Deportation drives upends Little Village
Raids in Chicago impact families, businesses
By: Heather Schlitz
Reuters
CHICAGO - Allyson Lopez had been hoping for business to bounce back at her dress shop in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, which specializes in ballgowns for quinceafieras, a coming-of-age ritual in many Latino communities celebrating a girl's 15th birthday.
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Instead, last week [12/16/2025] brought the return of federal immigration raids that have emptied the normally vibrant streets.
..... The first phase of the Department of Homeland Security deportation campaign, named "Operation Midway Blitz," racked up over 4,200 arrests across the city in under three months.
..... The operation rattled Chicago, but for Little Village, the working-class Mexican neighborhood that was repeatedly targeted, the effect has been catastrophic.
..... The return of roving U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino on December 16 [2025]
in a large convoy of agents in camouflage, some with assault rifles peeking through car windows, was met by jeers and whistles form dozens of protesters who live streamed the encounters on social media.
..... At Estela's Bridal, a second-generation family business, Lopez specializes in custom designs, which sell for an average of $1,000. It can take 16 hours to make a dress, fitting the shimmering fabrics to size, and adding embroidered flowers, rhinestones and sequins. She said she lost 90% of her clients during their first wave of arrests as people decided to stay home out of fear of immigration agents.
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"We're going to suffer again as businesses," Lopez said. "We didn't even make the rent this month, [12/2025] so it's scary."
..... A DHS spokesperson did not respond when asked about the impact of the raids on businesses.
..... Even before Bovino's return, Little Village had been deflated by the raids.
..... The tourist who came to the "Mexican Capitol of the Midwest: to eat tacos, sweet bread and tamales and to shop for quinceafiera dresses, pinatas and Mexican chiles disappointed. Dozens of neighborhood residents were detained or deported, community leaders said. Others went into hiding.
..... "It's like those old Western movies where all you see is tumbleweed blowing in the breeze,' said Roxana, a 42-year-old hair salon owner from Guatemala. She declined to share her last name or mitigation status out of fear of retaliation from immigration agents.
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In her empty hair salon, with half the chairs wrapped in plastic, Roxana puled back her neatly styled bangs to reveal patches of thinning hair, which she said started falling out from the stress of an 80% drop in revenue since the start of the immigration enforcement campaign.
..... As the Border Patrol convoy descended on Little Village again, Roxana shuddered. The salon was open, but devoid of customers.
..... "They've broken into the neighborhood again," she said. "It's definitely shocked and devastated us because it wasn't something that we were expecting."
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Roxana's salon sits near the stucco arch hat marks the beginning of 26th Street,a 2-mile-long strip of shops. bakeries and restaurants that has become he second-most profitable shopping corridor in the city, according to the Lit4el Village Chamber of Commerce. Many business owners said their savings dwindled after customers, including people who are in the United States legally, stopped visiting for fear of immigration officers.
..... Before the mitigation crackdown, the shops seeing elaborate ballgowns, glittering tiaras and satin flower bouquets, were you ous places, where girls giggled and twirled in their dresses to the satisfaction of their mothers, shop owners said.
..... But anxiety over venturing outside - as well as fear hat big parties could become targets for mitigation enforcement - have hit Little Village's quinceaiera shops hard.
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Two shop owners said they lost 90% of their revenue to the initial stages of Midway Blitz.
..... Evelyn Flores, the owner of the Alborade quinceafiera store, said she laid off seven staff members. "I can't sleep at night right now, and during the day I'm always freaking out."
..... Maria Ortiz, who owns a shop selling party supplies said here are days when nobody walks into her store.
.... For one family, the aftershocks of the fall raids have lingered for weeks, Kamilas, 15, she has been afraid to leave her apartment other than to go to school after her cousin was detained by immigration agents in November [2025] while on his way to a job as a rug installer. he had been living in the united States for 18 years without legal status.
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"I'm scared. We can't step outside because thy might be waiting for us," she said.
..... Asked for comment, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said: no reason to be afraid of reenforcement, unless you are breaking the law."
..... The cousin's small apartment sits mostly as he left it - the bed unmade and his fluffy cream-colored dog, Peluchin, scampering through the apartment. Every day since his owner was detained, Peluchin pushes the dusty window blinds aside with his small snout to stare for hours at the street, waiting for him to return, a neighbor who comes by to walk him said.
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"All his dreams. all his effort, all his work - it's here, empty," said Sofia, Kamila's mother and a 47-eayr-old housekeeper.
..... On a recent afternoon, the Little Village Community Council hummed with overlapping voices as people coordinated school pick-ups, shared videos,a and called family members of people who were detained.
..... The LVVCC president, Baltazar Enriquez, had led local resistance to immigration enforcement , organizing patrols for federal agents and distributing plastic whistles now used across the city to warn of immigration agents in the area.
..... The tight-knit nature of "La Villita," the Spanish name for Little Village, has given residents an organizing edge as that take to WahtsApp, Facebook and Signal groups to coordinate. Though Little Village has struggled with bouts of gun violence and has the highest number of gang-related crimes in the city, residents said they felt safe before federal agents came to town.
..... Other forms of resistance have been quieter - like Vicky Martinez, a 55-year-old resident, who drops off groceries for friends and neighbors who are too scared to go to the store.
..... "It just feels like you're in prison," Martinez said.