Welcome to Chicago 312: 3 Headlines. 1 Big Question. 2 Red Flags. Subscribe here.

Another week of contradictions: the feds raided a daycare in North Center, claiming “law and order” while terrorizing toddlers. A judge ruled the face of Trump’s immigration crackdown — Gregory Bovino, the one with bad hair — lied under oath. And at the same time, Springfield passed a $1.5 billion rescue bill that might actually fix the CTA.

Other people have written a lot more about the incongruity of how truly ludicrous it feels in Chicago right now, a foot in two different worlds: sometimes (some places, and some people) brutalized by federal power and unstable, while other spaces stay mostly the same. But people keep showing up.

3 Headlines:

1. Operation Midway Blitz Pissed Off North Center

Block Club: Hundreds packed the plaza Wednesday night after ICE agents raided a neighborhood daycare and dragged out a teacher who, according to coworkers, had her citizenship documents in hand. Parents say agents entered during morning drop-off — the exact time most kids were arriving — and left crying toddlers in their wake. And as the DHS lied about this on X, Congresswoman Delia Ramirez continued to push back.

The North Center neighborhood, until now, has been largely untouched by “Operation Midway Blitz,” the Trump administration’s sprawling, evil, traumatic immigration enforcement campaign that has sent armored vehicles and federal agents through working-class corridors from Little Village to Brighton Park.

With hundreds in the street, Alderperson Andre Vasquez told reporters that “we don’t have time to wait for elections to fix this” — urging residents to volunteer for school safety patrols and community defense efforts. “We need everyone here,” he said.

Why It Matters: “Operation Midway Blitz” is supposed to make people afraid and isolated. Instead, it’s teaching neighborhoods how to move together. The federal government can’t out-organize a city like this — and it didn’t expect this.

Are you for, or against, a taxpayer-funded secret police terrorizing American cities?

As Trump’s approval slides, the temptation — especially for national Democrats and media outlets — will be to downplay what’s happening in Chicago. But this is one of the most urgent moral questions for the entire country. And at least in Chicago, it won’t be forgotten by midterms.

2. Top Agent Lied Under Oath

Sun Times: Earlier the same day, a federal judge ruled that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino — again, because reptithe one with bad hair — lied under oath about the use of force in those raids. Her injunction limits ICE’s ability to deploy gas, tackle protesters, or point loaded weapons at bystanders.

“The government’s evidence,” she said, “is simply not credible.” It’s worth mentioning that lawyers also played Bovino a video in which he tells agents, "everybody f**king gets it if they touch you. … This is OUR f**king city," as Axios and the Sun-Times reported from the courtroom. Can’t think of a worse thing for someone not from Chicago to say about Chicago…

Another federal judge ruled today that authorities at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement-run facility in Broadview must provide detainees with basic hygiene, beds, showers and clean water after testimony revealed overcrowded cells with up to 150 people, toilets overflowing, and water that “tasted like sewer.”

Why It Matters: It’s a blueprint for federal control, propaganda siege tactics, dictatorship, yeah yeah. But I think it’s notable that in this horrific test of how far Washington can override local government, sanctuary law, and basic public safety, Bovino sounds frustrated.

Maybe that’s small, or bleak because it’s small. But I can’t imagine the arrogance it takes to be mad that it’s hard to violate constitutional norms in every way, to have the entire city of Chicago chasing you (at great personal risk) around in ugly cars. It’s embarassing to have your overpaid undertrained paramilitary force be pushed around by retirees with whistles who are motivated by disgust and horror about every single thing about you.

It’s not his city and he knows it. He’s mad that he’s losing even when he shouldn’t be.

3. CTA Funding Came Through

Streetsblog: Springfield lawmakers passed 4 AM a $1.5 billion transit funding bill that averts mass layoffs at CTA, Metra, and Pace — and replaces the Regional Transportation Authority with a new body: the Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA). The deal, led by Sen. Ram Villivalam, Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, and Rep. Kam Buckner, is the biggest regional governance overhaul in decades. Fare hikes are paused, service cuts canceled, and Illinois will now funnel motor-fuel sales taxes and road-fund interest directly into public transit.

Why it matters: In this new regional model, Chicago gets five seats. So does the governor. So does Cook County. So do the suburbs. Which means the next big fights — over safety, labor, capital projects, and climate priorities — won’t just be about funding, they’ll be about who defines the purpose of public transit.

1 Big Question:

A reminder:

Related: here’s Ishan Daya from the Institute for Public Good on Chicago Tonight — all about why Chicago’s budget needs to (finally) tax corporations.

2 Red Flags Stressing Me Out Today: 

1. 🚨 ‘I left yesterday’

   Reddit: An anonymous thread from an undocumented person who just left Chicago.

2. 🚨I don’t want to talk about Zohran Mamandi in this roundup even though I can’t stop talking about Zohran Mamdani

   Hammer and Hope: While every single part of that campaign is dissected and think-pieced about (from the font to the parts that bad DC consultants pretend they understand to ‘aloof wife autumn’), I want to share one of the best things I read about his campaign that wasn’t FROM his campaign: an oral history interview type piece with a variety of Black voters and how they felt about his campaign, city politics, and the Mayoral election generally.

Finally…

A new Maria Pappas video and calendar.