Over the last several weeks, our members and staff have worked around the clock to provide legal support to Chicagoans resisting ICE. Since Trump’s invasion of our state began, we have supported more than 225 people taken into custody. We are reaching out to ask for your financial support as we approach the holiday giving season. 

Throughout the last year, our members have gone above and beyond to support Chicago’s social justice movements in the streets and in the courts: 

• NLG Legal Observers were dispatched to more than 200 protests! 
• Our Mass Defense Committee coordinated free representation for more than 160 people arrested at protests.
• We have operated an emergency response hotline that dispatched attorneys to meet with dozens of people in police custody and worked with our members to locate community members disappeared by federal agents while documenting ICE activity in their neighborhoods.
• Our chapter has also hosted numerous Know Your Rights Trainings throughout the city and offered multiple CLEs to train up more attorneys in movement lawyering.

Your financial support is critical to sustaining and growing these programs. Our work fighting federal repression comes on the heels of mobilizing to support DNC and RNC protesters and meet the demand of sustained protests for Palestinian liberation. The unrelenting pace and violence of the federal government’s attacks on our communities is taking a real toll on our volunteers.  We also have new expenses due to this fascist onslaught including additional hours for our part-time staff,  food, water, rideshares, and the creation of restorative spaces for volunteers.

You can donate to NLG Chicago by clicking here.

Today, community members across Cook County monitored and protested the Trump administration’s assault on migrant communities. The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild deployed Legal Observers to monitor federal and local police activity in the city and at the protest outside the Broadview Detention Center. Volunteer attorneys with the NLG were also dispatched to protect the rights of people taken into custody. 

During ICE and CBP’s activity in Little Village and Cicero, agents used excessive force and chemical agents against community members. Trump’s federal agents turned what would have been a quiet Saturday afternoon on the Southwest side of Chicago into a dangerous and unsafe environment due to their repeated and unnecessary escalations. 

At least nine people were taken into federal custody, and all but one of them is expected to be released this evening. The final person will be taken to court on Monday. Chicago police were deployed in response to the growing numbers of people in the street following ICE’s rampage in Little Village, with CPD ultimately arresting at least four community members. NLG Chicago has confirmed that two of these people will be released, with two others being held for court hearings tomorrow. Earlier in the day, two additional people were arrested while protesting outside the Broadview Detention Center and both have been released. 

NLG Chicago will continue to support the people who remain in custody and work with partners to ensure all those detained are released as quickly as possible.

Beginning on October 2, 2025 a number of state and local law enforcement agencies were dispatched to the Broadview Detention Center for the stated purpose of being a buffer between protesters and federal law enforcement, for protesters’ safety. Since that time, NLG Chicago has witnessed significant abuses of protesters’ civil rights by the Illinois State Police (ISP) as well as instances of violence by ISP officers against protesters and NLG Legal Observers. Additionally, when protesters have been taken into custody, our volunteer attorneys have faced barriers to accessing clients. 

After issuing statements about these abuses, NLG Chicago was invited to meet with the Governor’s Office and ISP. NLG Chicago agreed to the meeting, which occurred on October 23. 

Our goal in meeting with ISP and the Governor’s Office was to share what we observed regarding the use of violence by ISP officers and ensure that NLG Legal Observers and volunteer attorneys can safely do their work, including legally observing law enforcement activity and meeting with detained clients. NLG Chicago representatives were clear that our role is as a volunteer legal support organization and we do not negotiate for or speak on behalf of any protester or group of protesters. 

During the meeting, representatives from NLG Chicago called on Illinois State Police to: 

• End the use of force against protesters engaged in activity protected by the First Amendment, including but not limited to ending the practice of baton strikes to the head and neck.
• Provide adequate warning, direction, and time for protesters to respond when issuing dispersal orders.
• Ensure that ISP officers are trained regarding First Amendment activity, and to respect the lawful role that NLG Legal Observers play in protecting such activity.
• Ensure that ISP officers do not impede attorneys’ access to detained clients and that we receive accurate information regarding clients in custody.
• Work with other stakeholders to address the curfew on First Amendment activity along with the protest zone that had been put in place.

For the last two months, NLG Chicago has worked around the clock to provide legal support to the thousands of people who have come to the Broadview Detention Center to protest the Trump administration’s draconian attacks on immigrant communities. This has included sending Legal Observers to monitor the situation on the ground, dispatching volunteer attorneys to visit people in police custody, and working to coordinate representation for people who are now facing criminal charges. We will continue to keep the community updated on our efforts to protect the rights of everyone raising their voices against injustice at this pivotal moment. 

Photo by: Sara-Ji, Love & Struggle Photos

Over the weekend, hundreds of demonstrators from all walks of life returned to the Broadview Detention Center to protest the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrant communities. During the demonstrations, 24 people were taken into police custody. Members of the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild (NLG Chicago) tracked and visited demonstrators taken into police custody and are now working to ensure those charged have legal representation in the courts. Everyone arrested while protesting at the Broadview Detention Center this weekend has been released.

While the use of force to shut down First Amendment-protected activity has been a repeated occurrence since protests at the Detention Center took off in September, it is notable that the officers who brutalized protesters this weekend were not federal agents but Illinois State Police. NLG Chicago  is alarmed to see Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff’s Officers, Illinois Department of Corrections tactical teams and the Broadview Police Department being used to quash dissent of the Trump administration’s draconian actions.

On Saturday, NLG Legal Observers witnessed State Police give conflicting and confusing instructions to demonstrators. State police officers in riot gear were observed clubbing demonstrators with long wooden batons, throwing people to the ground and in one instance, dragging a woman across a concrete barrier and through the street. On Saturday evening, State Police also threatened to use chemical agents to disperse the protest. Numerous demonstrators reported injuries including bruises, cuts and concussions. Injured demonstrators included elderly and disabled people. Legal Observers witnessed multiple instances where people with disabilities were prevented from accessing mobility equipment. 

Multiple NLG Legal Observers were also hit in the heads with large clubs. While we condemn all police violence, we are particularly disturbed that police used physical force against Legal Observers who are clearly marked with bright neon green caps. Our volunteer Legal Observers serve a critical role safeguarding our clients’ constitutional rights and ensuring those arrested at protests can speak to an attorney as soon as possible.

We are alarmed by the excessive use of force unleashed by State Police on demonstrators, medics and Legal Observers. As protesters prepare to return to the Broadview Detention Center next weekend, it is imperative that the Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff’s Office, and Broadview Police Department reevaluate how they are responding to these demonstrations. Their actions jeopardize community safety and chill dissent at a time when we all must be raising our voices against injustice.

On June 13, 2025, a jury found 21-year-old Nitaawe Banks not guilty of obstructing traffic during a Palestine solidarity demonstration on March 8, 2024. During the trial, Banks and their attorneys successfully brought forth a “necessity” defense arguing that Banks’ protest was necessary to prevent the greater harm of unconditional US weapons and political support to Israel to perpetuate the genocide in Gaza. 

“As an Anishinaabe survivor of the more than 500-year genocidal campaign that has been waged against my people, and who has grown up on land occupied by the US government, an entity whose very existence is predicated on the wholesale mass extermination of indigenous life, I can not simply watch the same colonial ideology and superstructure perpetuate the decimation of Palestinians in Gaza. I can not be silent while Anishinaabe peoples live under occupation across North America; nor can I be silent when the indigenous peoples of Palestine under israeli occupation face genocidal ethnic cleansing of their people, culture, and way of life,” said Nitaawe Banks. 

Banks had been arrested following a 24-hour vigil at Federal Plaza during which activists read aloud the names of over a third of the 30,000+ Palestinians who had been killed by Israel’s military assault. To end the vigil, more than thirty people blocked morning traffic at the intersection of Jackson and Dearborn to bring further attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and our government’s involvement in the deadly attacks and siege in Gaza. Banks, an Indigenous organizer, was arrested alongside 32 other protesters, including Jewish and interfaith members.

The sobering trial included an expert witness that spoke about the decades long occupation of Palestine, and Banks’ own powerful testimony, explaining that the protest and subsequent arrest were necessary to get the public’s and elected officials’ attention. Banks also testified about the people of many faiths, including Jewish people, that linked arms at the intersection to stand against the Israeli and US government, and the personal connection between their Anishinaabe people and the Palestinians’ struggle for existence.

“Nitaawe refused to plead guilty and the jury affirmed their actions were justified based on the necessity defense, because we proved that the harm Nitaawe and the others were protesting was far greater than any ‘harm’ caused by blocking traffic. Nitaawe is one of many organizers fighting for true justice, in contrast to the City’s persistence in these petty and pointless prosecutions of civil disobedience,” said Amanda Yarusso, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild of Chicago.

Since the bombing of Gaza began in October 2023, the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild has organized 33 volunteer attorneys to provide free representation to more than 500 people who have been arrested at solidarity protests in Chicago. 

“Although the movement for a free Palestine is facing historic repression, this win is a testament to our growing power. When the public is educated and aware of the on-going colonization of Palestine, they will stand on the right side of history against state repression,” said Deborah Adelman, JVP activist and Board member, Tzedek Chicago, Professor Emerita of English at College of DuPage, and participant in the March 8, 2024, demonstration.