Community concerns that arose in Lake County over President Donald Trump’s potential immigration enforcement policies were realized in January, then turned into fear when federal agents arrived at Naval Station Great Lakes in September, and have barely subsided as 2025 draws to a close.
With people still unwilling to leave home — those undocumented or with Latino characteristics — to buy groceries and relying on places like Mano a Mano Family Resource Center and HACES to deliver them, the impact of federal immigration enforcement was one of the Lake County News-Sun’s Top Stories of 2025.
How long that fear will last remains uncertain.
“It depends on who wins the next election,” Dulce Ortiz, Mano a Mano’s executive director and a Waukegan Township trustee, said last week. “I think the fear will be lingering. It will take time for the immigrant community to trust the government.”
The immigrant community and those who support them continue to adjust to the impact of raids, which intensified over 64 days of Operation Midway Blitz this fall throughout Lake County and the Chicago area because of uncertainty about when it might again intensify.
From the first action by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents six days after Trump took office — a Waukegan man was deported, and a Round Lake resident was arrested and released — to more intense raids during Midway Blitz, at least 76 people were arrested in Lake County.
“The way the administration is going about this is terrorizing the community, dividing people to placate (Trump’s) base,” U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, said last week. “The vast majority of immigrants are working people who are being terrorized.”
Carolina Fabian, a member of the Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 Board of Education, said she believed Trump about his plans to deport millions of people. She urged district residents to be prepared.
“Families need to have a plan if someone in your family is pulled by ICE,” Fabian said. “There should be a plan for your child. Who’s picking them up? Who are the emergency contacts for them? Who can take care of them?”
Ortiz said Mano a Mano and other organizations banded together to develop their own plans. Rapid response teams were put together to help when needed and document the actions of federal immigration officers. Know-your-rights sessions were quickly offered to the community.
“We had to be ready, which we did,” she said. “Unfortunately, we prepared for the worst, but we didn’t know how bad the worst was going to be.”
After the initial Jan. 27 Chicago raid, Trump said on several occasions there would be enhanced operations in the area. On Sept. 3, the News-Sun learned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would base its Midway Blitz operation at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago.
Greg Jackson, the chief of staff for North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr., said DHS would use a building at the Navy base as its command center, with agents staying at hotels in the Waukegan area. Raids would be conducted in Lake County.
“I don’t believe that a time has come in our country where the National Guard and ICE are coming into our community to basically scare the Latino population,” Rockingham said at the time. “I didn’t think our country would ever get to that point.”
Two days after the DHS presence at Great Lakes was announced, Rockingham — joined by Schneider, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Springfield, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Hoffman Estates — was denied a meeting with DHS officials at the base.
“This is just political theater for Donald Trump,” Durbin said at the time. “If he wants to help lower crime, he should release the funds he is holding for gun-violence prevention.”
For the 64 days that followed, agents from ICE and the U.S Border Patrol conducted raids in Waukegan, North Chicago, Gurnee, the Round Lake area, Wauconda, Fox Lake and Park City. Dozens were apprehended, including 41 in Waukegan.
“Let me be absolutely clear: Greg Bovino did not come to Waukegan to serve, to protect, or to help,” Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said at the time of the man leading the operation in the Chicago area. “As he has in other cities, Mr. Bovino came here to escalate chaos, to provoke confrontation and to spread fear.”
Though he was not arrested by federal immigration agents, Waukegan Ald. Juan Martinez, 3rd Ward, sounded his horn at a large truck in front of him as he returned to work after lunch on Nov. 7. He soon had four federal agents pointing guns at him. Bystanders said, “He’s the alderman.”
While the guns were pointed at Martinez with his hands raised, Martinez said he kept saying, “Don’t kill me. Don’t kill me.”
“My life flashed before my eyes,” he said at the time. “All I could think of was my family was going to be planning my funeral.”
Schneider, Ortiz and Fabian all believe the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policy will continue in 2026. Ortiz said vigilance will remain in place and be used when needed. The rapid response teams will not disband.
“The government will continue to weaponize its resources to attack the immigrant community,” Ortiz said. “Most important, we have to continue to organize. Not only in our community, but around the state.”
Schneider said he believes DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Bovino will return to the area, pushing Trump’s deportation agenda.
“The more they are able to act, the more I see them increasing their actions,” Schneider said. “They are going to carry out the Trump administration’s plans. I’m going to work hard to deter the force.”
