11 arrested in second immigration raid at O'Hare rideshare lot

Alice Yin, Chicago Tribune on Oct 18, 2025

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CHICAGO — For the second time this month, federal immigration agents targeted rideshare drivers at O’Hare International Airport despite recent vows from Mayor Brandon Johnson to prevent more raids.

About 9:15 a.m. Saturday, agents were seen detaining rideshare drivers parked in a designated staging area off Balmoral Avenue as they waited for pickup requests, Service Employees International Union Local 1 spokesperson Bailey Koch said.

Koch — whose union is part of a labor coalition seeking to organize Illinois rideshare workers — said she did not immediately have information on the identities or whereabouts of the drivers.

A Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement saying that Border Patrol agents conducted a “targeted operation near Chicago O’Hare airport parking lots” Saturday morning and arrested 11 immigrants who were in the country illegally. McLaughlin cited criminal histories such as domestic battery and driving under the influence but did not provide their names.

Without their identities, The Chicago Tribune could not verify McLaughlin’s claims related to criminal histories.

“The fact of the matter is those who are in this country illegally have a choice. They can use the CBP Home app and receive a free flight and a $1,000 check or they can be arrested, detained, and deported,” McLaughlin wrote.

Meanwhile, Border Patrol field boss Gregory Bovino responded to a user asking “When are y’all going to clean up the o’Hare airport?” on X with: “We arrested dozens of illegal alien ride share operators taking jobs from American citizens out there last week. More to come.”

Koch said the Johnson administration had agreed to provide 24/7 security for the lot to ensure “only people with the correct credentials” could enter, but the mayor’s spokesperson did not immediately confirm that.

Saturday’s immigration raid was the latest flashpoint in a roiling turf war between the Johnson and Trump administrations, the latter of which has been waging a mass deportation campaign in the city — including on airport grounds.

On Oct. 10, Border Patrol officers arrested 18 people at O’Hare, DHS confirmed. Immigration agents also targeted the same staging area for rideshare drivers, known as the Transportation Network Providers “Alpha Lot,” Koch said.

The progressive mayor, for his part, has sought to resist the president’s crackdown via a flurry of executive orders and invocations of Chicago’s sanctuary city policy that bans local police from assisting with immigration enforcement. But with federal agents still running rampant on the streets of Chicago amid “Operation Midway Blitz,” city leaders are seeing the limits of some of their stances.

Ald. Michael Rodriguez, the mayor’s handpicked Workforce Development Committee chair, said he will be calling Johnson’s team to see what further measures can be taken to prevent another raid.

“The Gestapo efforts by this president have no boundaries,” Rodriguez said. “Quite frankly, they’re doing unlawful things every minute of the day, and here’s another opportunity for them to do that.”

While air traffic and security are controlled by the federal government, airport grounds at O’Hare and Midway International Airport are city property — a fact Johnson pointed out when he condemned the Oct. 10 arrests.

“My administration is working closely with the Illinois Drivers Alliance to ensure drivers are protected, their rights are respected, and that our City property is never used to facilitate unlawful civil immigration enforcement,” Johnson had said in a Tuesday statement.

Earlier this month, the mayor signed an executive order banning federal immigration authorities from staging and carrying out enforcement operations on city-owned land. Johnson also called for criminal charges against agents who violate the order, though it’s unclear how that would play out.

After the Oct. 10 arrests at O’Hare, Johnson spokesperson Cassio Mendoza said the administration believed that because signs laying out the immigration enforcement ban had not yet been installed at the airport parking lot, the administration lacked a legal avenue to pursue against the federal agents for carrying out a raid in the lot. Such signs should be posted in the lot soon, Mendoza said on Tuesday.

As of Saturday afternoon, there did not appear to be any such signs in the parking lot.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights urged drivers affected to call its Family Support Hotline.

“These abductions at O’Hare are reprehensible and will only separate working families who were otherwise just trying to make ends meet,” ICIRR deputy director Veronica Castro wrote in a statement. “Citizens and non-citizens alike rely on drivers to get around Chicagoland and this attack is yet another way that the Trump admin’s ICE and CBP escalation is disrupting life for everyone.”