CHICAGO — With protests putting a spotlight on unrest in Los Angeles and more agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly heading to Chicago, the city’s leaders so far are not flinching when it comes being forced into cooperation with federal authorities taking part in a crackdown.

Speaking at a City Hall news conference, Mayor Brandon Johnson went on the offensive.

“This is a necessary fight for all of us to be able to push back,” Johnson said. “Whether we use the courts or whether we continue to protest or raise our voices, dissent matters in this moment. Look, (Trump) is abusing his power. We warned people though. You all know we warned people.”

The mayor called the situation a “war on our culture” and urged city residents to stand up for each other.

“I am counting on all of Chicago to resist in this moment. Because whatever particular vulnerable group is targeted today, another group will be next,” Johnson said, promising to do what is in his power to maintain Chicago’s place as a diversity magnet.

Johnson declined to say what specific steps the city might take if President Donald Trump mobilizes the military in Chicago to support ICE raids. He instead focused on the need for local officials and residents to stand together against the federal threat, saying he had spoken about the situation with Gov. JB Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and they are committed to “maintain the sensibilities of our democracy, the ability to freely express protest, that’s fundamental to our democracy.”

A curfew remained in place in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday after multiple nights of protests over ICE removals of immigrants and Trump’s policies. The president has responded by calling out the National Guard and U.S. Marines to help quell street demonstrations.

The promises from Chicago leaders come as ICE may be preparing to step up operations here, and as more Chicago demonstrations are planned. NBC has reported the agency is planning to send additional tactical teams to Democratic-led cities including Chicago.

At a status hearing in the city’s consent decree Tuesday, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said nothing has changed in the way his officers will respond to agents.

“We are not in communication with anyone from the federal government as it relates to immigration and we don’t respond to immigration enforcement,” Snelling said. “That’s not something we do.”

Snelling’s remarks were in response to questions about CPD officers’ response to actions carried out by ICE last week.

In Pilsen last Monday, federal agents arrested two residents who work at a local business near the 1800 block of South Carpenter Street. Agents failed to properly identify themselves or present arrest warrants in those incidents, according to Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, and local rapid response teams.

A video of the arrests showed a single CPD squad car was on the block shortly before the two people were taken into custody, but a CPD spokesperson said that officer was en route to court and left the area after realizing an immigration enforcement action was underway.

Two days later, at an ICE facility in the South Loop, federal agents arrested at least 10 people who, according to ICE, were the subjects of standing deportation orders. CPD said officers remained in the area to assist with crowd control after protesters — and at least three aldermen — confronted the ICE agents.

Chicago saw a large-scale anti-Trump and anti-ICE protest in the downtown area late Tuesday, and CPD said 17 people were arrested during the demonstration. The majority of those arrested were charged with misdemeanors as thousands of protesters spray-painted buses and squad cars and marched in traffic.

Chicago police in general appeared somewhat less organized and deployed far fewer officers than at times during last summer’s Democratic National Convention, when they were widely praised for their handling of demonstrations. As in years past, police could be seen attempting to keep protesters marching around the Loop south of the river, away from North Michigan Avenue and nearby Trump Tower.

Other protests could kick off late Thursday, and another large-scale assembly is expected this Saturday. Dubbed the “No Kings Rally and March,” participating groups were calling for demonstrators to gather at Daley Plaza at noon.

In a statement Wednesday, CPD said its officers were directed to “protect those exercising their First Amendment Rights” ahead of a planned ICE protest on Saturday.”

“With public safety as our top priority, our planning and training for First Amendment assemblies are rooted in constitutional policing and the safety of all those participating, working, and living in the affected areas,” the statement said, while promising also to hold people responsible for breaking the law.

The city’s downtown area has, for decades, been the setting for large-scale marches and gatherings — from sports championship parades to protests of the city’s own police department. Over the last decade, CPD has coordinated with the organizers of permitted marches, but more sporadic gatherings have proven a challenge.

As the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold in the summer of 2020, the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer prompted large-scale disruptions in Chicago and other cities across the country. Here, the downtown area and a few other neighborhoods were subjected to looting and violence. The bridges over the Chicago River were raised in an effort to keep people out of downtown.

Subsequent reviews of CPD’s response found the department was woefully unprepared to respond to the unrest seen that summer.

“Teen takeovers” — impromptu gatherings of young people, mostly from the South and West sides, that sometimes end in gunfire — have rattled downtown residents, businesses and tourists in recent years, and the City Council has toyed with the idea of letting the CPD superintendent impose a snap curfew.

Whether a larger ICE protest could bring an LA-style downtown curfew to Chicago remains to be seen.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was in Washington on Wednesday and did not address the situation publicly.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul was among those who did. Raoul’s office announced it joined a coalition 18 attorneys general to make a statement on the Trump administration.

“The president’s decision to federalize and deploy California’s National Guard without the consent of California state leaders is unlawful, unconstitutional and undemocratic,” the statement read. “The federal administration should be working with local leaders to keep everyone safe, not mobilizing the military against the American people.”

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