By The American Tribune | Created at 2026-09-27 10:30:59 | Updated at 2026-09-27 11:43:22
1 hour ago
An Illinois anti-ICE network broadcast federal agents’ locations and vehicle descriptions as arrests were reported across several towns this week. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights warned followers that agents might still be near a Friday morning arrest in Waukegan, then sent out an alert placing them at Gurnee Mills. The group trains supporters to watch for ICE and feeds sightings into a neighborhood alert system. Its campaign has unfolded amid increasingly confrontational protests at an ICE facility outside Chicago.
The coalition said its Lake County Rapid Response Team confirmed ICE activity on Friday, September 25th. Near 8th Street and Prescott Avenue in Waukegan, the group reported that agents took one person into custody at about 9:01 a.m. It called the arrest an “abduction” and listed six vehicles reportedly observed nearby. The alert urged readers to remain watchful because agents could still be in the area.
The next alert moved the focus to one of the region’s largest shopping centers. The coalition said agents had been seen near the Kohl’s on the Gurnee Mills campus at approximately 10:45 a.m. Its notice, issued shortly after 11:20 a.m., identified a black Nissan Armada and a black Nissan Pathfinder. No arrests at the mall were reported, but the group circulated the location and vehicle descriptions nonetheless.
As Lake and McHenry County Scanner reported, those alerts followed community reports of ICE arrests in Vernon Hills on Wednesday and Woodstock on Thursday. Witnesses supplied vehicle descriptions in Woodstock, too. The coalition encouraged people who encountered agents to report the encounter to its so-called “Family Support Hotline”, including advice about filming police and declining to answer questions or sign documents.
ICIRR has built an operation around such reports. Its website invites people to subscribe to “Eyes On Ice” text alerts for their neighborhoods and advertises “Migra Watch” training. A fundraising appeal describes pushing back against ICE raids and defending sanctuary policies as a main part of its work. Friday’s warnings were an example of the system the coalition asks supporters to join and fund.
The group has described what its rapid response tactics look like on the street. In an October 2025 joint statement, ICIRR said team members blew whistles in a Cicero Walmart parking lot to warn customers about agents. Residents alerted others as they arrived at work, while additional teams watched agents move through Chicago neighborhoods. The coalition claimed those tactics allegedly helped stop ICE and CBP from extending their presence in the area.
ICIRR has also had a public presence at protests outside the ICE facility in Broadview. At an August 2025 demonstration there, Bassem Kawar spoke on the coalition’s behalf to a crowd of more than 150, according to a report from the scene. Protesters gathered near the facility’s driveway, where security guards told people to move back from the gate.
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Another Broadview confrontation was recorded on Friday, September 26, 2025. ABC7 Chicago reported that demonstrators stood in the way of vehicles entering the ICE facility, with some hitting the hood of a federal SUV and yelling at its driver. Federal officers used tear gas and pepper projectiles during the day, while ABC7 cameras captured agents chasing protesters nearby.
Watch the clash from September 2025 outside the Broadview ICE facility here:
Broadview saw a sharper confrontation just last Saturday, September 19th. ABC7 Chicago reported that demonstrators blocked the ICE facility’s driveway as officers tried to enter and leave. Video showed some protesters holding onto a vehicle’s hood, and federal officers used pepper spray during the clash. The Coalition Against Broadview ICE Facility spoke for demonstrators afterward; the report didn’t identify ICIRR as an organizer of that particular protest.
The danger of confronting armed agents during an ICE operation became deadly in Minneapolis on January 7th of this year. Renée Good used her SUV to block a residential street while she and her wife monitored federal agents. When agents approached and ordered her to get out, Good backed up and then drove forward into ICE officer Jonathan Ross. The Times reported that the front corner of the SUV clipped Ross as he opened fire, killing Good. DHS said Ross was treated at a hospital, while officials briefed on his condition told CBS News that he suffered internal bleeding to his torso. The fatal encounter shows how quickly blocking a road and confronting agents can put lives at risk.
Back in Lake and McHenry counties, the reports continued beyond Waukegan and Gurnee. Community members said a person was detained behind a Vernon Hills Sam’s Club on Wednesday. On Thursday, witnesses reported an arrest of a driver on Railroad Street in Woodstock, followed by another sighting of suspected ICE vehicles elsewhere in town. ICE hadn’t immediately answered the local outlet’s request for comment on this week’s activity. The agency previously confirmed six arrests in Woodstock on September 11th, including a man it said had a 2024 weapons conviction.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.
