Most days as of late, a heaviness envelops 26th Street in Chicago’s Little Village. Some restaurants are closing earlier than usual, street vendors are fewer and farther away, and more and more customers are using food delivery services instead of dining in.

On a recent Wednesday, only a handful of people were nervously standing at the bus stop on Hamlin Avenue across from Carnitas Uruapan. Inside the popular Mexican restaurant, tables sat empty during what would typically be a busy weekday lunch hour. Staff were screening customers at the door before letting them in.

It had been a chaotic morning marked by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the city’s Southwest Side. Federal immigration agents, accompanied by Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, had swarmed one of Chicag

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