On a mild autumn afternoon, the smell of tear gas still hangs in the air. Between the Victorian houses of Lakeview, where children usually zip by on scooters and gardeners rake leaves, something has changed. The street feels emptier, the trust more fragile. Here, in the middle of Chicago\u2019s North Side, what many thought impossible has become reality: an operation by federal agents - ICE or something that looked like ICE - in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Without warning. Without notice. It began around noon on Lakewood Avenue, just a few blocks from Wrigley Field. Residents heard the squeal of tires, saw two dark SUVs without markings, saw men in tactical vests - and then the hiss of gas grenades. A gray haze drifted over front yards, over a sandbox, over dogs and pedestrians. \u201cAt first I thought it was a fire,\u201d a neighbor said. \u201cThen my throat started burning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our investigation, as well as that of ABC7, later confirmed that tear gas canisters had been used, rolled across the street by ICE agents. It was not a protest, not a threat, not an attack. Just neighbors watching as construction workers were led away from a worksite - apparently because of an immigration procedure. What happened next was a shock for a city that has seen a lot, but not this. \u201cTear gas was deployed without warning by ICE-like agents while neighbors did nothing to provoke it,\u201d said Bennett Lawson, the alderman of the 44th Ward. He speaks calmly, almost controlled, but his voice betrays anger. \u201cThere was no announcement, no order to clear the area. Just gas. On a residential street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n