EAST SIDE — As East Side residents gathered Tuesday near the site of a crash caused by federal immigration agents, some claimed the blocks around 105th Street and Avenue N as “their streets” and vowed to defend their neighbors. “They was telling me ICE was in the neighborhood, and they got [at least one kid],” said Pauly, who lives near the crash site and was tear-gassed by agents Tuesday as he came home from work to monitor the situation. “That pissed me the f– off. I was going 100 over here, bro.” Another resident, who declined to share their name, described the community’s reaction as not a matter of fear, but one of “why are you doing this to our people?” “You can’t be doing all this threatening [and] f–ing terrorizing all of our people,” the resident said. Such responses to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown reflect a common desire among Southeast Siders to protect each other, residents and activists said one day after agents arrested and tear-gassed people in the area. Community defense is a task the Southeast Side — home to a heavily Latino and Black population and a long history of mutual aid and grassroots organizing — is well-equipped to handle, they said. Residents will “continue to compile all the egregious violations that the federal administration is making our families and our communities experience,” said Rey Wences, senior director of deportation defense at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, during a press conference Wednesday. “Let’s not normalize the militarization of Chicago [and] our state. We are a sanctuary city, we are a sanctuary state, and we don’t need ICE in our communities.” Agents deploy tear gas and smoke grenades during a clash between federal agents and residents at 105th and Avenue N on Chicago’s East Side on Oct. 14, 2025. Credit: Matthew Kaplan for Block Club Chicago Oscar Franco (right, with microphone), an immigration attorney with the East Side-based Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, speaks during a press conference rallying support for rapid response and community organizing efforts amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Chicago on Oct. 15, 2025. The press conference took place one day after federal agents arrested, crashed into and tear gassed residents across the East Side and South Chicago neighborhoods. Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club Chicago Scenes from a standoff at 105th and Avenue N on Chicago’s southeast side, between ICE and other federal agents and furious residents after a vehicle chase resulting in two cars blocking the intersect and residents gathered Credit: Matthew Kaplan for Block Club Chicago Operation Midway Blitz, an indefinite campaign by federal immigration agents to arrest people across the Chicago region, began Sept. 8. In the weeks since, immigrants and U.S. citizens of various races have been detained for hours, choked, shot and killed by agents in communities including suburban Franklin Park, Brighton Park, Garfield Park and South Shore. In East Side and South Chicago alone on Tuesday, members of the Southeast Side Rapid Response Team — a group which warns residents of immigration enforcement in the area — reported sightings of agents in at least four locations. Agents on Tuesday caused a crash that sent a man to the hospital, tear gassed residents several blocks from an elementary school, targeted landscapers and construction workers and pinned a Black man during a raid at a Walgreens on 106th Street, residents said. In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed “illegal aliens” from Venezuela “rammed” law enforcement with their vehicle and were arrested before a “violent mob began [to] surround law enforcement” in the area. Security footage shows that federal agents intentionally crashed into the car during a chase, the Sun-Times reported, but federal officials did not share further information about the alleged ramming of an agent’s vehicle and there has been no video evidence to support that claim. Flanked by signs advertising a hotline to report ICE activity and seek legal aid, members of Southeast Side groups representing immigrants, workers, environmentalists and educators on Wednesday urged neighbors to film and report the feds’ tactics. “This is impacting everyone in our city, and that means we need to do more,” Wences said during the press conference at Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, 9805 S. Ewing Ave. in East Side. “We have rights,” Wences said. “Let’s continue to document. Let’s continue to call the hotline. Let’s continue to get plugged in to rapid response efforts. Let’s continue to support the community organizations that have been on the ground and have been doing the work for many years.” Scenes from a standoff at 105th and Avenue N on Chicago’s Southeast Side, between ICE and other federal agents and furious residents after a vehicle chase resulting in two cars blocking the intersect and residents gathered Credit: Matthew Kaplan for Block Club Chicago Representatives from the coalition, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, the Southeast Environmental Task Force and Alliance of the Southeast spoke at Wednesday’s press conference. Ald. Peter Chico (10th), and representatives for state Sen. Robert Peters and the Chicago Teachers Union were also in attendance. Beyond those organizations, unaffiliated residents — including youth and young adults — showed a willingness to get active as they protested Tuesday’s chaos, residents said. “We know recent graduates from [George Washington High School] were present and very willing to support and protect vulnerable people in the community,” said Olga Bautista, vice president of the Chicago Board of Education and an East Side resident. Organizers plan to educate families of young Southeast Siders about their rights and about “the right way to document” enforcement operations while avoiding direct engagement with officers, one person said. Some activists said they planned to canvass the neighborhood immediately following Wednesday’s press conference. Neighbors were also seen Tuesday afternoon passing out flyers and speaking with families as others held “ICE Out” signs outside Gallistel Language Academy, 10347 S. Ewing Ave. in East Side. The school day ended about an hour after Tuesday’s protest dissipated several blocks away. Agents did not try to enter Gallistel, though faculty heard car horns and commotion from the protest throughout the day, one staffer said. Scenes from a standoff at 105th and Avenue N on Chicago’s East Side between federal agents and residents on Oct. 14, 2025. Credit: Matthew Kaplan for Block Club Chicago Chicago communities which organize effectively are historically the ones targeted with further violence, and Operation Midway Blitz has seen agents engage in blatant “racial profiling” of Brown and Black Chicagoans, Bautista said. But Southeast Siders are leaning on strength in numbers — and decades of experience resisting oppression — to try to force the feds to leave their community, she said. “Our fathers and mothers fought in the mills, in the factories, in the unions,” Bautista said. “They taught us when the bosses or governments try to divide us by race or language, that we would unite, and the power was in solidarity with each other. “Today, ICE is using those same old tactics, trying to pit neighbor against neighbor, but we will not be divided. To [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi] Noem, [Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory] Bovino and [White House Border Czar Tom] Homan, and Donald Trump and his administration, hear me clearly: Leave our city.”