Overview

• Chicago police responded around 7:30 p.m. Sunday to the 40th Ward office on North Western Avenue after a dead rat and a handwritten note were found at the door.
• The note referred to undocumented immigrants as “vermin” and read in part, “Move the Illegals and the Rats out of the 40th Ward… Support ICE!”
• Area Three detectives are investigating, no arrests have been announced, and police have not said whether they are treating the incident as a hate crime.
• Vasquez, who chairs the City Council’s immigrant and refugee rights committee, kept the office open, added security, and said the act targeted the immigrant community.
• Coverage situates the incident within DHS’s “Operation Midway Blitz” and recent ICE activity, including a fatal agent-involved shooting in Franklin Park that spurred protests.