With Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids apparently imminent in the Chicago area, the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, went on cable news to complain that President Donald Trump’s administration “wants to keep us guessing” about the actions — even though he was completely open about the fact that he plans to disrupt those raids in any way possible.
If Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss — a Democrat, in case you even needed to ask — wanted to know why he was being kept in the dark, his Monday appearance on Erin Burnett’s CNN show should have been an object lesson in why the federal government doesn’t partner with or alert major cities about their presence there.
In addition to griping about the Trump administration keeping him “guessing” regarding the raids, he added that he planned to “hold ICE officials accountable” for enforcing the law, apparently.
Now, it’s worth noting that Biss — who previously made nationwide headlines for helping make Evanston the first city in America to give reparations to black residents in the wake of the summer of Floyd — is running for Congress, and his appearance on CNN was as much a campaign stop as anything else.
Biss had also made headlines for warning the people in his city that deportations were imminent. This was hardly news at the point he did this, since Trump had posted a meme of himself dressed as Robert Duvall’s character in “Apocalypse Now” with him on Lake Michigan and helicopters in the background, all with the caption, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning…”
New media post from Donald J. Trump
(TS: 06 Sep 11:38 ET) pic.twitter.com/tgGycNHAOg
— Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) September 6, 2025
I don’t know how much more warning Biss wanted than “Chipocalypse Now,” but he seemed to be miffed that the president hadn’t called ahead to give him every address ICE plans to raid, so that he can be there for a photo op.
“Well, first of all, I am absolutely in the dark. The Trump administration wants to keep us guessing, wants to use our uncertainty to keep us afraid,” Biss told Burnett during the interview.
He added, “The reason that we communicated with our residents this morning is that I got information from a senior state official last night indicating that they had good intel, that they thought it was likely that ICE would be coming to Evanston today and in the coming days, and we just felt that we had a responsibility to let our residents know, so they could work to protect themselves.”
“We’ve been doing everything we can to protect our residents from before Donald Trump took office, passing strong sanctuary laws to make sure our police are not cooperating with federal civil immigration enforcement, protecting our data, switching off our license plate cameras when we learned that that data was being shared,” he added.
“But we also need to make sure our residents know as much as possible, so they can take the steps they need to protect themselves,” he added, saying people needed to make “appropriate calculations.”
“I know there are people keeping their children at home from school. There are businesses unsure about whether or not they should operate, and they’re making their own calculated decisions,” he said.
“But we have to do everything we can. And so we’re doing that both as a city and, frankly, as individuals. I got trained in rapid response. So now when ICE comes to town, I get a text. I’m able to go immediately to the location, share rights that individuals have with them, and inform them of their rights. Videotape, bear witness, hold ICE officials accountable.”
This plays pretty well in Evanston, home to Northwestern University. It doesn’t look as good when it meets the real world:
BREAKING: Evanston, IL, Mayor Daniel Bliss just declared that he is “directing” his constituents on how to hold ICE officials “accountable” as they’re set to surge into the city.
This sounds like an insurrection, and he’s the clear leader.
He should be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/RATnOSQA6v
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) September 8, 2025
And, as the Department of Homeland Security took pains to point out, sheltering illegal immigrants has real world consequences. Consider Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old woman killed by an illegal immigrant drunk driver. The Department of Homeland Security noted their Chicago-area crackdown was being carried out in her memory — which doesn’t make Biss running interference for illegal immigrant criminals look fantastic:
DHS is launching Operation Midway Blitz in honor of Katie Abraham who was killed in a drunk driving hit-and-run car wreck caused by criminal illegal alien Julio Cucul-Bol in Illinois.
This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois… pic.twitter.com/OjbgtTE1Au
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 8, 2025
Biss, rather unbelievably, doubled down on this, saying that keeping illegal immigrants in the country was “standing up for my residents” and putting the cherry on top of this sundae of awfulness by including a conspiracy-theory jab regarding the Jeffrey Epstein files:
I’m standing up for my residents and I’ll NEVER back down. https://t.co/R0vvtruQnM
— Daniel Biss (@DanielBiss) September 9, 2025
Hey speaking of obstructing things how’s it going with releasing the Epstein files https://t.co/GJTTtUDUSp
— Daniel Biss (@DanielBiss) September 9, 2025
This sounds great for Biss, I’m sure — for now, and in Evanston. Once he gets out in the real world, if he gets to Congress, this is going to age like spoiled milk.
There is a reason that the Democrats are mostly running away from being the party of illegal immigration: Americans don’t approve of it. It was the Achilles heel of Joe Biden’s administration, and it promises to be the bane of whatever opposition the Democratic Party hopes to muster against President Donald Trump’s second administration. Great work all around, Daniel Bisses of America.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.