AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The Department of Homeland Security says more than 5,000 people have been arrested by federal immigration officers in the Chicago region. But many Chicagoans believe that number would have been much higher had it not been for hyperlocal grassroots work to counter enforcement activities. Now some people in Chicago hope that other cities like New Orleans might build off what they have learned. NPR's Odette Yousef has been covering their efforts and joins us now. Hi, Odette.
ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: So tell us about the group that you've been spending some time with.
YOUSEF: Well, it's called Protect RP. RP stands for Rogers Park, which is the name of their neighborhood. And it sits on the northern border of Chicago, right on Lake Michigan. It's known for its international diversity and as a kind of hotbed for lefty activism. And Protect RP is a community defense network. Its core team is about 16 volunteers. Most of them are doing this on top of a full-time job. And what's notable is they were doing this work quite early, Ailsa. Protect RP first mobilized back in 2017...
CHANG: Oh, wow.
YOUSEF: ...Shortly after President Trump was first elected. And actually, I covered the first public training they held that year.
CHANG: Wow - that many years ago.
YOUSEF: Yeah.
CHANG: What was that like and how has the group changed to meet this current moment, you think?
YOUSEF: Well, back then it was about 60 people meeting in a church. They were training to do something called rapid response, which meant, you know, physically getting people to the scene of an ICE arrest to make it annoying - you know, loud, slow and ultimately expensive.
A lot has changed, though. Today, it's not just ICE agents. You know, this administration has, for the first time, considered Chicago to be border territory, and so many of these arrests have been carried out by Customs and Border Protection. They cruise neighborhoods without specific targets. They detain people without knowing who they are, what their residency or citizenship status is, and without warrants. So Protect RP has had to change its approach. However, they have been helped by a surge in people joining their network, and that's where I want to begin my story.
JILL GARVEY: Hi, everyone. Welcome to documenting and responding to ICE Watch, or to ICE. We are letting everybody into the webinar right now.
YOUSEF: Jill Garvey is part of the core Protect RP team. She's been leading many of the trainings.
GARVEY: OK, so we're going to do a check-in. We're going to talk about why we respond to ICE. We're going to talk about the goals of ICE Watch.
YOUSEF: Garvey is also the cofounder of STAC - States at the Core. It's an organization that helps local communities respond to what it sees as authoritarian threats, like book bans or neo-Nazi parades. Helping her own community withstand federal pressure was not on her 2025 bingo card, but she says her background was made for this moment.
GARVEY: People were asking for this from all over the country.
YOUSEF: Garvey says this year they've trained more than 5,000 people in ICE Watch or Migra Watch. They teach people what to look for if they're identifying immigration enforcement activity - what kind of cars agents drive, what kind of plates, how they dress, what they're doing. Garvey adjusts the trainings regularly to incorporate new information from the streets.
GABE GONZALEZ: So we have people almost always patrolling the neighborhood.
YOUSEF: Gabe Gonzalez is one of Protect RP's cofounders. He's a career community organizer. The morning I met him, Gonzalez was cruising the neighborhood in his car. It had become clear early that morning, from texts within the Protect RP network, that immigration enforcement was targeting Rogers Park and nearby areas that day.
GONZALEZ: You know, their goal is kidnapping people, and in order to do that, they have to go out and find them. And every time they do that, we'll be looking for them.
YOUSEF: In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson says, quote, "illegal aliens are not kidnapped. They are arrested for breaking the law." But Protect RP switched to continuous proactive patrolling after a week when the community was hit twice with aggressive immigration raids. Many other local networks in and around Chicago have modeled something similar. As you drive, you often see people on sidewalks, whistles around their necks, scrutinizing your license plate and squinting to see the driver's face. They funnel suspected sightings up through encrypted channels to trained verifiers, who go out to confirm the presence of agents. When confirmed, a community alert goes out.
GONZALEZ: So we're still getting reports that they're inside, but I don't think they are - are they?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I don't know. Have you been inside yet?
YOUSEF: Gonzalez pulls over to two bike patrollers standing near a Target store on the North Side. On at least two earlier occasions, agents had arrested people there.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: It seems like this morning they were using it as a staging area.
GONZALEZ: Yeah, I heard that.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: And - but I think - I mean, like, I haven't, like, looked inside every car, but my guess...
YOUSEF: So now, Protect RP and other neighbors monitor it.
GONZALEZ: If you could do us a favor - you're on the verifiers list?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah.
GONZALEZ: Could you just call that in? Because there's still reports coming in.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
YOUSEF: Tracking where federal immigration agents stop, stage, park has helped Protect RP fill in gaps. The day we're driving around, Gonzalez also hears that agents tried to take a nanny watching kids at a playlot. And later that day, agents were recorded staging in a public park, and so calls were made to the Park District. It's impossible to measure the impact of this work, but Gonzalez, Garvey and others on the Protect RP team say that preventing even just one arrest makes it worthwhile.
GONZALEZ: Our members have been threatened by Border Patrol. People have drawn their guns out. People have said that they will shoot them. People have approached their vehicles and, you know, said, if you follow us, we will arrest you.
YOUSEF: As risky as it has been, Jill Garvey says Chicagoans have continued to raise their hands.
GARVEY: Part of it is this motivation to protect vulnerable people. I think the other thing is that they know other people are doing the same thing. So there's a - it's a little bit of contagious courage. I know other people are going to do this too.
CHANG: A little bit of contagious courage. Well, Odette Yousef is back with us. And, Odette, I just want to ask you, like, how vocal are people in Chicago who are actually in support of the immigration crackdown?
YOUSEF: There are some of those voices here, Ailsa. You see them more on social media. But part of the issue has been that so many people have seen who they've detained, and they're largely not dangerous criminals as the administration has claimed. You know, the data show this. Of more than 600 people who were ordered to be released from mandatory detention, 97% had no criminal record at the time of their arrest. And that's based on court filings from federal lawyers.
CHANG: Well, we've been focusing on Chicago, but now that the enforcement focus is moving on to other cities, what are Protect RP and other Chicago networks doing?
YOUSEF: So in the statement to NPR, DHS said it has, quote, "the law and supremacy clause" on its side. So it's clear there's no end in sight for these operations. Enforcement continues in Chicago, even if it's at a lower level. So Protect RP will keep doing the work they already do, but they are also now working with groups in Charlotte and expanding their trainings nationally.
CHANG: That is NPR's Odette Yousef. Thank you so much for your reporting, Odette.
YOUSEF: Thank you.
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