Protesters by the thousands marched through Chicago on Tuesday, stopping traffic in the downtown Loop and chanting anti-Trump slogans as they denounced immigration raids in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities.
Marchers, by turns upbeat and defiant, waved Mexican flags and held signs denouncing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and President Trump, reading “ICE Out of Chicago,” “One mustache away from fascism” and “Immigrants make America great.”
They were also joined by protesters supporting Palestinians, wearing kaffiyehs and calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
“From Palestine to Mexico, these border walls have got to go,” the marchers chanted.
Late Tuesday evening, the protest diminished in size but turned tense. Some people spray-painted graffiti denouncing ICE and Mr. Trump on buildings and police cars.
Dozens of protesters faced off with police outside a federal building downtown. Some protesters chanted “Shame!” at the police officers, saying that they represented ICE and the government, both institutions that were the target of the group’s indignation. A few threw half-full water bottles in the direction of the officers, who quickly donned helmets with face shields.
In Chicago, a city with a sizable immigrant population, tensions have been high in predominantly Latino neighborhoods over arrests of undocumented people. In communities like Pilsen, a heavily Mexican neighborhood, some residents have been afraid to go to work or go shopping, worried that they will be detained by federal immigration agents.
On Tuesday, Chicago police officers monitored the protests from the sidelines while clearing parts of downtown to allow marchers to pass. On some streets, motorists honked their horns in support and residents of high-rises took pictures from their balconies. Some protesters streamed onto DuSable Lake Shore Drive in the early evening.
Cheryl Thomas, 26, said that she had joined the march “because of the injustices being perpetrated against brown and Black people.”
“They are basically being kidnapped,” she said, adding that she doesn’t know if the march will make a difference. “Doing nothing sure won’t change anything.”
The marchers tried to reach Trump International Hotel & Tower, a gleaming skyscraper along the Chicago River, but the police department blocked the way with officers and large trucks in the street.
The demonstration in Chicago, a predominantly left-leaning city of 2.7 million, was far larger than the regular protests in the city in opposition to the Trump administration since January. For months, groups denouncing President Trump’s policies have held protests downtown, often joined by Democratic elected officials.
“This is cruelty with intent,” Representative Chuy Garcia of Chicago, a Democrat, said at a separate protest this week.
