‘Having faith in this moment’: A year after Midway Blitz, suburban activist is undaunted

It’s 11 a.m. Wednesday and instead of a sit-down interview as arranged, Cristobal Cavazos is driving to Carol Stream to check out a report of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.

“Operation Midway Blitz never really ended. It just de-escalated a bit,” said Cavazos, executive director of Wheaton-based Immigrant Solidarity DuPage.

Navigating traffic, he ticks off recent arrests. “Today’s been a fairly calm morning. Yesterday, Little Village got hit … happily in DuPage, there was absolutely nothing. Chicago has been getting hit and (random) places like Round Lake Beach.

“It’s almost like Russian roulette. You can get hit anywhere, at any time.”

Tuesday marks the first anniversary of Midway Blitz, the surge of U.S. Department of Homeland Security raids by armed, masked forces in Chicago and the suburbs.

More than 3,900 people were arrested and detained in 2025 and one man, Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, was fatally shot Sept. 12 during an encounter with federal agents in Franklin Park, a state commission found.

But although DHS officials had pledged to target the “worst of the worst,” most of the individuals apprehended had no criminal record, records show.

Cavazos was in the thick of it: mobilizing protesters; assisting impacted families; traveling to hot spots; documenting events; and coordinating the People’s Patrol, volunteers who monitor neighborhoods and report DHS sightings.

“What a tragic thing,” he mused. “They’re using racism, they’re using xenophobia. I think one of the only good things coming out now is that people aren’t even buying it.”

A DHS spokesperson said “nationwide, our law enforcement is targeting public safety threats — including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists.”

“Our message is clear: if you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforces the law as written.”

‘We were in hell’

Midway Blitz began Sept. 8, 2025. One week into it, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem joined agents for a raid in Elgin that resulted in at least six arrests, including two U.S. citizens, according to the Illinois Accountability Commission’s final report.

Chicago was a focus but suburban Latino hubs such as Addison, Aurora, Bensenville, Elgin and West Chicago also were caught in the crosshairs.

On Sept. 22, roofers working in Naperville were targeted, and on Oct. 10, an 18-year-old Hoffman Estates girl was tackled and detained by federal authorities, among hundreds of other incidents last fall, according to the IAC.

“During Operation Midway Blitz, I just felt like we were in hell,” Cavazos said. “My beard had been pretty black, now I think it’s almost turned pretty white.”

“I was waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning; we were seeing raids until 6 at night. Every day weighed on me like a pack of bricks on my shoulder.”

Gonzalez’ death “sent shock waves across the community. We had never seen anyone shot by ICE and killed — and the pain that stoked,” Cavazos said.

Amid the strife, People’s Patrol membership grew to 300. About half the volunteers are Hispanic along with white, Asian, Black and transgender suburbanites.

Ages range from retirees, including Cavazos’ former high school teacher, to a Latino factory worker who hits the road at 5 a.m. before his shift starts, to teenagers.

“I took heart, however, in all of the patrollers,” said Cavazos, who also runs the Casa DuPage Workers Center out of Wheaton.

He draws parallels with the city’s abolitionist history and participation in the Underground Railroad.

“This was when slavery was legal. But as the Christian community said — it was legal but not moral. And they hid people inside of Wheaton College and they hid people in a lot of these houses around here,” Cavazos noted.

“The best of the Christian tradition is the best of the United States tradition — standing up against bullies, standing up against oppressors.”

‘Community is your identity’

Cavazos’ mother was born in south Texas and his father in northern Mexico.

He grew up in Glendale Heights, attended Glenbard West High School, and was “the baby of the family” to his older sisters.

“I love being around people,” he said. “For me — community is your identity. It’s your hopes, it’s when you’re happy. I’m really proud of the community we’ve created in and around Casa DuPage.”

Rarely without his trademark black beret and brew of yerba mate — “the coffee of South America,” Cavazos, age 47, likes to start his mornings with Mexican gospel. “It lifts me up.”

In January, he traveled to frozen Minneapolis to demonstrate against a massive immigration crackdown where two protesters were killed.

“First of all, the weather was terrible and then the political climate was terrible. ICE was all over the city,” said Cavazos.

He was inspired by the passion and tenacity of Minnesotans and their “heroic fight.”

Back in DuPage, Cavazos typically works a half day Tuesdays and takes Sundays off to spend time with family but events often disrupt.

One recent weekend, two People’s Patrol members were detained while rallying in Addison and taken to the DHS’ Broadview facility. Cavazos followed and organized protests. Eventually, the two were released.

“That was my Sunday,” he said.

Surgical strikes

“With Operation Midway Blitz, we were seeing 18 people taken a day, now we’re seeing three to five,” Cavazos said.

Instead of large-scale raids, DHS has shifted to more surgical tactics, catching organizers by surprise, he explained.

“We were feeling pretty good about Aurora; there’s an immigrant friendly mayor there, a lot of patrollers there — they got hit last Monday and we were all in shock.”

Similarly, ICE agents materialized in Glendale Heights at 6 a.m. Aug. 28 and detained a Venezuelan man with no police record but who had been denied asylum, Cavazos recounted.

“These are not criminals,” he stressed.

DHS officials told the Daily Herald that “most illegal aliens ICE arrested across the country have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the U.S. This doesn’t even account for those wanted for violent crimes in their home country or another country.”

Keeping faith

Cavazos’ quest Wednesday was to track down a white Ford Explorer reported as a possible ICE vehicle. While an atmospheric soundtrack with My Morning Jacket songs played, he perused license plates at fire station and the police department parking lots, using a database to help with identification.

A sticker on one white SUV read: “Tell your dog my dog says hi.”

“I don’t think that’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Cavazos said, chuckling.

False alarms are common but, “why I want to come out is — it gives people peace of mind.”

One West Chicago woman once told him, “’I don’t even go outside until I see the report that everything’s cleared.’”

“Everything is calm for now but we are mobilized,” he messaged a social media audience of thousands.

The job comes with risks.

“I have such bad memories of this (Carol Stream) police station, just because I ran into ICE right here, they had four vehicles, they were trying to break my windshield,” Cavazos said.

“It’s terrifying, you’re unarmed, the only thing you have is your cellphone.”

There’s also an emotional toll. Cavazos currently is working a case involving a Guatemalan father living in West Chicago who was recently apprehended. “His wife has cancer and they have three kids and now we’re trying to figure out what to do, how we are going to support this family; he has no violent criminal record whatsoever.”

Volunteers and donations are needed more than ever with the midterm elections approaching, Cavazos said.

“Everyone can do something.” It’s about “having faith in this moment. Having faith that we’re going to get through this.”

mpyke@dailyherald.com