Protect Rogers Park is a community defense network based in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.
Founded in 2017 in response to anti-immigrant rhetoric during Donald Trump's first presidential term, the organization mobilizes residents to resist federal immigration enforcement (ICE) with community patrols and rapid response, and mutual aid.
The group's guiding principle is to make immigration enforcement operations as inefficient and uncomfortable as possible, with the goal of deterring activity in the neighborhood. They aim to do two things in the face of enforcement activity in the neighborhood: inform those vulnerable to deportation of the law enforcement action, and to amass volunteers to disrupt those efforts.
Protect RP has become a model for communities across the United States seeking to develop similar community-based immigration defense networks. The organization operates on the principle that making enforcement operations uncomfortable and inefficient will deter agents from targeting the neighborhood. As co-founder Gabe Gonzalez often repeats: "Time and money. Time and money." The goal is to increase the cost and difficulty of conducting raids to the point where federal agents conclude that working in Rogers Park is simply not worth it. [1]
As Gonzalez details: The “rapid response” to a suspected raid unfolds immediately. Trained verifiers are the first on the scene to document the action and confirm that the raid is real. Two volunteers developed a cellphone app that then serves as a “panic button.” When it is triggered, it sends texts to alert people that a raid has begun. Undocumented residents know to stay clear, and activists know to gather at the scene. Protect RP doesn’t want volunteers to get arrested, says Gonzalez, “but we are using every tactic we have at our disposal to slow ICE down.” The group has studied ICE and determined that they have a tight schedule. The goal is to ruin that timetable. [2]
“It’s about interfering with them, confusing them, slowing them down so they can’t take more people,” Gonzalez said, “and doing it so well that they never want to come back.” [3]
For further reading on rapid response tactics, Protect Rogers Park details some of their work here:
- Kelly Hayes, "How We’ve Resisted ICE: Street Lessons From Chicago," Organizing My Thoughts, December 11, 20225
- Odette Yousef, “Rogers Park Effort Aims To ‘Ruin’ ICE’s Plans,” WBEZ, May 4, 2017
- Odette Yousef, “New Orleans preps for immigration raids with resistance tips from this Chicago group,” December 3, 2025
Similar Projects: Powderhorn Safety Collective, Detroit Safety Team, Little Earth Protectors
Sources:
[1] Juana Summers, “How Chicago's ICE resistance was born,” Consider This, NPR, November 19, 2025
[2] Gail Ablow, “Making Change: Gabe Gonzalez,” Moyers, August 10, 2027
[3] Joe Ward, “Rogers Park Group Steps Up Effort To Disrupt ICE Enforcement,” Block Club Chicago, March 9, 2020
[4] Aimee Levitt, “How Grassroots Grocery Delivery Sprouted in Rogers Park,” Chicago Magazine, April 22, 2020
Updated 1/28/2026