My Kinda Town-

Immigration crackdown inspires uniquely Chicago pushback that’s now a model for other cities

By SOPHIA TAREEN and CHRISTINE FERNANDO Updated 10:14 AM CST, November 16, 2025

CHICAGO (AP) — Baltazar Enriquez starts most mornings with street patrols, leaving his home in Chicago’s Little Village on foot or by car to find immigration agents that have repeatedly targeted his largely Mexican neighborhood.

Wearing an orange whistle around his neck, the activist broadcasts his plans on Facebook.

“We don’t know if they’re going to come back. All we know is we’ve got to get ready,” he tells thousands of followers. “Give us any tips if you see any suspicious cars.”

Moments later, his phone buzzes.

As an unprecedented immigration crackdown enters a third month, a growing number of Chicago residents are fighting back against what they deem a racist and aggressive overreach of the federal government. The Democratic stronghold’s response has tapped established activists and everyday residents from wealthy suburbs to working class neighborhoods.

They say their efforts — community patrols, rapid responders, school escorts, vendor buyouts, honking horns and blowing whistles — are a uniquely Chicago response that other cities President Donald Trump has targeted for federal intervention want to model.

“The strategy here is to make us afraid. The response from Chicago is a bunch of obscenities and ‘no,’” said Anna Zolkowski Sobor, whose North Side neighborhood saw agents throw tear gas and tackle an elderly man. “We are all Chicagoans who deserve to be here. Leave us alone.”

Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council, walks with a Chicago Public School’s student walkout in protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents around Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Talia Sprague)

The sound of resistance

Perhaps the clearest indicator of Chicago’s growing resistance is the sound of whistles.

Enriquez is credited with being among the first to introduce the concept. For months Little Village residents have used them to broadcast the persistent presence of immigration agents.

Furious blasts both warn and attract observers who record video or criticize agents. Arrests, often referred to as kidnappings because many agents cover their faces, draw increasingly agitated crowds. Immigration agents have responded aggressively.

Officers fatally shot one man during a traffic stop, while other agents use tear gas, rubber bullets and physical force. In early November, Chicago police were called to investigate shots fired at agents. No one was injured.

Activists say they discourage violence.

“We don’t have guns. All we have is a whistle,” Enriquez said. “That has become a method that has saved people from being kidnapped and unlawful arrest.”

By October, neighborhoods citywide were hosting so-called “Whistlemania” events to pack the brightly colored devices for distribution through businesses and free book hutches.

“They want that orange whistle,” said Gabe Gonzalez, an activist. “They want to nod to each other in the street and know they are part of this movement.”

Midwestern sensibilities and organizing roots

Even with its 2.7 million people, Chicago residents like to say the nation’s third-largest city operates as a collection of small towns with Midwest sensibilities.

People generally know their neighbors and offer help. Word spreads quickly.

When immigration agents began targeting food vendors, Rick Rosales, enlisted his bicycle advocacy group Cycling x Solidarity. He hosted rides to visit street vendors, buying out their inventory to lower their risk while supporting their business.

Irais Sosa, co-founder of the apparel store Sin Titulo, started a neighbor program with grocery runs and rideshare gift cards for families afraid of venturing out.

“That neighborhood feel and support is part of the core of Chicago,” she said.

Enriquez’s organization, Little Village Community Council, saw its volunteer walking group which escorts children to school, grow from 13 to 32 students.

Many also credit the grassroots nature of the resistance to Chicago’s long history of community and union organizing.

Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said Chicago area residents were so familiar with their rights that making arrests during a different operation this year was difficult.

So when hundreds of federal agents arrived in September, activists poured energy into an emergency hotline that dispatches response teams to gather intel, including names of those detained. Volunteers would also circulate videos online, warn of reoccurring license plates or follow agents’ cars while honking horns.

Protests have also cropped up quickly. Recently, high school students have launched walkouts.

Delilah Hernandez, 16, was among dozens from Farragut Career Academy who protested on a school day.She held a sign with the Constitution’s preamble as she walked in Little Village. She knows many people with detained relatives.

“There is so much going on,” she said. “You feel it.”

A difficult environment

More than 3,200 people suspected of violating immigration laws have been arrested during the so-called “ Operation Midway Blitz.” Dozens of U.S. citizens and protesters have been arrested with charges ranging from resisting arrest to conspiring to impede an officer.

The Department of Homeland Security defends the operation, alleging officers face hostile crowds as they pursue violent criminals.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who’s brought controversial tactics from operations in Los Angeles, called Chicago a “very non permissive environment.” He blamed sanctuary protections and elected leaders and defended agents’ actions, which are the subject of lawsuits.

But the operation’s intensity could subside soon.

Bovino told The Associated Press this month that U.S. Customs and Border Protection will target other cities. He didn’t elaborate, but Homeland Security officials confirmed Saturday that an immigration enforcement surge had begun in Charlotte, North Carolina.

DHS, which oversees CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has said operations won’t end in Chicago.

Interest nationwide

Alonso Zaragoza, with a neighborhood organization in the heavily immigrant Belmont Cragin, has printed hundreds of “No ICE” posters for businesses. Organizers in Oregon and Missouri have asked for advice.

“It’s become a model for other cities,” Zaragoza said. “We’re building leaders in our community who are teaching others.”

The turnout for virtual know-your-rights trainings offered by the pro-democracy group, States at the Core, doubled from 500 to 1,000 over a recent month, drawing participants from New Jersey and Tennessee.

“We train and we let go, and the people of Chicago are the ones who run with it,” said organizer Jill Garvey.

Awaiting the aftermath

Enriquez completes up to three patrol shifts daily. Beyond the physical exertion, the work takes a toll.

Federal agents visited his home and questioned family members. A U.S. citizen relative was handcuffed by agents. His car horn no longer works, which he attributes to overuse.

“This has been very traumatizing,” he said. “It is very scary because you will remember this for the rest of your life.”

CHRISTINE FERNANDO

From The Marine Detective:

The rarest of the rare? Haliclystus californiensis in British Columbia?

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Giant Black Cucumaria – feeding!

Teen Pleads For His Dad Detained By ICE

Mayor Adams’ new role as he leaves office? Mamdani spoiler.

https://gothamist.com/news/mayor-adams-new-role-as-he-leaves-office-mamdani-spoiler

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

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The election may be over in New York City, but Mayor Eric Adams isn’t done fighting against Zohran Mamdani.

In the last two weeks, Adams has made – or flirted with – maneuvers that could cause some political headaches for mayor-elect Mamdani and even stall his affordability agenda. The moves have implications for Mamdani’s pledge to freeze the rent for stabilized tenants, maintain funding for the NYPD and build more housing to address the city’s affordability crisis.

Political experts say Adams is following a tried and true tradition.

“There’s a history of mayors making decisions in the final days of their mayoralty,” said Chris Coffey, a political strategist who worked for Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “Whether it’s for messing with the next mayor, or getting the things they want before their term is up, only a psychiatrist could tell you.”

Late last month, Adams began weighing whether to pack the Rent Guidelines Board with members opposed to Mamdani’s plan to freeze the rent on the city’s 1 million regulated apartments. Those appointees would remain in place when Mamdani took office, potentially setting up an unprecedented legal battle over whether the new mayor could fire them.

Adams has not yet announced any new appointees. Eleonora Srugo, a real estate agent and star of a Netflix reality show, “Selling the City,” told the New York Times she had declined Adams’ job offer.

Days later, Adams announced additional funding to hire 5,000 police officers. Mamdani has said he would keep the police headcount at its current level of 35,000 officers — a headcount the NYPD has failed to reach under Adams due to struggles with recruitment.

Once Mamdani takes office, he will have to decide whether to rescind the $316 million Adams allocated to hire the additional officers. The move would be largely symbolic since the city can’t meet its currently budgeted staffing levels.

During the primary, Mamdani distanced himself from his previous calls to reduce police spending.

“I am not defunding the police. I am not running to defund the police,” he said in July. He described himself as a person who “learns and one that leads, and part of that means admitting as I have grown.”

The latest example of Adams’ maneuvering came on Wednesday, when Gothamist exclusively reported that the administration had designated Elizabeth Street Garden as parkland. The move was the latest development in the years-long saga over whether the city could build an affordable housing development for seniors on the site in Nolita.

Mayor Adams has said he’s committed to a smooth transition. But he’s implemented policies that go against Zohran Mamdani’s agenda.

Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office

On Thursday, Mamdani accused Adams of “using his final weeks and months to cement a legacy of dysfunction and inconsistency.”

But he also said that the administration’s actions “make it nearly impossible to follow through with” building housing on the garden.

Adams is far from the first mayor to complicate his successor’s plans.

Former Mayor David Dinkins ignored his successor Rudy Giuliani’s criticisms of a deal to keep the U.S. Open in Queens by building Arthur Ashe Stadium.

During the final month of his second term, Giuliani, a baseball fan, signed deals for new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees. Bloomberg canceled them not long after he took over City Hall.

Adams has publicly said he’d ensure a smooth transition. On Thursday, he rejected Mamdani’s criticism of his move to preserve Elizabeth Street Garden.

“It’s not about a legacy of dysfunction,” Adams told reporters. “It’s about protecting a legacy in the promises we made.”

He also said, “I’m the mayor until December 31st.”

With the Elizabeth Street Garden, Adams may have actually done Mamdani a favor. The proposed development has devolved into a nasty fight pitting housing advocates against the garden’s well-heeled supporters, who include Patti Smith, Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese and others.

“These are political sh– sandwiches,” Coffey said, referring to the garden. “I’m sure the mayor- elect would want that off the table.”

During a live podcast with the news site Hell Gate last month, Mamdani said he would evict the garden’s operators in his first year as mayor. But at least one key member of his inner circle may be pleased with Adams’ move to make the Elizabeth Street Garden a park — filmmaker Mira Nair.

“My mother really disagrees with me,” Mamdani said.

Let’s talk about Trump unintentionally admitting tariffs are raising your grocery prices….

Passports, & Transvestigations; Weekend Reading in “Them” Magazine

The Right Is Now Transvestigating Charlie Kirk and His Wife, Erika

Transphobia truly impacts us all. By Samantha Riedel

Definite beverage alert, though it may be choking rather than laughing.

We all knew it was inevitable: the MAGA conspiracy set is knee-deep in transvestigating Charlie Kirk and his widow, Erika Kirk.

For the blissfully offline (oh, how we envy you), “transvestigation” is a transphobic conspiracy theory advanced over the past eight years, adherents to which believe countless celebrities, politicians, and other public figures are secretly transgender. The conspiracy usually involves armchair phrenology, as believers overlay diagrams of skeletons and skulls over photographs to highlight alleged “discrepancies,” and pseudoscientific analyses of body language and posture. It’s abject nonsense that conveniently ties in with QAnon, “Pizzagate,” and other right-wing conspiracies — and nobody, not even far-right figureheads themselves, are safe from suspicion.

Transvestigators on social media started training their eyes on Erika Kirk roughly two months ago in mid-September, shortly after her husband, Turning Point USA cofounder Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed in Utah. (snip)

Comments on the post were somewhat divided, though many took Starbucs’ side. “Of course almost all models, especially agent models and Victoria secret models are mostly [trans women],” one wrote. Another simply called her a “filthy Luciferian.” Others cited a video Erika Kirk filmed over a decade ago, in which she described herself in childhood as a tomboy, as evidence that she was actually assigned male at birth. Some even took the opportunity to posthumously transvestigate Charlie Kirk as well; “that’s why Charlie Kirk seemed so feminine and emasculated because she was a transgender handler. That’s why he was so pretty,” one person wrote. (emphasis mine-A.) (snip-MORE-it’s not long)

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How Trump’s Anti-Trans Passport Ban Impacts You

Here’s what you need to know about Trump’s trans passport ban. By Quispe López

On November 6, the Supreme Court granted the State Department temporary permission to enforce the Trump administration’s passport ban, giving it authority to bar transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people from obtaining passports with gender markers that reflect their identity.

The decision reversed two previous injunctions ordered by lower courts, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as a class action lawsuit against the State Department, Orr v. Trump, which temporarily prevented the Trump administration from enforcing its trans passport ban. The ban stems from an anti-trans executive order in which the Trump administration attempted to codify the legal definition of gender as biological sex determined “at conception.”

While the lawsuit was pending, the injunctions temporarily allowed trans, nonbinary, and intersex people to obtain passports, new or renewed, with the gender marker corresponding to their identity. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, which allows the State Department to enact the executive order while Orr v. Trump is debated, people who apply for a new or renewed passport will only be able to receive one with their sex assigned at birth. According to the ACLU, there is no guidance on what intersex people who might not have any documents with an F or M marker from around the time they were born should expect for their passports. (snip-MORE-also, not long)

Pres. Wilson Throws a Night Of Terror, First Peacetime Conscription In U.S., SANE Is Founded, & More, In Peace & Justice History for 11/15

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november15

Lewis’s Woodpecker

American Bird Conservancy has changed its page. It seems even easier to use. Here are some bits about this week’s bird.

About

Most woodpecker species in the United States and Canada display a mix of black, white, and red plumage, but don’t tell the Lewis’s Woodpecker. Its unusual mix of colors includes a red face, pink belly, glossy green back, crown, and nape, and silver-gray collar. The bird is simply stunning.

Lewis’s Woodpecker also differs from other members of its family in many of its foraging styles and food choices. In the summer, the bird eats mostly insects, catching them in flight by swooping out from a perch like a flycatcher or by foraging in flight like a swallow. Wide, rounded wings give the bird a buoyant, straight-line flight, more like a jay or crow than a woodpecker. The bird seldom excavates for wood-boring insects; unlike other woodpeckers, this species lacks the strong head and neck muscles needed to drill into hard wood.

In the fall, Lewis’s Woodpeckers switch to eating nuts and fruit, chopping up acorns and other nuts and caching them in bark crevices for later consumption. During the winter, they aggressively guard these storage areas against intruders, including other woodpecker species.

Ornithologist Alexander Wilson described the species in 1811 and named it for Meriwether Lewis, who observed the bird in 1805 during the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Threats

Birds around the world are declining, and many of them, like Lewis’s Woodpecker, are facing urgent, acute threats. Moreover, all birds, from the rarest species to familiar backyard birds, are made more vulnerable by the cumulative impacts of threats like habitat loss and invasive species.

Habitat Loss

Surveys indicate that Lewis’s Woodpecker populations may have declined by about 60 percent since the 1960s, and much of the reduction is likely due to loss or alteration of suitable nesting habitat. Like all other woodpeckers, the Lewis’s Woodpecker requires cavities in snags (standing, dead, or partly dead trees) for nesting. Logging, the suppression of wildfires, and grazing have altered many of the western forests where the species is found. The changes to the landscape often result in large areas dominated by trees that are the same age, leaving few dead or decaying trees available for the birds’ nests.

Habitat Loss

Pesticides & Toxins

Pesticides take a heavy toll on birds in a variety of ways. Birds can be harmed by direct poisoning from pesticides, lose insect prey to pesticides sprayed on crops and lawns, or be slowly poisoned by ingesting small mammal prey that have themselves ingested rodenticides. Lewis’s Woodpeckers are likely exposed to pesticides in orchards and other agricultural settings.

Pesticides & Toxins

https://abcbirds.org/birds/lewiss-woodpecker/

For Science, & The Planet!

Norway Turns Ocean Forests Of Seaweed Into Weapons Against Climate Change

Written by Matthew Russell

Off Trøndelag’s coast, long lines of kelp now do double duty. They grow fast. They also lock away carbon. A new pilot farm near Frøya aims to turn that promise into measurable removal of CO₂ from the air, according to DNV.

The site spans 20 hectares and carries up to 55,000 meters of kelp lines. First seedlings went in last November. The goal is proof of concept, then scale.

Underwater view of vibrant seaweed swaying in clear blue water.

How the Pilot Works

The three-year Joint Industry Project, JIP Seaweed Carbon Solutions, brings SINTEF together with DNV, Equinor, Aker BP, Wintershall Dea, and Ocean Rainforest, with a total budget of NOK 50 million, Safety4Sea reports.

Researchers expect an initial harvest of about 150 tons of kelp after 8–10 months at sea. Early estimates suggest that biomass could represent roughly 15 tons of captured CO₂. This is a test bed for methods that can be replicated and expanded, DNV explains.

There’s a second step, as kelp becomes biochar. That process stabilizes carbon for the long term and can improve soils on land, SINTEF’s team told Safety4Sea. The project is designed to test both the removal and the storage.

Serene coastal landscape with rocky shores and calm water under a cloudy sky.

A Long History, A New Mission

Seaweed isn’t new here. Norwegians have cultivated kelp since the 18th and 19th centuries for fertilizer and feed. Scientists advanced modern methods in the 1930s, laying the groundwork for today’s farms, according to SeaweedFarming.com. Cold, nutrient-rich waters support species like Laminaria and Saccharina. They grow quickly and draw down dissolved carbon and nitrogen.

The country’s aquaculture backbone also helps. Norway already runs one of the world’s most advanced seafood sectors. That expertise now extends to macroalgae.

Policy, Permits, and Ecosystems

Commercial cultivation began receiving specific permits in 2014, and activity has expanded across several coastal counties, according to a study in Aquaculture International. Researchers detailed the risks that accompany scale: genetic interaction with wild kelp, habitat impacts, disease, and space conflicts. Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture, where seaweed grows alongside finfish, can recycle nutrients from farms and reduce eutrophication pressures.

Vibrant yellow seaweed covers dark rocky surfaces near shallow water.

Engineering for Open Water

Getting beyond sheltered bays is crucial. One path is the “Seaweed Carrier,” a sheet-like offshore system that lets kelp move with waves in deeper, more exposed water. It supports mechanical harvesting and industrial output without using land, Business Norway explains. The same approach can enhance water quality by absorbing CO₂ and “lost” nutrients.

The Frøya project is small in tonnage but big in intent. It links Norway’s long kelp lineage with new climate tech: fast-growing macroalgae, verified carbon accounting, and durable storage as biochar. If these methods prove reliable at sea and on shore, Norway will have more than a farm. It will have a blueprint for ocean-based carbon removal that others can copy.