapid response: Activists use real-time group messages to follow and disrupt ICE vehicles.
    • Scene-setting: Jill Garvey and Gabe Gonzalez monitor vehicle plates, broadcast locations, and mobilize community spotters with horns and whistles. (B/G, 05:06-05:45)
• Direct, Nonviolent Disruption:
  • Slowing down agents, causing confusion, warning neighbors.
    • Gabe Gonzalez: “That’s half an hour that he lost, right? That’s half an hour where he’s not going to grab somebody. That’s all the time they have to pay him for not doing anything. The gas money... Time and money.” (D, 07:03)
  • The aim: make enforcement “as inefficient as possible.”
• Long-Term Organizing Philosophy:
  • Beyond immigration, seen as resisting creeping authoritarian tactics nationwide.
    • Jill Garvey: “We’re also pushing back against what she sees as an authoritarian strategy that, unchecked, could ultimately eat away at the freedom and rights of everyone in this country.” (B, paraphrased, 08:00)
    • Garvey on “linchpin” communities: “It could be a very small town that is trying to fend off Christian nationalism, and they may be the thing that is standing in the way of that network or formation gaining more influence in the region.” (G, 08:30)
    • “I think that what’s happening here is an attempt to strengthen sort of a national police force and occupy a city for a long time, terrorize the city for a long time and make it normal so they can go and do that in a lot of other places.” (G, 08:51)

4. Confrontation: Violence, Documentation, and Aftermath

• Escalating Tactics, Shared Experience:
  • On Halloween weekend, despite the governor's requests, federal agents conduct highly visible, violent raids, even outside of Chicago.
    • Gonzalez records video in Evanston: Agents assault a young man during a confrontation after being “tailgated.” Schools go on lockdown, residents intervene.
    • “He’s punching him in the face. He got three guys on him and he’s [still] punching him.” (B, 09:07)
  • Federal Defense vs. Public Perception: DHS claims “aggressive tailgating” and assault on an agent, but no evidence provided. Arrests made, no charges filed.
  • Widening Impact:
    • Gonzalez: “They’ve radicalized a set of people through their own actions, and that’ll be a generation before that goes away.” (D, 11:18)
    • The raids have united a broader group of residents—beyond communities of color—around shared resistance, potentially altering community relationships with federal law enforcement for years.

5. Blueprint for Other Cities

• National Model of Resistance:
  • Protect RP's template (community alerts, encrypted communications, direct action) is spreading to other cities.
    • Goal: Create a “non-permissive environment” for federal authorities, making enforcement so costly and difficult that other cities can copy the blueprint. (B, 11:26)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Kristi Noem (Homeland Security Secretary):
  “They are on the books. They were put in place, voted on and instituted, and therefore we enforce them all.” (B, 00:32)

• Gavin Newsom (California Governor):
  “We do not impede upon federal authority to enforce federal law with federal resources. Period. Full stop.” (C, 01:09)

• Mike Quigley (Democratic Congressman, Chicago):
  “My office has created an immigration protection kit... making sure people have completed privacy release forms so our staff can assist them.” (E, 01:58)
  “I always endorse peaceful protesting. Now’s the time to step up and let people know just how serious this has gotten.” (E, 02:23)

• Gabe Gonzalez (Protect RP co-founder):
  “That's half an hour that he lost, right? That's half an hour where he's not going to grab somebody.” (D, 07:03)

• Jill Garvey (Protect RP, States at the Core):
  “What’s happening here is an attempt to strengthen sort of a national police force and occupy a city for a long time, terrorize the city for a long time and make it normal so they can go and do that in a lot of other places.” (G, 08:51)

• Gabe Gonzalez:
  “They’ve radicalized a set of people through their own actions, and that’ll be a generation before that goes away.” (D, 11:18)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:01–01:36 — The escalation of ICE raids, federal vs. local power, and legal pushback
• 01:58–02:23 — Tools for immigrant protection and public protest in Chicago
• 04:17–05:45 — Introduction to the Rogers Park activists and their rapid response tactics
• 07:03 — Gonzalez explains “inefficiency as resistance”
• 08:50 — Jill Garvey describes the broader threat and national implications
• 09:07–10:30 — Detailed account of a violent raid and public reaction
• 11:18 — Gonzalez on the long-term impact of government actions
• 11:26 — The broader strategy and hope for national replication

Episode Tone and Style

• Empathetic, urgent, and direct. The speakers share stories from the frontlines, conveying tension, outrage, and a deep sense of purpose.
• Real voices from activists and politicians blend with field reporting to create a vivid portrait of resistance.

This episode of Consider This offers not only an urgent news report on the new wave of immigration raids but also a detailed, empowering account of neighborhood-based resistance in Chicago—a strategy that could shape responses to state overreach across the U.S.