Not every business in my neighborhood has "Keep Out ICE" signs, but many do. Summer is here, and I'm on the streets, taking urban hikes daily. Operation Midway Blitz ended in October. Its repercussions live on. Still, the signs are everywhere.

Some days, I think I might count them, but then again, I don't want to have to focus only on them. So I take photographs instead. My guess is that upwards of half the businesses still bear witness to the invasion. Of course, those owned by corporations, like Starbucks, Stan’s Donuts, Target, never posted anything. It’s the locally owned ones, often with multiple signs near the main entrance. 

And then there are the homes. Along residential streets, "Hands Off Chicago" signs, large and small, are taped to windows. Nice homes, apartments, condos. Occasionally, I’ll see a handmade sign that says No Kings or ICE Out. Kids’ art work, I assume. 

ICE’s presence is still felt. Operation Midway Blitz came, hung on for way too long, and left. Charlotte was next, then Minneapolis. We know what happened in Minneapolis. Assault and abuse turned to murder. While it was happening, we were gearing up for the return of ICE in March, which for budgetary reasons or for fear of what awaited, never happened. 

Nearly eight months later, the signs persist. People’s feelings persist. Neighbors were swept up, some have not returned. The fallout of ICE's brutality and lawlessness is still being sorted out and reported in the newspapers. It seems they got nothing right.

   

For Chicagoans and probably for most people who live among immigrants, the people taken were not criminals. They were neighbors, parents, co-workers. Chances are, in Chicago, if you hire someone to do maintenance, cleaning, renovation, inside or outside, the person at your door will be an immigrant. His crew will be made up of immigrants. Latino, Eastern European, Asian, African, Middle Easterner, you name it, they weren’t born here but came, legally or illegally. They work hard, pay taxes, raise families, and contribute to Chicago communities. They cook the food in restaurants, wait the tables, clean the buildings, landscape the yards, tear down and build homes and businesses, fix things everywhere. They are ever-present and are as Chicagoan as I am. I know some do not have documentation but by bent of hard work and commitment they’ve earned a spot here. They are us. 

             

If ICE had come looking for violent criminals or people wanted for serious crimes that would have been different. No one argues against that. And it would have been easy. We support those types of efforts when done within the parameters of the law. But that is not what ICE is or was about. They are about rounding up as many Brown and Black people as they can, chasing them down in broad daylight, because they didn't have the training or skill to do the hard work of going after real criminals. They had no desire or ability to do what they said they would do. Instead, they went after parents dropping kids off at school, men and women traveling to and from work, stopping for coffee or a quick breakfast, grandparents walking to the store or sitting in parks, high school kids hanging out. They went after citizens, legal residents, people waiting for asylum hearings all because of how they looked. 

So it has never been about law and order. For ICE, it has always been about xenophobia or some misguided belief in who is an American. For those of us who want ICE out, it is about human decency, respect, and community.

ICE may never come back, but the damage has been done. The threat still exist. You can read it on the streets.