Photo collage by Max Herman. Photos by Camilla Forte/Borderless Magazine/Catchlight Local/Report for America Voters shared concerns about immigration policy, heightened immigration detention and aggressive enforcement tactics in the Illinois primary election on March 17.
Chicago voters cast their ballots Tuesday for the state’s highly contested primary races, including seats for the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and Illinois General Assembly.
For some voters, immigration has been a central issue as they look for candidates who will rein in President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration agenda.
During Operation Midway Blitz in Illinois last fall, federal agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas Gonzalez and shot Marimar Martinez five times. In Minnesota, federal agents also shot and killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good, leading to increased scrutiny and pushback from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
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Candidates in Illinois’s congressional races have taken different approaches to their immigration messaging, with some calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) entirely, and others calling for reform of the agency.
Whoever wins each party’s primary will move on to the midterm election on Nov. 3, 2026.
At the downtown supersite and a polling place in Pilsen, Borderless spoke with voters on how immigration shaped their vote in this year’s primaries. Here’s what they had to say.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Gloria Escobedo, 25, Pilsen
I’m Mexican American, and my mother is only a resident. She’s not a citizen. Other members of my family who live in the United States are also not citizens, but they are residents. So immigration policy definitely impacts me personally and hits close to home.
It’s my people, it’s my community, and even if they weren’t my people or my community, we are all human. It’s important to treat each other with kindness and respect and really take a human approach to everything.
It’s a beautiful thing that people come to this country. I think the United States should be honored that so many people come here looking for opportunity. Multiculturalism is not a bad thing. It’s something that should be celebrated.
Da’Jeal Partee, 28, Bridgeport
I’m very pro-immigration. Growing up on the West Side of Chicago in a lower-income neighborhood, I could really build community with the descendants of immigrants or first-gen immigrant kids.
I didn’t have much of a choice but to vote against the regime that’s trying to stop that type of solidarity.
We always have this conversation about people coming into the country “the right way,” but those who are trying to enter this country “the right way” get caught in various bureaucratic or financial hurdles. I would like to see a candidate who helps to relieve, ease, or better explain some of those blockades to citizenship.
Adam Steele, 62, South Loop
The current situation with ICE is illegal, untenable and un-American. I hope that we can elect people who will ultimately change the way that immigrants are treated, particularly by the legal system. We’re in Chicago, the city of immigrants.
Katie Locandro, 28, West Loop
What’s happening on the streets of Chicago and across the United States is absolutely appalling. You see what happened to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and you can’t stand for this. People have been here for 20 years, and they’re being ripped out of their homes, ripped away from their children. We need to have a better path to citizenship.
People are people, regardless of where they’re from, how they got here. The United States is for everyone.
Kendra Sandy, 27, Pilsen
My family immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago. I can only imagine how these families feel about their parents, their families, coming here for a better opportunity and being ripped apart in a country that they sometimes barely even know. America is a place for all. People shouldn’t be kicked out when they fought so hard to get here.
Whitney Macon, 32, Pilsen
If there’s one group that’s being mistreated, then that just leaves room for other people, like Black and queer people, to also be mistreated. I don’t think there ever needs to be a world we live in where anyone is at the bottom or treated that way.
Immigration is more complex than people realize.
Robert Gaytán, 59, Pilsen
We’re one of the greatest countries in the world, and I strongly believe in that. We’re a land of laws, and we benefit from laws, and that’s what makes us a strong and great country. People who want to migrate here and become citizens have rights and freedoms to enjoy and everybody should welcome that.
The administration’s direction of building facilities to round people up. That’s been chaotic and caused a lot of headaches for families and children. That’s unfair. They’re doing it abruptly, and I guess they should try another method. That’s kind of inhumane, and that’s not the country that we represent.
Khaazraa Taylor, 32, Pilsen
I’m leaning totally on the side of immigrants, period. I definitely grew up around a lot of immigrants from the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. It definitely encouraged me to be on the right side. I do have some friends and neighbors who are undocumented, and I want them to feel comfortable just walking around the street, because this is all of our land.
