CHICAGO – On Thursday evening, at the official welcome reception for New Zealand’s rugby union test match against Ireland, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson took to the stage.
“Holding this game at Soldier Field is a testament to Chicago’s vibrant spirit,” Johnson, a Democrat, began. “It is also about our ability to bring people from all around the world together. That is so critical at this time, because as a global city, we have a deep sense of local pride. We understand the combination of the ideal world, where we can bring all people together to understand the importance of not just the game, but also of our collective strength to uphold our humanity.”
For Chicago, it has been a fraught period in which the city, and the broader state of Illinois, has found itself at odds with President Donald Trump’s administration. The federal government says there is a crime crisis in Chicago. In September, the administration launched Operation Midway Blitz, led by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, with the stated objective to target “criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois.”
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, also a Democrat, of “making Chicago a magnet for criminals” — a claim he denies — and said the operation would target “the worst of the worst.”
In September, Trump described Chicago as a “hellhole” and attempts, thus far blocked in the courts, have been made to send in the National Guard to protect federal personnel and property in the city. The president has also called for the jailing of the Illinois governor and the Chicago mayor, who have publicly opposed the federal incursions, for what he deems as their failure to protect ICE officials operating in their region.
Last month, while threatening to relocate games for next year’s men’s World Cup from cities he does not consider safe, Trump turned the conversation to Chicago, which is not a World Cup host city.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaking last month. (Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP via Getty Images)
The events have made national and international headlines. Yet Saturday’s game between the All Blacks, the world’s most famous international rugby team, and Ireland, whose supporters dominated the stands, offered Chicago a platform to remind the world of its merits. The welcome reception on Thursday represented a positive exercise in sports diplomacy. Ireland had two government ministers present, while New Zealand had its minister for sport and representation in Washington, D.C.
The game was a sellout, as 61,841 fans watched New Zealand avenge their defeat against Ireland in the same stadium in 2016. Tickets were sold to people in 43 countries, with representation from 50 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces. Whatever doom may be chronicled from the White House, it did not deter travel or spectators from this game, which was broadcast in 130 countries.
Event promoter TEG said it did not consider changing the game’s location. Matt Kontos, TEG’s managing director of North America, told The Athletic, “There was never a question that this wasn’t the right place for this game. A variety of factors made it make sense and never was there a point we thought that it didn’t.”
Fans making their way to the New Zealand vs Ireland game on Saturday. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Kara Bachman is the executive director of the Chicago Sports Commission, the body that hosted the welcome reception and which regularly negotiates to bring high-profile events to Chicago. She said she did not receive any safety concerns from anyone involved before the game. She told The Athletic, “In the last two weeks, the inquiries coming in were, ‘Hey, what’s a good place to eat? Can you recommend this steakhouse? What museum should we go to?’ Only the fun questions.”
That, however, should not disguise the level of anxiety gripping Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. In coffee shops downtown, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights provides an emergency hotline for those who witness ICE activity, and hangs information sheets from coffee machines.
“Know Your Rights when interacting with immigration officers,” they read. Bullet points include encouraging residents to teach their children not to open the door at home, and the sheet also urges people not to post unverified information on social media or interfere with investigations. Last week, Governor Pritzker appealed to the Trump administration to suspend enforcement operations during Halloween at locations, such as homes, schools, hospitals and parks, where celebrations were taking place.
He wrote: “Illinois families deserve to spend Halloween weekend without fear. No child should be forced to inhale tear gas or other chemical agents while trick-or-treating in their own neighborhood. Illinois children should not be robbed of their innocence. Please let children be children for one holiday, free from intimidation and fear.”
The governor’s office cited reports from Chicago’s Northwest Side, where federal agents had allegedly deployed tear gas during a children’s parade. Kristi Noem, DHS secretary, said the request was “shameful” and that she would not pause work she believes is keeping communities safe.
On Friday, social media footage went viral from Evanston, a city in Illinois, where an officer appeared to aim a weapon at a crowd of residents opposing immigration enforcement. The New York Times reported a statement from DHS that claimed agents were being “aggressively tailgated” by a car and that a crowd verbally abused and spat at agents.
Evanston is the home of Northwestern University, where its former and future college football stadium Ryan Field is located, with the facility currently under construction. NWSL’s Chicago Stars will also play at the 12,000-capacity Martin Stadium from 2026.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who is seeking to run as a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives, said he is the mayor of a “beautiful community.” He said Evanston has not experienced a homicide for over two and a half years. He described allegations of a safety crisis as “fabricated paranoia,” which he deems not only “a joke, but also an insult.”
In a phone interview, he told The Athletic, “It is not easy to explain to people who don’t live here how much our lives have changed in these last two months of assaults from the federal government. It is the way our brain chemistry has changed with our daily lives and how interacting with the world has changed. We now have over 1,000 Evanston residents who are part of a rapid response team. We don’t leave our homes without a whistle anymore in Evanston. When you see ICE agents, you blow your whistle to make sure that the community is informed as quickly as possible, so people can take steps to protect themselves.”
He said the city has worked with local civil society groups to distribute fact sheets in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Arabic and other languages spoken locally. He even went so far as to say he believes his community is living “under occupation.” He alleges federal agents in Evanston are “brutalizing, assaulting and kidnapping people.”
He continued: “I want to be clear that they have occasionally come to Evanston with a judicial warrant for a particular person for a particular reason and taken that person. When that happens, you can have a policy argument about whether or not that was the right way to solve that problem. But they have spent more time in Evanston driving around looking for people working on gardens whose skin is brown and then grabbing them. That is not about finding the worst in the worst of the worst. That is not about addressing crime.”
He added: “It’s really important to explain to people not in the Chicago area what’s happening now, so people can be ready to react through non-violent democratic mechanisms to end this.”
The Athletic approached both DHS and ICE for comment.
On Saturday in tourist hotspots, Chicago appeared like any other city on game day. Pubs were filled with visiting Irish fans ordering Guinness from early morning. Sports bars were packed out to catch the finale of the World Series in the evening. The match itself passed without incident, just as the Chicago Marathon did in September.
Most fans at the game in Chicago were supporting Ireland. (Ramsey Cardy / Sportsfile via Getty Images)
None of which is to say Chicago does not have its issues. A White House information sheet, for example, highlighted that for seven years in a row, Chicago’s murder rate has been the highest among U.S. cities of over one million people, substantially higher than either New York City or Los Angeles. Trump has called the country’s third-largest city a “killing field” and a “disaster.” FBI Director Kash Patel, appointed by Trump, claimed Chicago has 110,000 gang members, but this would equate to around 4 percent of Chicago’s 2.7 million population.
There had been signs of improvement before Trump’s interventions. Gun homicides were down from 24.5 per 100,000 people in 2020 to 14.9 in 2024, according to research by Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.
Chicago Police Department data for 2024 demonstrated a year-on-year reduction of 8 percent in murder complaints, as well as a 17 percent fall in robbery complaints and a 25 percent fall in motor vehicle theft, although there was a 5 percent rise in complaints of aggravated battery and a 3 percent rise in burglary.
According to Biss, the threat is from outside Chicago. “The biggest danger to the Chicago area is the attacks from ICE agents who are assaulting and abducting our residents. There’s a secondary danger if they use their loud voices and big platforms to lie about who we are and what life is like here.”
Saturday’s game was a sellout. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
In early October, it briefly appeared that the unrest in Chicago had cost the city a high-profile soccer game. An exhibition game between Argentina and Puerto Rico, scheduled for October 13 at Soldier Field, was moved to Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Reports in Argentina and Miami suggested it was due to political events in Chicago.
Chicago Sports Commission executive Bachman, however, said this was “perhaps a narrative somebody tried to use out of convenience” and that local people in Chicago were skeptical that Lionel Messi would play. In the end, the former Barcelona forward was on the pitch for the entirety of the 6-0 win at his club team’s home venue in Florida.
Bachman said: “That game was put online very late. Ticket sales (for Chicago) were incredibly low”.
Reports suggested the move was due to social issues in Chicago but she insists that, for now at least, the sports commission’s business has not been impacted by the claims and counter-claims about Chicago.
“I don’t want to minimize the events but when I’m talking to rugby, soccer or basketball, or any entity, it has not come up in conversation related to bringing sports business to the city.”
Pat Gallagher, the chair of Chicago-based global insurance company Gallagher, sponsors the All Blacks rugby team. It was also the title sponsor of the match between New Zealand and Ireland. He said, “This is the greatest city in America. Those of us who grew up here, we feel pretty strongly about that. There’s something special about this town. And I do agree our press has been terrible lately. I’m not going to get into politics, but for people to see us on TV with a world-class sporting event, with people having an incredible time, it shows the city off very well.”
He concluded: “If you go to a Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field, win or lose, people go: ‘That was one hell of an experience.’ It is nicknamed the ‘Friendly Confines.’ People are excited. You can wear the other team’s jersey and nobody pours a beer on you. Your kids feel good, there are restaurants there, things to do. It is special. Those types of things are what we’d like the city to be more well known for, more than whether or not ICE is arresting (people) on the North Side.”
