Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents attempted to conduct an enforcement action at Hamline Elementary School in Back of the Yards, Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) and Chicago Public Schools officials said Friday.
The agents were turned away and no one appears to have been detained, said Taylor, who told WTTW News she was headed to the school at 4747 S. Bishop St., southwest of the Loop, to assess the situation.
“Hamline staff followed CPS' established protocols; they kept the ICE agents outside of the school and contacted CPS' Law Department and CPS' Office of Safety and Security for further guidance,” according to a statement from a department spokesperson. “The ICE agents were not allowed into the school and were not permitted to speak to any students or staff. Teaching and learning continued throughout the day at Hamline.”
The arrival of federal immigration agents at a Chicago Public Schools campus is the first sign that President Donald Trump’s promise to launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” has reached Chicago.
Federal officials on Tuesday lifted restrictions on two key federal immigration agencies — Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — that prevented agents from carrying out deportation efforts at sensitive locations, including churches, schools, hospitals, shelters and community centers.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has repeatedly said he will not allow Chicago police officers to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deport undocumented Chicagoans and called for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
CPS policy prohibits federal immigration agents from “entering CPS school grounds, unless they provide to CPS administration their credentials, the reason they are requesting access, and a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge,” according CPS records. “CPS shall not admit ICE agents based upon an administrative warrant, an ICE detainer, or other document issued by an agency enforcing civil immigration law.”
