The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Lina Alvrarez, a retired U.S. Army sergeant of 22 years, said she drove her brother to work at Naval Station Great Lakes Thursday morning because he was afraid of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who had been sent there on the Trump Administration’s orders.

Knowing her license plates identified her as a veteran, Alvarez, a North Chicago native and Waukegan resident, believed it would make him feel safer. There were approximately 150 ICE agents gathered around the office they are using at the base that day, she said.

But she knew she had to do more than just drive her brother to work.

“I decided I was going to make a sign and stand outside the base,” Alvarez said. “I posted on social media as much as I could. I made flyers and went to the Belvidere Mall (on Friday) night. Most of the people were afraid. I had to go there for them. I told them to drive by and honk.”

Alverez was one of more than 600 people holding signs, chanting and eventually marching half a mile between two gates Saturday outside the naval station in North Chicago to protest the presence of ICE at the base and in the Chicago area.

“I’m so overwhelmed,” Alvarez said referring to the size of the crowd which grew as she stood there. “I can’t believe all these people are here.”

Hundreds of people stood with signs at the corner of Illinois Route 137 and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive expressing their opposition to the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement plans. Both the Indivisible Northeast Lake County and Party for Socialism and Liberation learned about the event and got people there.

After more than an hour of demonstrating along Highway 137, the group heard impromptu speeches from a variety of people. After listening, Alvarez said, they crossed the highway, walked to Sheridan Road outside the main gate of the base.

Steven DelVecchio of Gurnee, a U.S. Navy veteran who served from 1989 to 1993, said he was incensed about ICE being at the naval base.

“I don’t like them being on the base,” DelVecchio said “I don’t like what ICE is doing but I especially don’t like them being on the base.”

Kristin Strom, a Chicago-area resident, stood outside the Naval station to show her appreciation for ICE and its role in President Donald Trump’s increased immigration enforcement effort. Wearing a MAGA hat, she held a sign reading, “Thank You ICE.”

“I support what they are doing,” Strom said. “I am here to support ICE and President Donald Trump. I like what he is doing and his approach.”

Alverez, who said she drove convoys of troops three times in Iraq and once in Afghanistan seeing colleagues killed in action, is now a substitute teacher in North Chicago School District 187. She brought her daughter, nieces and nephews to the demonstration.

“I don’t want them to have any fear,” she said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/08/great-lakes-naval-ice-protest/