‘No Kings’ rally in downtown Chicago draws a huge crowd opposing Trump policies

More than a month after President Donald Trump sent federal agents to the Chicago region as part of a mass deportation effort targeting immigrants, opponents of that and other White House polices turned out in force Saturday to show what they think.

“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” protesters chanted during a “No Kings” march through downtown streets that drew tens of thousands of people carrying a collective message: Trump has been acting like a despot rather than the leader of a democracy answerable to the public.

“No Faux King Way,” read a sign at another No Kings event in Highland Park.

“No Crown 4 A Clown,” said a sign at a demonstration in Little Village, the heavily Mexican American Southwest Side neighborhood.

At a Grant Park rally that preceded the Loop march, a Logan Square man held up a sign with “Sesame Street” characters and the words: “Fascism — brought to you by the letters I.C.E.”

Similar events were held around the country.

Asked for comment about the mass showing of discontent, Trump’s spokeswoman had a short response: “Who cares?”

The protesters made clear that they do. They spoke against and held signs questioning White House policies and actions, including the dispatching of federal agents to Chicago and the suburbs. Trump has said they’re targeting immigrants who shouldn’t be in the United States, particularly those suspected of violent crimes.

That effort has been divisive and at times chaotic, with tear gas targeting protesters and in some cases also affecting police. There also have been people detained but soon released because they are U.S. citizens, complaints of abusive conduct by some agents and pushback from public officials including Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson. Beyond that, many of the people taken into custody do not appear to be the criminals Trump’s administration said it’s targeting.

Previous protests against Trump’s efforts led the president to justify mobilizing the National Guard — and threaten Pritzker and Johnson, saying recently on social media the two Democratic officials “should be in jail for failing to protect” immigration officers.

In Grant Park on Saturday, Johnson said he won’t “bend, bow or cower” to authoritarianism.

“The attempt to divide and conquer this nation will not prevail,” Johnson said. “When the people are united, justice always prevail.”

The mayor again ripped the president’s deportation campaign, saying: “Donald Trump is using ICE as his private, militarized occupying force. But we are saying emphatically clear: We do not want troops in our city.”

The bigger message might have been sent by the throngs who turned out. The Grant Park demonstration appeared to be larger than past marches and rallies, with people packed tightly together for large swaths of the downtown park and crowd estimates ranging from tens of thousands to 100,000 or more.

The march clogged Loop streets for hours but was peaceful.

Some protesters used a measure of whimsy to convey messages of inclusiveness, kindness and free speech, dressing in costumes that included clown suits, dragons, unicorns and the owl from the classic 1970s Tootsie Pop commercial.

But the underlying tone was serious. People held signs with messages such as “ICE out” and “Hands off.” Others waved American and Mexican flags.

In Little Village, some signs bore biting humor.

“Big Man Little Dig-nity” one read, with a cartoonish image of Trump crossed out.

Maja Sandstrom organized the Little Village fathering, hoping to encourage people to show up and speak out without having to stray too far from the safety of their homes.

“I decided to put together this event . . . to stand up against the targeted fear-mongering that this administration is really trying to deliver to people who are empathetic and just wanting to raise their voice,” Sandstrom said.

The demonstration was held in the shadow of the welcoming arch across 26th Street that reads partly in Spanish: “Bienvenidos a Little Village.”

On the North Side, a park with its own unique characteristic, a statue of the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz,” hosted another No Kings demonstration. Jamin Townsley, who lives in Humboldt Park, was there with his 2-year-old daughter Romi, who sat on his shoulders, wearing a princess dress. He had helped her put together a pink spray-painted sign that said: “No Kings, only princesses.”

Similar events were scattered across the suburbs, from DuPage County to Orland Park to Park Ridge to Highland Park.

“I am here because I’m really disturbed about where this country is going, and I really, really, really feel compelled to stand up for my rights and to express to this administration how we are going the wrong way,” said Jeannette Samson, a Deerfield resident who attended the Highland Park rally.

Protesting has become a father-and-son activity this year for Robert and Joe Tria, who were in Grant Park. They said they have been to multiple demonstrations since Trump took office in January, aiming to express their distaste with what they call an “autocratic style of government.”

Robert Tria, 86, whose background is Filipino and Mexican, said his father served in the U.S. Navy for 30 years. “He wouldn’t have liked this, either,” the Elmwood Park resident said.

“I grew up believing that anything is possible in the United States,” said Joe Tria, 58, who lives in Logan Square. “And what I’m finding out now is people like me are being targeted just for what we look like. And it has to stop.”

Recently, Gregory Bovino, commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, told a WBEZ reporter that agents have been arresting people based in part on “how they look” — a comment that caused an uproar.

Mackayla Reilley stood in Grant Park — named for the general who, as a Civil War leader, fought to preserve the union — with her parents and aunt holding a poster that read “No sign is big enough to list all the reasons I’m here.”

Reilley, 26, said her family came in from Riverside in a show of support for immigrants affected by Trump’s mass deportation effort.

“With everything going on in Chicago, we have to protect immigrants,” Reilley said. “We have to stand up against Trump. We can’t normalize this type of polarization and this type of partisanship.”

The Reilley family — who also were at the first No Kings protest, held in June — called the raids around Chicago “heartbreaking” but said they’re hopeful the protests will help bring change.

“It feels good to be around people that kind of share that same ideology, too,” Reilley said, “uniting together with common goals of protecting democracy and immigrants.”

Protests Saturday also were held in New York City, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, San Francisco and more than 2,000 other places across the country in what organizers called a “nationwide day of defiance.”

Republican leaders, including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., slammed the demonstrations as a “Hate America Rally.”

The first No Kings protests, four months ago, were planned to counter a military parade in Washington to mark the Army’s 250th anniversary and Trump’s 79th birthday.

Contributing: Mohammad Samra, Casey He, Erica Thompson, Cindy Hernandez, Anna Savchenko, Chip Mitchell, Somer Van Benton, Lynn Sweet, Mitch Armentrout, Robert Herguth