Politics
Chicago Officials Say Federal Agents Targeted Puerto Rican Museum; Homeland Security Pushes Back
Community leaders and elected officials said federal agents descended Tuesday on Humboldt Park’s National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture in a show of “bullying and intimidation” of Chicago immigrants.
Chicago and Illinois officials gathered at the West Side museum Wednesday morning to decry the “government overreach” they said took place a day earlier.
“What ICE is doing is they’re intentionally trying to intimidate our community members,” said Ald. Anthony Quezada (35th Ward). “What happened yesterday was an intentional scare tactic and has nothing to do with safety. It was meant to send a message to our undocumented neighbors, to our cultural institutions and to our entire community that they are being watched and they are not safe.”
Officials said more than a dozen Homeland Security vehicles arrived at the museum at around 3 p.m. Tuesday and spent approximately two hours on site without any prior notice or a valid warrant.
When museum employees asked them to leave, the agents allegedly refused, saying they were allowed to be “wherever” and “whenever” they wanted, according to Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward).
“We will not tolerate this type of behavior in Humboldt Park,” Fuentes said, adding that the museum’s lease makes the building and grounds private property. “ICE is not welcome.”
Security footage captured Homeland Security agents inside the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (Provided)
The museum’s stated mission is the “promotion, integration and advancement of Puerto Rican arts and culture.” People who are born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, are U.S. citizens.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin denied that the department in any way targeted the museum, stating instead that its Chicago Financial Crimes Task Force “staged and held a quick briefing in the Museum’s parking lot in advance of an enforcement action related to a narcotics investigation.”
“Once again, the media and Sanctuary City politicians are shamefully peddling a false narrative in an attempt to demonize our ICE enforcement agents, who are already facing a 700% surge in assaults again (sic) them,” McLaughlin said in an emailed statement.
Surveillance footage recorded at the museum and played for reporters Wednesday showed several vehicles entering the museum’s parking lot Tuesday afternoon as agents gathered outside.
The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture in Humboldt Park is pictured on July 9, 2025. (Felix Mendez / WTTW)
Museum officials said their employees overheard agents speaking about plans for the upcoming Barrio Arts Festival, which will be held at the site this weekend. U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago) believes the agents’ presence Tuesday was an attempt to survey the area before potential enforcement actions.
Ramirez said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been “emboldened” after the passage of President Donald Trump’s budget bill, which is set to add $150 billion in funding to that agency.
“It’s about suppressing dissent, it’s about trying to dismantle resistance and it’s about trying to paralyze our communities,” Ramirez said. “It’s about creating these crazy spectacles of violence that pit people against each other and then justify their tactics when they get caught.”
Trump last month vowed to shift immigration enforcement away from political allies and toward political foes, prioritizing deportations in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and cities at “the core of the Democrat Power Center.”
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told CNN in January that efforts led by Chicago officials and immigration advocates to educate undocumented immigrants had made deportation efforts in Chicago “very difficult.”
Veronica Ocasio, the museum’s director of education and programming, said she was “upset, frustrated and literally in disbelief” after Tuesday’s incident.
“It was horrible what happened here yesterday,” she said. “This community was built on resilience, everything we have is because we fought for it. And we will continue to fight for human rights, for dignity, for transparency, for understanding.”
Heather Cherone and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
