Some Americans are using taxes to protest the Trump administration — more specifically, the refusal to pay taxes.

Labor unions, community groups and Chicago Public Schools students are among those gathering Friday afternoon in recognition of May Day.

On Friday, thousands of Chicagoans are expected to participate in a May Day rally and march, starting at Union Park and ending at Daley Plaza in downtown. Other related actions are scheduled in different parts of the city in the morning ahead of the march.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, representatives from the Chicago Teachers Union and some Chicago Board of Education members have been petitioning to exempt CPS students and teachers on May 1, allowing them to participate in local demonstrations.

CPS CEO Macquline King on Thursday afternoon said her recommendation to the board has been, for weeks, to maintain May 1 as an instructional day for students despite a push from the Chicago Teachers Union.

The Chicago demonstration is taking place after the area was targeted in the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration enforcement effort and amid ongoing military action in Iran.

Saturday’s day of action is expected to include millions of protesters in more than 3,000 planned demonstrations across the U.S., including a handful of events in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.

The Friday press conference was held at the Highlands REIT-owned Sherman Plaza in downtown Evanston. Highlands REIT, or Highlands Real Estate Investment Trust, has a portfolio of investment properties in several states that also includes an empty correctional facility in Colorado.

The union’s House of Delegates approved a resolution Wednesday seeking “full support” from Chicago’s Board of Education and Mayor Brandon Johnson to declare May 1 as a “Day of Civic Action.”

So far, Chicago taxpayers have paid approximately $11.9 million to settle and defend lawsuits sparked by the conduct of CPD officers during protests that swept the city in 2020 and erupted into unrest, according to court records.

A baby Jesus lays in a manger in the snow, wrapped in a silver emergency blanket with his wrists zip-tied. Mary stands nearby outside the Lake Street Church in Evanston, wearing a plastic gas mask and flanked by Roman soldiers in tactical vests labeled “ICE.”

Protesters, clergy members and others who say they’ve been directly impacted by a series of increasingly aggressive raids across Chicago and the suburbs will testify before a federal judge weighing whether to impose a lengthier ban on immigration agents’ use of chemical weapons like tear gas and pepper balls.

The gatherings are part of a mass mobilization across the U.S. and globe positioned as a denouncement of President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. In Chicago, they come amid sustained immigration raids.

On Saturday, thousands of Illinois residents will take to the streets as part of the “No Kings” protests happening nationwide. Here are the details.

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson signed an executive order shrinking the designated protest area outside the suburban Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson has signed an executive order setting fixed protest hours outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s suburban processing facility.