At least 250 people protesting on the streets of Wheaton Saturday made one message clear — they don’t want immigration agents arresting people in their hometown.
Standing along sidewalks in front of a Jewel-Osco store at Main Street and Geneva Road, they held signs, rang bells, drummed and chanted.
People protest the threat of federal immigration enforcement at a rally Saturday in Wheaton.
Susan Sarkauskas/[email protected]
“ICE out of Wheaton! We are all Wheaton,” cried Cristobal Cavazos of Casa DuPage Workers Center, rallying the crowd of mostly white, middle-aged and older people, which was the point. “He (President Donald Trump) did not take into account his base of older, white Americans would fight back.”
Similar protests were held in Chicago and some other suburbs Friday and Saturday, ahead of an expected surge in ICE operations this weekend.
Officials in Mundelein, Highland Park, North Chicago, Waukegan and other suburbs have issued statements emphasizing their law enforcement officers won’t participate in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities and that their communities are safe for all, including immigrants.
Organizers of the Wheaton protest chose the Jewel-Osco site because an immigrant man was arrested in the store’s parking lot Aug. 1.
Cavazos said the man was at the store to pick up relatives who were cleaning the store.
“We saw what ICE terrorism is doing to what the Bible says are ‘the least of these,’” said Cavazos, adding janitors, restaurant workers and other laborers are targeted.
Some marched to and from a nearby Home Depot store. Organizers said Home Depots nationwide cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Undocumented immigrants have been known to congregate in Home Depot lots, where people hire them for day jobs. Home Depot denies the claim.
Penny Ellsworth of Glen Ellyn was at the protest with friend Jana Cronin of Wheaton.
Emily Ellsworth, left, Penny Ellsworth and Jana Cronin protested federal immigration enforcement at a rally Saturday in Wheaton. “Once (Donald) Trump got reelected, that did it,” Penny Ellsworth said. “We just cannot sit still.”
Susan Sarkauskas/[email protected]
“Yes, I am an outlier,” said Cronin when asked if she was related to the Republican Cronins of DuPage County, which include a former county board chairman.
Ellsworth and Cronin said they didn’t protest much when they were younger. Ellsworth attended an anti-Vietnam War protest, and Cronin said she protested the Iraq War.
“Once Trump got reelected, that did it,” Ellsworth said. “We just cannot sit still.”
The women have taken to visiting courthouses and restaurants, car washes and other businesses where some immigrants, documented or otherwise, are likely to be. They hand out cards listing the rights people have if they are picked up by ICE.
Plenty of drivers honked their horns in support, including a man driving a Jewel-Osco semitrailer to the store. He also gave a thumbs-up.
Only one person appeared to disagree with the protesters at the intersection, yelling at them from a Trump flag-bedecked pickup truck as he drove past.
Gerald Steele is the founder of Stonegate Health Rehab. He shares expert insights, recovery tips, and rehab resources to support individuals on their journey to wellness.