Cafes, restaurants across Chicago put up signs barring immigration agents
It’s a small, but mighty sign: “Everyone is welcome here, except I.CE.” Katherine Duncan, owner of Katherine Anne Confections, fastened it proudly on her shop’s front door.
“It was a no-brainer for me,” Duncan said on a recent Wednesday afternoon, hours after she put the sign up at the storefront on 3653 W. Irving Park Road. “I feel so helpless. With my business and my kids, I can’t escort students to and from school or other things like that. So it was like, well — what can we do?”
In recent weeks, Chicago has seen an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, which have been met with significant criticism from activists, local government and community groups, spurring protests, legal challenges and a new executive order from Mayor Brandon Johnson creating citywide “ICE-free zones” to push back against the federal crackdown. For restaurant and cafe workers, many of whom are immigrants, the looming threat of unannounced visits by ICE, which have already led to arrests in restaurants, outside grocery stores and in the parking lots of businesses in Chicago, has created anxiety and uncertainty about their future.
Business owners like Duncan are left searching for ways to support and protect their staff. Solidarity signs have been a quieter approach to denouncing ICE.
“Two blocks from our store in Logan Square, people were taken — by having the signs, we’re very much hoping that anyone who is concerned or who needs a safe haven for even a moment knows that they can come in,” she said.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/14/chicago-restaurants-ice-agents/
Great idea---starve the bastards!
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