More than a hundred thousand protestors came together at the “Hands Off Chicago” rally on Oct. 18 to protest against the Trump administration’s immigration campaign in the city, which has sent Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to carry out enhanced arrests in Chicago communities and across the suburbs.
The Chicago event, which was organized by Indivisible Chicago and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, took place under the overcast city sky at Butler Field in Grant Park for about an hour and a half before demonstrators took to the streets of the Loop to rally against the federal government’s actions in the city.
The protest was one of more than 2,000 planned “No Kings” rallies across the country. There were similar demonstrations in big cities such as Boston, New York, Seattle and San Francisco, as well as some smaller gatherings in suburbs and rural towns. Even some Republican-led states had planned protests, including towns and cities in Louisiana, Alabama, Texas and Florida.
During the rally at Butler Field, the protest organizers, Illinois politicians and Chicago Aldermen lined the stage at the Petrillo Music Shell shoulder to shoulder to speak to the crowd, who held signs reading, “Hands off Chicago,” “ICE melts under pressure” and “No kings, no fascists, no tyrants, no Nazis.”
Sandy Reilein and Sydney Feuchtwanger, two close friends from the Gold Coast neighborhood, came out to the protest together and were sitting on the grassy slope going down to Butler Field.
Feuchtwanger denounced Trump for cutting funds to Medicaid, getting rid of the United States Agency for International Development and reducing certain agencies like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Reilein called Trump a “dictator” and was surprised by how quickly opposition to Trump and his administration grew after he took office.
“I’m 86. I’ve seen a lot of presidents, and people like them or don’t like them, but never two weeks in,” Reilein said.
Mary King, a Kenwood resident, said she was impressed by the amount of people who came out to protest and that she had never seen so many people at a demonstration before. King, who is of German heritage, said that she feels like she is living in an “occupied country,” and that her heritage compels her to fight against that.
Through her conflicting feelings about the current political climate, King is still able to find a way to cope.
“I have the ability to feel happy and upset at the same time,” she said. “My personal life is happy and the politics are terrible, but I’m not letting it destroy me.”
After about an hour and a half into the rally at Butler Field, protestors made their way west on Jackson Boulevard, north up Michigan Avenue and west on Wacker Drive before marching past Trump Tower.
The first “No Kings” protest in Chicago took place on June 14, 2025 at Daley Plaza to protest against the Trump administration’s planned military parade in Washington and enhanced federal immigration raids. The protest started at Daley Plaza before demonstrators took to the streets and marched through the Loop, as previously reported by the Chronicle.
Andy Thompson, a resident from Edgewater, was on the corner of Jackson Boulevard and Columbus Drive with the International Youth and Student For Social Equality organization, who had a table set up with pamphlets, booklets and flyers for people to take.
Thompson, who is a member of the group, said that the Democratic Party is doing nothing to oppose the actions of the Trump administration and that it’s resembling a “dictatorship.”
“I think this demonstration very powerfully shows the massive opposition that exists to that,” he said. “We need a movement that can end the entire system that produced Trump.”
Chicago and its surrounding suburbs have been in the national spotlight amidst the Trump administration’s deportation campaign. Since the initial arrests across Chicago that started days after Trump’s inauguration, Border Patrol and ICE agents have carried out raids on apartment buildings and homes, tear gassed and shot pepper bullets at demonstrators at ICE’s Broadview detention center and have even shot and killed a man, Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, during an arrest in Franklin Park.
Most recently, a Cook County’s top judge signed an order barring ICE from arresting people at courthouses, a common tactic used by the federal agency.
Even Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Trump have sent numbers of jabs at each other through social media and news conferences regarding the federal government’s actions in Chicago, specifically with the deployment of the National Guard into Chicago against Pritzker’s wishes.
On Oct. 8, members of the Texas National Guard were spotted in Elwood, IL following the Trump administration activating members of both the Chicago and Texas National Guard to protect federal immigration agents during arrests.
Following a U.S. District Court Order barring the administration from deploying the National Guard, Trump asked the Supreme Court to step in and allow him to mobilize the troops into the city.
Curtis Evans, an Evanston resident who served in the Marines, came out to protest with a large American flag strapped to the back of his bike. In front of the Trump tower, Evans said that the administration is “treading” on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Evans, who recently went viral after being photographed for walking through tear gas holding the American flag at a Broadview protest, said that he is a firm believer in the basic rights of Americans and said that he is getting through these times by “finding some inner peace.”
“The words ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ were not written by United States citizens,” he said. “There was no such thing as a United States citizen. Those words apply to everyone, regardless of their documented status.”
Mark Leemkuil, a resident of Burlington, Wisconsin near Lake Geneva who came out to document the protest with his camera, said that he is angered by the Trump administration’s actions.
Leemkuil, who grew up in Madison and said that he has been going to protest since he was 12-years-old, said he is “hopeful” that America will fight back despite the actions of the federal government.
“We got to stand together and take it all on,” he said. “Show up. Get involved.”
Copy edited by Brandon Anaya
Resumen en español
Más de cien mil personas se manifestaron en Butler Field para marchar por el Loop de Chicago, protestando contra la administración del Presidente Trump, el sábado 18 de octubre. La protesta de “Manos Fuera de Chicago” fue organizada por Indivisible Chicago y la Unión Estadounidense por las Libertades Civiles de Illinois. La manifestación fue acompañada por 2,000 protestas de “Sin Reyes” en todo el país, los participantes expresaron su resentimiento contra las políticas de la campaña de inmigración de la administración.
Resumen en español por Sofía Oyarzún
Editado por Brandon Anaya
