A woman peruses decorations inside a store (top left), while a man looks at tables outside (bottom right). Little Village, 10/31/25.

By Dominic Guanzon

Friday, 10/31/25

LITTLE VILLAGE – Yellow-vested, whistle-wearing volunteers patrolled Little Village on Halloween, as hundreds of families walked 26th Street. under the shadow of ICE and other federal agents stalking the streets.

Just last week, federal agents attacked the same street with back-to-back days of tear gas and abductions, including the arrest of a teenager. That very day, a fed repeatedly punched a man in the back of the head while he was already subdued on the ground.

A person receives candy from a store worker. Little Village, 10/31/25.

A boutique worker dressed as Elastigirl from The Incredibles hands out candy. Little Village, 10/31/25.

With the inherent risk that comes with people being outside for street festivities, local organizers Maja Sandstrom and Balthazar Enriquez organized the safety patrols.

“Those thugs come into our community and grab the most vulnerable,” said Sandstrom, standing by her cart full of high-visibility vests and other equipment. “Then they terrorize the folks who come to try and support them and try to make sure that they are not being detained unlawfully. They were exercising First Amendment rights when tear gas was deployed on them. There were no warnings.”

A pair of volunteer rapid responders in yellow high-visibility vests patrol 26th Street. Little Village, 10/31/25.

“We in Little Village have been targeted over and over again by ICE terrorizing our people and making our children scared,” Sandstrom continues. “Balthazar and I wanted to create an environment where children could feel safe when they were trick-or-treating, so we created an event on Luma.com.”

Enriquez is President of the Little Village Community Council, and by the evening, was busy with council duties. Sandstrom has lived in Chicago for 10 years around various neighborhoods, but recently moved to Little Village in June. Despite her newness, she was able to help organize No Kings demonstrations just a couple weeks ago. She was able to muster a similarly big turnout for the Halloween action.

“We had about 250 people sign up. I think maybe close to 175 showed up. Frankly, I didn’t think that it was going to even get to that many sign-ups,” she laughs. “We didn’t have enough [high-visibility] vests, but a lot of folks came in costume, which we did encourage them to do. No masks for the adults, but yeah, it was a really amazing turnout.”

A person points to store decorations to a pair of children. Little Village, 10/31/25.

The event called to meet at the Arco de La Villita, the large iconic arch that sits on 26th Street, next to a La MichoaKana [sic] Golden Paleteria Y Nieveria  and various street vendors. From there, hundreds of volunteers gathered to be loaned a yellow high-visibility vest, and general rapid response instruction. Throughout the afternoon and early evening, teams of two to three volunteers were seen walking around the blocks throughout the neighborhood.

“I really shouldn’t be surprised,” Sandstrom continued. “I kept hearing over and over again, ‘I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know how to plug in.’ We had folks come from Lakeview, from the suburbs, some people drove an hour just to come and help these kids have a good time.”

A waitress for Taqueria Los Comales watches the locked front door to let customers in, and ICE out. Little Village, 10/31/25.

The locked front door at Taqueria Los Comales, adorned with signs aimed at slowing down federal agents. One reads “ICE/CBP AGENTES – NO TIENE.” Little Village, 10/31/25.

The restaurant window with a Día de los Muertos decoration and a poster for the ICIRR hotline. Little Village, 10/31/25.

In spite of the strong showing, fear was still palpable on storefronts and many locals.

At Taqueria Los Comales, just a block away from the arch, waiters took shifts watching the locked front door, letting patrons in, but at the ready to keep ICE out. The front windows are adorned with Día de los Muertos, but with posters for rapid response hotlines and warnings for federal agents to stay out unless they have a judicial warrant.

It seemed like every business had the “Protecting Chicago” sign handed out by the city, intermingled with traditional Halloween decorations, creating a dissonant atmosphere of amusing scares and true terror.

A woman giving out non-perishable food and other items from a mutual aid table. Little Village, 10/31/25.

The spirits of Halloween and Día de los Muertos continued to shine through, however.

On Kedzie, a local woman manned a mutual aid table on the sidewalk, handing out non-perishable food items, such as cups of dried noodles

“With the SNAP benefits getting cut tomorrow, we thought, ‘help them get just one more meal.’ Slightly healthier than candy,” she laughed.

A pair of community members, who often work with at-risk youth, hand out candy from their table. “You should have been here earlier when the kids got out of school! We had so much more candy!” Little Village, 10/31/25.

A man dressed in a three-piece suit and snap-brim cap poses for a photo while standing watch outside a barber shop. Little Village, 10/31/25.

Another man, dressed in a three-piece suit and snap-brim cap akin to Peaky Blinders, stood watch outside a barbershop. When asked to show off his dapper attire, the barbers and customers erupted in cheers to match the sudden fashion show energy.

A child dressed as Bumblebee from Transformers touches an inflatable T-Rex stuffed into the back of a vehicle during a trunk-or-treat. Little Village, 10/31/25.

A vintage car decorated for trunk-or-treat. Little Village, 10/31/25.

Locals set up a trunk-or-treat in the parking lot of a Huntington Bank near the corner of 26th and Homan Avenue. Decorations were especially fanciful from a variety of modern and vintage cars. At about 6:30PM, Governor Pritzker arrived at the trunk-or-treat to hand out candy to locals, though he was not in his Fred Flintstone costume.

The photo-op lasted about 40 minutes. The day before, Pritzker called upon the White House to put a pause on immigration sweeps for Halloween, but was denied. The photo-op happened amidst another day of protest at the Broadview ICE Staging Area/de facto detention center, which Illinois State Police troopers have consistently provided protection for over the past month.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker hands out candy from the back of a van for a photo-op. Little Village, 10/31/25.

As the afternoon turned to evening, children cleared the sidewalks, with seemingly no reported ICE sightings. Safety volunteers returned to the Arco to return their yellow vests.

“I’m a very recent transplant to La Villita,” continued Sandstrom, “but right now our immigrant and undocumented communities are being targeted every single day. I want to be sure I’m using my voice and my platform to give them an opportunity to feel normal for once, and I think that we achieved that tonight. I think.”

“The greater Chicago community has our backs, and we’re right near the Heart of Chicago. So, the heart is beating here.”

A family walks past the La MichoaKana [sic] Golden Paleteria Y Nieveria, with children about to run inside. The Arco de La Villita stands in the background. Little Village, 10/31/25.

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