Immigration authorities stepped up their action in Northwest Indiana Thursday with a more visible presence in Lake County.
In Hammond, city officials told ICE agents attempting to stage an operation in that city’s police department parking lot were asked to leave while in East Chicago, multiple videos circulated on social media of presumed immigration authorities taking people into custody in a bakery and a parking lot.
The city of Hammond asked ICE agents to leave the parking lot, Mayor Tom McDermott announced Thursday morning.
Officers spotted the agents setting up around 6:54 a.m., Hammond Police spokesman Cpt. Steve Kellogg said. Once McDermott was notified, city officials “immediately informed” them they weren’t authorized to stage operations on city property, McDermott said in a social media statement.
“To their credit, the agents complied and relocated their operation elsewhere within the city,” McDermott said.
Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not return a request for comment.
In recent weeks, protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago have escalated, primarily at an immigrant detention center in Broadview, a village in Cook County about 12 miles west of Chicago. The Texas National Guard was also federalized by the Trump administration and deployed Thursday following a series of intense confrontations between protesters and federal immigration enforcement officers taking part in “Operation Midway Blitz,” the mass deportation mission being carried out in Chicago and the suburbs.
Officials have confirmed that the blitz includes Lake County, Indiana.
Kellogg told the Post-Tribune that police administrators “were made aware of the situation and, after consulting with the City Law Department, were advised that no agreement currently exists with the federal agency,” which McDermott reiterated in his statement.
McDermott’s Chief of Staff Kevin Smith added that the move was strictly the city’s and didn’t come from Hammond Police Chief William Short.
“Let me be clear: Hammond does not have any agreements or partnerships with ICE that authorize them to use our city’s facilities or property for their operations,” McDermott said in the statement. “It is deeply concerning that federal agents would enter and use Hammond’s property without permission — especially when the Federal Courthouse is located just one block west of our police headquarters.”
Carolyn Jackson and Earl Harris Jr., the State Representatives for Hammond and East Chicago, said in a joint statement that they’re “monitoring the situation in their respective communities.”
Videos of ICE agents pursuing people in parking lots and restaurants Thursday in East Chicago also circulated on social media.
Of Hammond’s total population of 77,879 residents, just under 41% identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to Census numbers released in 2023. For East Chicago, that percentage rises to 56.9%.
“I am deeply worried to see that ICE agents were attempting to use property of the City of Hammond to stage their terror operation,” Jackson, D-Hammond, said. “I am thankful to Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott for promptly making the public aware that ICE is present in the city and making sure they are not permitted to use Hammond facilities to intimidate members of our community.
“What we have seen across the nation in terms of the treatment of immigrants, many of whom immigrated legally or have obtained their citizenship, has been cruel and downright inhumane. Just this week in Chicago, ICE agents have been deploying increasingly violent tactics such as using a Black Hawk helicopter to raid an apartment complex in the middle of the night, dragging children away from their families screaming and crying. Innocent men, women and children are being treated like violent criminals simply because of their appearance. I am devastated for all of the people in my community fearing for their safety and the safety of their friends and families.”
“Everyone deserves the right to due process,” Harris, D-East Chicago, said. “When people can be picked up off the streets based on racial profiling, it is not only a gross injustice to them as an individual, but a signal to everyone that all our rights, too, can be violated with impunity. Across the country and right here in Indiana, immigrants have helped build and shape our communities.
“A poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, which has greeted countless immigrants to this nation, reads, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ I truly believe that this sentiment is the great promise of America and, because of this belief, I can’t view these ICE raids as anything other than un-American.”
The Post-Tribune reached out to Indiana Governor Mike Braun’s office and asked whether his administration is aware that Lake County is included in Operation Midway Blitz and if municipalities are required by the state to provide municipal property and police assistance to aid ICE operations. Braun’s spokesman, Griffin Reid, didn’t respond.
In the comments under one of the videos taken in East Chicago, East Chicago Councilman Robert Garcia, D-5, said he’s reached out to the administration to attempt to prevent any more ICE operations.
“I have asked our city council atty[sic] to draft a[sic] ordinance not letting ICE use our property so it can be on our next council meeting,” Garcia wrote.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
