ICE agents spotted near Rogers Park church, leaving community members concerned
Churchgoers were left leery of leaving their parish, and some parents canceled their kids' soccer games Sunday — with concerns spreading after another weekend of federal law enforcement efforts and the federal government vowing there will be more.
"We are deploying additional resources to apprehend rioters and Antifa members engaged in domestic terrorism," Micah Bock, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in a new social media video.
In the Sunday post to social media, the Department of Homeland Security leaders vowed, "DHS is increasing operations in Portland, Chicago, and across our nation."
Meanwhile Sunday, rapid response volunteers were organizing outside St. Jerome Catholic Church in Rogers Park hours after an ICE sighting caused morning parishioners to stay inside.
A voice heard in a video at the church, warning parishioners that federal agents were seen operating in the area, and offering parishioners escorts to their vehicles.
The sign advertising mass times at the church, at 1709 W. Lunt Ave., is now covered on the front of their building.
"My feeling is in the United States, you have freedom to practice your religion — and part of that is to go there and leave there and go home," said Angie Guinn, Rapid Response volunteer.
Julie, who didn't want to give her last name, lives just yards away and said she took video around 8:30 a.m. Sunday after seeing federal officers outside her window. Another perspective posted online included a federal officer warning someone in a car.
"Yeah. It's scary. It's really scary, and people don't deserve this," said Julie. "They really don't."
This comes at a time when Chicago Archdiocese leaders are addressing immigration policies.
"We're seeing that so often people are speaking in such a way that uh discounts the human dignity and value of people, maybe because of the way they look or the countries that they, they come from," Cardinal Blase Cupich said.
In Evanston on Sunday, a kids' soccer league canceled games at a local park after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sightings. Writing in an email, "We do not want the children to witness inhumane treatment."
It is unclear in the new DHS video what kind of additional resources they are deploying or when.