Chicago students launch ‘ICE Tracker’ maps alerting illegal aliens of DHS raids
Student-run newspapers at Loyola University Chicago and the University of Chicago launched interactive maps to track Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sightings and arrests.
Student-run newspapers at multiple Chicago universities have launched real-time surveillance maps tracking and publishing the movements of federal immigration enforcement officers, urging students to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sightings and arrests near campus.
The tracking initiative follows the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to locate and detain illegal aliens in Illinois, known as Operation Midway Blitz.
At Loyola University Chicago, the student newspaper hosts a live “ICE Tracker Map” updated with crowd-submitted agent sightings in neighborhoods around campus with timestamped verification.
Students and members of the community are told to report ICE activity and submit the time, location, and photos so the newsroom can verify and update the map.
The surveillance tool, launched Oct. 15 on The Loyola Phoenix website, already displays more than a dozen tagged locations of alleged ICE sightings.
The publication is “funded in part” by the university.
Similarly, students at the University of Chicago (UChicago) launched an interactive map that pinpoints ICE locations and detainments.
The map is published in the student-run newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, and includes photographs and GPS coordinates of enforcement scenes.
The publication is encouraging students and members of the community to submit tips with timestamped photos or videos of immigration enforcement activity.
Along with the tracker maps, both student newspapers promote a hotline run by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to report ICE activity. The activist network runs the “Eyes on ICE” alert system, which blasts out alerts via text message when ICE is operating nearby. Illegal aliens can subscribe to the messages.
The student-run ICE tracker maps, while presented as community safety tools, effectively serve as a warning system alerting illegal aliens to federal law enforcement presence, raising questions about the role of taxpayer-funded institutions in undermining federal law.
The maps remain publicly available and continue to be updated. Neither institution has publicly commented on the potential legal or political implications of the publications.
Campus Reform has contacted the universities mentioned for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
