Overview
- DHS Secretary Kristi Noem spoke at Navy Pier’s annual Christmas Tree Ship ceremony, and Chicago police moved demonstrators off pier property as they protested her immigration enforcement role.
- Organizers said the USCGC Mackinaw offloaded about 1,200 trees to be donated to local families in need, a long-running charitable tradition.
- Noem did not address ongoing ICE and Border Patrol operations during her remarks, and protesters criticized her presence as politicizing the event.
- Federal agents used tear gas and pepper spray during an immigration operation in Elgin the same day, following recent suburban arrests that included actions reported in Cicero.
- A federal judge previously ruled ICE made 22 illegal arrests in a September Elgin raid and extended a consent decree to February 2026, as recent data show roughly 1,900 ICE bookings from Sept. 8 to Oct. 15 with about two-thirds lacking known criminal convictions.