Chicago-area mayor, congressional candidate brags about lengths he's gone to flummox ICE

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A Chicago-area mayor and congressional candidate stood by his actions to thwart even passive cooperation with federal immigration enforcement operations, as DHS launches "Operation Midway Blitz" in the area.

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, a Democrat who is running to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., in 2026, told CNN he is "in the dark" as to DHS’ plans for Illinois in the coming days.

He also said he informed residents on Tuesday about his concerns and what actions he took in response.

"The Trump administration wants to keep us guessing, wants to use our uncertainty to keep us afraid, but the reason that we communicated with our residents this morning is that I got information from a senior state official last night indicating that they had good intel that it was likely that ICE would be coming to Evanston in today and in the coming days."

CHICAGO MAYOR CONCLUDES COUNCIL-DEMANDED PROBE OF CITY POLICE’S ROLE DURING RECENT ICE RAID

Protests in Illinois against immigration enforcement, left; Daniel Biss, right. (Getty Images)

Biss said he did so in order for residents to "protect themselves" from federal law enforcement.

"We've been doing everything we can to protect our residents from before Donald Trump took office, passing strong sanctuary laws to make sure police are not cooperating with federal civil immigration enforcement," he added.

Biss explained he ordered Evanston’s license plate cameras turned off after learning the data was being shared. 

Unlike red light cameras, which issue tickets, license plate readers are often used to collect and store vehicle data for later retrieval. 

In some cases, state or federal law enforcement might use the data to track a suspect’s known vehicle, finding that it navigated a certain interchange at a specific time.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Biss for further comment but did not hear back by press time.

In a separate video Biss recorded while leaving a Mexican Independence Day parade in Chicago, he said he used his "rapid response training to keep an eye out for potential ICE personnel" during the event and "if possible, keep people safe from attack."

"My responsibility was to see which masked individual might, with no warning, just grab people off the street [or] which uniformed personnel might, without warning, attack our people."

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"We're going to remember for a long time what we did in this moment. Let's do the right thing," Biss said.

When an X account tied to the Republican National Committee accused Biss of wrongly obstructing federal procedure, he offered a veiled slam at President Donald Trump in return:

"Hey, speaking of obstructing things, how’s it going with releasing the Epstein files?" 

Separately, Biss added, that authoritarianism is not creeping into society, but "is here."

"History will remember how Chicago stood in solidarity in this moment. Stay strong, stay safe," he said.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. 

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant. 

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].