Seventeen people were arrested at the Chicago ICE protest that drew thousands of people into the Loop Tuesday at the height of rush hour. Four of them face felony charges.

Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke Wednesday afternoon about the city's response to the protest and their plan for the weekend, as downtown is expecting tens of thousands of people to attend the "No Kings" protest in Daley Plaza Saturday. 

"The first and foremost goal, and my responsibility, is to keep everyone safe and to protect the rights of the people of this city," Mayor Johnson said. 

Chicago is an anchor city for the national day of protest. Chicago is also bracing for ICE tactical teams in mini-tanks to land in our city this week.   

The mayor reiterated that he and Chicago Police Department and committed to constitutional policing, which he said was seen Tuesday and last summer during the Democratic National Convention.

Tuesday's immigration protest began with a rally in Federal Plaza around 5 p.m. Tuesday. The hundreds in attendance quickly swelled to thousands as they left the plaza and took to the streets, marching around the Loop and blocking traffic.

Police clashed with protesters at certain points, but the demonstration remained largely peaceful. A car also sped through the crowd early on, striking and injuring a woman and narrowly missing other demonstrators. The woman is expected to recover. Police are still looking for the driver.

Mayor Johnson said his team is already meeting to figure out a way to stop an incident like that from happening again in a situation where there is no established protest route.

"The coordination between the organizers and police department is one we're going to continue to work to strengthen," Mayor Johnson said. 

Some police squad cars were defaced with graffiti during the protest as well.

Wednesday, Chicago police said a total of 17 arrests were made at the protest, largely for minor charges. One person was cited for possession of a paint or a marker with intent to deface. Ten others are facing various misdemeanors including misdemeanor battery, reckless conduct and resisting and officer. Charges are still pending against two people, police said.

Four people are facing felony charges. Nathan Sol, 20, is charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a peace officer; Yony Salgado, 33, is charged with one count of aggravated battery to a peace officer; Jonathan Ellison, 37, is charged with one count of aggravated battery to a peace officer; and Asnat Berestizhevsky, 27, is charged with one felony count of criminal damage to government property of more than $500, as well as a misdemeanor and a citation.

City will provide "calm and structure" for "No Kings" protest in Daley Plaza Saturday

Mayor Johnson was firm that the city would use the training that honed their DNC response to maintain "calm and structure" Saturday, when tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the "No Kings" protest at Daley Plaza. There are dozens more protests planned in the suburbs as well, and hundreds across the country.

The day of resistance comes against the backdrop of Trump's decision to send the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles after ICE arrests spawned days of ongoing protests. Mayor  Johnson said the city is following those protests, and California's response, closely.

"We do know that this president is determined to insert chaos," Mayor Johnson said. "Our responsibility locally is to provide calm and structure."

"He has been president for less than 200 days and he has been a miserable disappointment and failure," the mayor added.

Mayor Johnson called the planned military parade in the nation's capital Saturday for Trump's birthday a "grotesque demonstration… that reflects authoritarianism and dictatorship."

"We're going to make sure that here, locally, we're going to demonstrate what's sensible about our Democracy," Mayor Johnson said.

Former CPD superintendent says department may be stretched thin this weekend

Former Chicago police Supt. Eddie Johnson said dealing with protests that grow heated is a challenge for police.

"If the police don't go out there with overwhelming numbers in the beginning, it's hard to get it back under control," he said.

But former Supt. Johnson said he is confident the force is ready for what is scheduled this weekend.

"It's going to be a hot weekend in Chicago," said Johnson.

The weekend will be hot in terms of big events. Beside the planned No Kings rally to counter President Trump's ICE action, thousands will also pack Rate Field to honor Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV.

The Puerto Rican Festival is also happening in Humboldt Park.

Former Supt. Johnson said so many events at once could leave the department stretched.

"So they're going to have as many officers out there as they can, and also they're going to have undercovers planted in that group of protesters," former Supt. Johnson said. "The protest is a different animal, because you don't know how many people are going to be there. So what you have to do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best."

Meanwhile, the situation in which the car plowed through the protest has drawn safety concerns of its own.

"There's public safety concern here," said Illinois state Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-St. Charles), "and this is something that should not be tolerated."

Ugaste is proposing legislation under which demonstrators could be arrested and charged with a felony for blocking streets longer than five minutes during unplanned protests.

"I'm not trying to stop anyone from expressing their First Amendment rights and meeting peacefully and assembling, but we can't have people blocking our streets and causing public safety problems," said Ugaste, "and we also can't tolerate violence in the streets."

Mayor Johnson decries South Loop ICE raids as "human traps"

The Tuesday protest was not organized by a single group but appeared to be the result of several groups coming together in response to a series of ICE raids in the South Loop at immigration supervision program sites last week.

Community activists and city leaders clashed with those federal agents as they took migrants, who were under the impression they had been called in for a standard check-in, into custody.

Mayor Johnson forcefully decried that operation Wednesday, choking up slightly as he angrily called them "human traps."

"You've gotta be really sick and demented to do this to people," the mayor said. "This president's reckless behavior... I didn't know you could look worse than George Wallace."

George Wallace was the governor of Alabama in the 1960s and actively worked to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act and prevent integration. 

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