HANOVER PARK, Ill. — Nearly a dozen kids come around the block, some running and others riding their bikes. They are heading straight to the gap between the grocery store and the old apartment building — the same area where Immigration and Customs Enforcement vans often park.
"We heard they were here so that's why we came," a kid says to another one.
By "they" he means ICE agents. He and the other kids were ready to start recording the latest immigration enforcement action in their neighborhood.
An organizer with Patrulla Popular, or the People's Patrol, an all-volunteer group of activists, is nearby and approaches the kids.
"You guys need to keep yourselves safe, OK? You guys need to be careful," Ruby tells the kids. She asked to only be identified by her first name because she fears retaliation for her work warning people about ICE's presence.
She says the kids should document everything they see while keeping their distance. This could help eventually identify the undocumented immigrants being taken away by federal immigration agents.
She also tells them one of the goals should be to alert everyone around them about the presence of ICE. She gives them whistles.
"When you see somebody and you see a car or something suspicious, you do a break of a whistle," Ruby says, meaning a soft series of whistles. "If you see somebody being detained the whistle is long, as loud as you can."
Ruby is part of a growing number of volunteer groups who, along with advocates and lawyers, are patrolling the streets of Chicago and its suburbs warning migrants of ICE's presence, contacting family members of those detained and linking detained immigrants with legal services.
From the building's main balcony a group of adult immigrants, many without a legal status, listens as she reminds them of their rights if they were to interact with ICE.
"Do not sign anything without having talked to an attorney," she tells them in Spanish.
Residents in this area say they have been terrorized since last month, when the Trump administration ramped up its crackdown on immigration in Illinois under ICE's Operation Midway Blitz.
One of the residents watching is Diana, a Mexican woman who NPR is only identifying by her first name because she's undocumented.
"I'm panicking, I don't want to leave my place," she says in Spanish.
The mother of two girls says she has seen how her neighbors have been chased down by immigration enforcement agents. In this apartment building, some adults have decided to stay home and not go to work, and to not send their kids to school.
But there's one person she says is giving her hope.
His name is Ivan and he's 17. He has taken on the unlikely role of protector, often patrolling his neighborhood daily starting around 5 a.m.
"I may not be no cop or none of that, but I be taking care of the community," Ivan says. "I don't want none of these people get deported."
NPR is identifying Ivan only by his first name because he's a minor.
Witnessing ICE arresting people in this area has become an almost daily occurrence over the last few weeks, Ivan says. A few days ago, he took a video of an enforcement operation happening at the nearby grocery store.
Ivan says every day he tries to keep an eye out for suspicious cars. They could be ICE, he says. His goal is to give migrants enough time to either hide or flee if agents are around.
"All these people make the U.S. work," Ivan says. "Without them how is the U.S. gonna be?"
Cristóbal Cavazos is also a volunteer with the People's Patrol, and the co-founder of Casa DuPage Workers Center.
He says he's always ready to confront ICE agents with non-aggressive tactics, like annoying them with loud noises.
"I will take out my bullhorn, I will start to make some noise, people start to honk their horns, people start to pull up," Cavazos says. "ICE starts to get nervous. They start to look around, you know, and they start to assess, is this worth it right now?"
But increasingly, federal immigration agents have responded with force.
Recently, Border Patrol agents deployed tear gas to disperse a crowd who had gathered in Chicago's East Side to protest after a crash between the officers and someone they were chasing.
Cavazos says this work — chasing leads or even, at times, following ICE agents — to alert the community can be hard, especially now that the Department of Homeland Security regularly accuses groups like Cavazos' of interfering with their jobs and endangering the lives of immigration officers.
The Trump administration has loudly denounced activist volunteers like Cavazos accusing them of interfering with their jobs and endangering the lives of immigration officers.
"There's that fear," Cavazos says. "But if you're a real community activist, you need to do what's right for your community in spite of the fear … because it is a scary time right now."
But he remains defiant.
Every morning, with his mate tea in hand, Cavazos checks his phone to verify whether there has been any sighting of ICE agents in the Chicago suburbs.
He sees the role of the People's Patrol as not only helping migrants feel safe and have reliable information, but also fighting for free speech and the right to protest — two things he says the Trump administration is trying to quash.
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