Chicago’s mayor is drawing a line — not against crime or chaos, but against his own federal government.
On Monday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order barring federal immigration agents from using city-owned property, including parking lots, libraries, and parks, as staging areas for enforcement.
He called it an act of protection. Others are calling it defiance.
“In recent weeks, federal agents used several City-owned properties—including parking lots near Harrison and Kedzie, and a vacant lot at 46th and Damen—as staging sites for immigration enforcement,” Johnson’s office said in a statement. “Such use of City property undermines community trust and runs counter to Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance.”
In a single sweep of his pen, Johnson declared “ICE-free zones,” claiming the city would no longer cooperate with what he described as “a rogue, reckless group of heavily armed, masked individuals roaming throughout our city.”
“Our school parking lots are not for ICE to load their weapons, they are for Chicagoans who drop their kids off to learn. Our libraries are not for ICE to prepare for a raid, they’re for Chicagoans to read and relax. Our parks are not for ICE to set up checkpoints, they are for Chicagoans to play and enjoy,” he said.
🚨 Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson just announced he signed an executive order creating "ICE Free Zones" to ban ICE agents from city property.
This is SICK. He is aiding and abetting criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, traffickers, and gang bangers. pic.twitter.com/LaMbxaqePP
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 6, 2025
The move came just as President Donald Trump ordered hundreds of National Guard troops from Texas and California to Illinois and other states, a deployment meant to reinforce federal agents facing escalating anti-ICE violence.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker condemned the order, calling it “Trump’s invasion.”
“It started with federal agents; it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes,” Pritzker said.
But at the White House, officials see something else: a test of will, a moment of federal resolve. Homeland Security requested up to 100 troops to help protect agents and facilities after weeks of mob attacks in Chicago and Portland.
Johnson, however, is choosing resistance over cooperation. “If Congress won’t check this administration,” he said, “then Chicago will.”
It is a tale of two governments: one enforcing the law, and one trying to block it.
And for many watching across the Midwest, it appears to be a city declaring itself sovereign.
