On a crisp Saturday morning, October 25, 2025, the quiet streets of Chicago's Old Irving Park were expected to be filled with the laughter of children and the vibrant colors of costumes for the annual neighborhood Halloween parade. Instead, the community found itself at the center of a dramatic and unsettling confrontation with federal law enforcement that left families shaken, neighbors outraged, and city leaders demanding answers.
According to ABC7 and WGN, the trouble began just before 10 a.m. on the 3700 block of North Kildare Avenue, where families had gathered for the much-anticipated parade. Federal agents with Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) arrived as part of "Operation Midway Blitz," an ongoing immigration enforcement campaign targeting Chicago's North Side. Their focus that morning was Luis Villegas, a 35-year-old undocumented immigrant and construction worker, who was working on a home with his brother's business. Villegas, who came to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of four, was chased down and arrested in front of a house, as described by multiple witnesses.
The scene quickly escalated. As neighbors poured out of their homes—some armed with whistles, others simply seeking to understand the commotion—federal agents found themselves surrounded. Video obtained by local outlets showed several people pinned to the ground and tear gas filling the air. "Started hearing some whistles and when I looked out I saw two fully uniformed Customs and Border Patrol agents tackling a guy to the ground literally in my front yard right here," resident Brian Kolp told Fox 32. Kolp, a former Cook County prosecutor, recounted how his 70-year-old neighbor, returning from a run, was also taken to the ground and arrested. "I didn't see anybody with a weapon. I didn't see anybody make physical contact with these agents. I didn't see anybody do anything that justified, for instance, taking my 70-year-old neighbor to the ground," Kolp said.
The deployment of tear gas, which occurred around 9:50 a.m.—just minutes before the Halloween parade was set to begin—left many residents stunned and angry. "We were supposed to be standing on this corner with hundreds of families just walking around, and we're just being terrorized by ICE," neighbor Anna Ware told ABC7. Instead of a parade through the neighborhood, children and families retreated to Disney II Magnet School, where they circled the track in a makeshift celebration, attempting to salvage the day.
Federal authorities offered a sharply different account of events. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement saying that agents had arrested Villegas, described as a "criminal illegal alien from Mexico, who has previously been arrested for assault." According to DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, "Border Patrol agents were surrounded and boxed in by a group of agitators. Federal law enforcement issued multiple lawful commands and verbal warnings, all of which were ignored. During the operation, two U.S. citizens were arrested for assaulting and impeding a federal officer. To safely clear the area after multiple warnings and the crowd continuing to advance on them, Border Patrol had to deploy crowd control measures."
The statement further emphasized the risks faced by agents, citing a "1000% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, abusers, and gang members." DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's message was unequivocal: "You will not stop us or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Yet, on the ground, residents told a different story. Kolp, who witnessed the chaos unfold, insisted, "Nobody was being violent. No one had weapons." He described the use of chemical agents as excessive and said he never heard any warning that tear gas would be used. Other neighbors, many of whom declined to appear on camera, called the incident traumatizing, especially with children present. "It's a Saturday, right, so a lot of people were home, came out to see what was going on, and the situation escalated from there," Kolp explained to WGN. "As terrible as it is to see it happen, as regretful as I am that it happened on our block, I'm very proud of my neighbors for coming together and doing what we can to make clear that we are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior in our neighborhood."
The fallout extended beyond Old Irving Park. Across the city, in Avondale, another federal operation resulted in a delivery worker known as Nacho being tackled and detained inside Adrian's Fresh Market on West Diversey Avenue. "He looked at me and he just said 'help me' and I never saw that in anyone's eyes before," Priscilla, a store employee, told local reporters. The Illinois Driver's Alliance reported that, on the same day, 10 rideshare drivers were detained at O'Hare Airport, bringing the total number of detained drivers to at least 50.
The use of tear gas in residential neighborhoods, especially during a family event, sparked immediate condemnation from city leaders and immigrant rights advocates. Beatriz Ponce de León, Chicago's Deputy Mayor of Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights, stated, "Lawyers are doing their job of holding these agents accountable, and working through the courts, using the legal process that we have to challenge what is happening." Kolp, for his part, collected the empty chemical canisters left behind and turned them over to a law firm preparing a lawsuit against the federal government.
The Department of Homeland Security defended its agents' actions in a separate statement regarding another incident at Henderson and Lakewood the previous day, asserting that "agents deployed crowd control measures to disperse the crowd and agitators began throwing objects at them. To protect themselves, the Border Patrol deployed additional [measures] to safely clear the area. The use of chemical munitions was conducted in full accordance with CBP policy and was necessary to ensure the safety of both law enforcement and the public."
Meanwhile, the community responded with protest and solidarity. On the same day as the Old Irving Park incident, residents of the Little Village neighborhood marched on 26th Street to protest the ongoing immigration crackdown. Federal agents have been a frequent presence in the area since the start of Operation Midway Blitz, fueling tensions between law enforcement and local communities. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino was ordered by a federal judge to appear in court on Tuesday to answer for the events of the weekend.
For many in Old Irving Park, the events of October 25, 2025, will be remembered not for costumes and candy, but for the fear and confusion that replaced a cherished neighborhood tradition. As legal challenges mount and community outrage simmers, the debate over immigration enforcement and its impact on American neighborhoods shows no sign of abating.
