Free Republic

It’s a small, but mighty sign: “Everyone is welcome here, except I.CE.” Katherine Duncan, owner of Katherine Anne Confections, fastened it proudly on her shop’s front door. “It was a no-brainer for me,” Duncan said on a recent Wednesday afternoon, hours after she put the sign up at the storefront on 3653 W. Irving Park Road. “I feel so helpless. With my business and my kids, I can’t escort students to and from school or other things like that. So it was like, well — what can we do?” In recent weeks, Chicago has seen an increase in Immigration and...

Former President Barack Obama stated that President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to quell crime in Democrat-run cities is “inherently corrupting,” arguing that he would have received a different reaction from conservative media if he had sent the military into Texas during his tenure. Obama spoke with left-wing comedian Mark Maron for the final episode of his long-running podcast, published Monday, in which he shared several of his grievances about how Trump has been leading the country. “When you have military that can direct force against their own people, that is inherently corrupting. And so when you now...

Deborah Brockman, a veteran producer at WGN-TV, was forced to the ground as mask-wearing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers cuffed her in the Chicago suburb of Lincoln Square on Friday. The officers behind Brockman's arrest stopped at nothing to take her into custody - damaging a resistant driver's SUV after they refused to move out of the way. The CBP agents were driving in the area while conducting immigration enforcement operations when Brockman allegedly threw something at their vehicle, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). She was arrested for assaulting a federal agent, but was released from...

Tear gas still hung in the air as Albany Park neighbors and elected officials hugged and cried, processing the scene they had just witnessed Sunday afternoon after at least four vehicles full of federal agents had taken a man and tear gassed their neighborhood as residents responded. A man spoke to Chicago police officers in the 3200 block of West Wilson while his hands bled after being shoved to the ground by federal agents. Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd) led the crowd of rapid responders, some on bikes and others with dogs, as she sprinted toward each call with state Sen....

Two people arrested by Ambridge police for protesting during an immigration raid over the summer are suing the Beaver County borough and its officers in federal court. Two separate complaints alleging malicious prosecution and violations of First Amendment rights were filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on Wednesday by Isaac Elias and Katherine Melson. They name as defendants Ambridge and Beaver County, as well as Ambridge Officer Michael Longo. Additionally, Elias is suing Sgt. Sokheng “Jason” Seng, while Melson is suing Sgt. Alfred Bialik and Lt. John Chickos. On July 31, ICE agents conducted a “saturation patrol” in Ambridge...

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said the Trump administration will buy more buildings in Chicago for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Noem said more buildings were purchased “to operate out of.” “We’re purchasing more buildings in Chicago to operate out of,” Noem said to President Trump during the meeting. “We’re going to not back off. In fact, we’re doubling down and we’re going to be in more parts of Chicago in response to the people there.” “I was there a few days ago and looked at...

Family members of law enforcement officers are facing threats from individuals affiliated with the far-left extremist group Antifa, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an Oct. 10 X post.“Antifa terrorists are threatening the families of our law enforcement. We will hunt these sickos down and put them behind bars,” the post said. “In Texas, the spouse of an ICE officer received a voicemail filled with violent threats.”The agency uploaded an audio clip of the threat received by the spouse, in which a woman can be heard using expletives against the wife of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)...

A week after federal agents arrested dozens of people during a military-style immigration raid of a South Shore apartment building, resident Cassandra Murray slowly inches down four flights of stairs because the elevators are broken again. Murray is disabled and walks with a limp. The 55-year-old wears plastic gloves as she holds onto a railing, pointing out urine spots and feces smeared on the wall in the building where she has lived for a decade. Murray is on her way to see a new apartment. She says her move wasn’t prompted by the harrowing raid or the Venezuelan immigrants who...

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson ordered the removal of police tape near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility this week despite the federal government's call for the establishment of a perimeter around the ICE location, according to a report on oregonlive.com. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the ICE facility on Tuesday and Portland Police Bureau Chief Bob Day noted that authorities had the vicinity cordoned off for the occasion. But the perimeter was removed on Wednesday, according to the report.

Videos of an incident from mid-September is making the rounds on social media showing a man getting shot with a pepper ball as he and other agitators were on the property of an ICE facility in Chicago. The Department of Homeland Security has said that the man as well as others in the anti-ICE group were blocking vehicles from exiting the property. The video of the man, identified as David Black, shows him on federal property in what has been a stand-off between the group of agitators blocking ICE vehicles from leaving the facility. Black says he is a pastor...

Texas residents were left stunned when a world-renowned chef who once catered events for George W Bush was deported for crossing the border illegally in 1989. Sergio Garcia - who had become a staple in Waco for his wildly popular Mexican food truck - was originally arrested in March over a two-decade old deportation order. The chef was loading Sergio's Food Truck when he was approached by a man in plainclothes while another man in a vest reading POLICE stood at a distance, The Waco Bridge reports. 'They asked me if I'm Sergio, and I said "Yeah, I'm Sergio,"' Garcia...

After country singer Zach Bryan teased a new song condemning ICE raids, the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] responded by using one of his past hits in a recruitment video. Bryan previewed a new song, "Bad News," in an Instagram post that quickly went viral. The song includes lyrics lamenting "the fading of the red, white and blue," and that "ICE is gonna come bust down your door." John Rich, a fellow country music star famous for the smash-hit "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" was one of many who derided the song, joking that "Nashville is full of guys...

An online anarchist platform encouraged people on Wednesday to shine lasers at federal helicopters in Portland, Oregon, a crime that law enforcement officials say can create extreme danger for pilots. A post on the leftist, Portland-focused website “Rose City Counter-Info” tells viewers to scatter throughout the city’s streets on Saturday for the attack — nicknamed “Laser Tag” — as federal agents respond to demonstrations near the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. The goal is to “ground” the helicopters by making it difficult to safely fly them and flash too many lasers for law enforcement to hunt down those...

When the guardians become the hunted, and the protectors need protection, you know a city has crossed the line from civilization into something darker. That line isn’t just being approached in Chicago; it’s been obliterated, leaving federal agents to fend for themselves in what should be American streets, not war zones. The very people sworn to uphold the law are being abandoned by those who claim to represent justice. President Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago didn’t come from nowhere. The reality on the ground tells a different story—one where federal law enforcement officers are being systematically...

Trump is not only scapegoating our city; he is plotting to make the neighborhoods of working families, immigrants and communities of color the staging grounds for authoritarian force.While many families prepared their children for school Monday morning, Sept. 29, I woke up to calls from parents in Chicago too afraid to leave their homes. Rumors of immigration enforcement were spreading, and the simple act of walking a child to school felt like too much of a risk. I am a mother and an Illinois state representative, and these calls hit me in two places at once: as a parent who...

Video at link.

MAGA commentators are stepping up as soldiers in Trump’s culture war to provoke confrontations against “Antifa” with the backing of DHS.TWO WEEKS AGO, THE X ACCOUNT for the Department of Homeland Security was being, all things considered, relatively normal.There was a repost of a video about law enforcement at the Charlie Kirk memorial, a video on how the Secret Service had dismantled a digital network that could have carried out attacks near the United Nations General Assembly, a video of part of Trump’s tone-deaf, chest-beating speech at the U.N., and posts and news updates on the Dallas ICE field office...

Video at link.

Halloween decorations at the home of Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch are being heavily criticized after a Facebook post featuring the display was shared. The decorations depict skeleton ICE agents chasing other skeletons dressed in sombreros and Mexican-style ponchos. Whitney Newman posted the photo saying, "It's hard to put into words how disappointing it is to see our elected sheriff use his own front yard to mock and dehumanize a group of people." The post received hundreds of reactions and was shared over 250 times.

Pritzker said that Texas National Guard troops should, ‘stay the hell out of Illinois.’Fully embracing anarchy, Democrat leaders in Chicago, a sanctuary city; and in Illinois, a sanctuary state, are using every possible method to thwart federal immigration authorities from removing illegal aliens and curtailing rampant crime there.Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson issued an executive order Monday creating an ICE Free Zone, preventing ICE from using city property, such as parking lots, as staging areas, or for enforcement actions. City agencies are directed to use physical barriers like locked gates to limit access to city property, and report to the mayor...