At a forum Friday evening in Aurora, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, said she was “horrified” by the actions of federal law enforcement agents in the area.

The forum was the same day Aurora Mayor John Laesch said the city had been informed of a “number of ICE sightings” in town Thursday.

Laesch said he marched with residents from downtown Aurora “to the site of one of the ICE snatchings to show my support for those whose lives have tragically been affected by these raids.”

Federal officials launched an immigration operation in Chicago last month, and officials said the operation was in honor of Katie Abraham, one of two women killed in a hit-and-run crash in January in Urbana. A grand jury indicted a 29-year-old man, a Guatemalan national who also faces federal false identification charges, the Associated Press reported.

Many at the forum appeared to align with Underwood and Laesch. Most of the speakers discussed how current immigration events have affected them, and every speaker was met with applause.

Underwood also had a closed session where people could talk away from the news media.

Luz Aranda, who said she is a community organizer with Spanish Community Center in Joliet and a proud Mexican, woman, mother, wife, daughter, sister and tia (aunt), said she has been directly affected by the “undeserved pain and violence that continues to devastate our communities.”

She said she has been proud of who she is and where she comes from her whole life.

“Most of us are here, not to harm, not to take, but to contribute, to thrive, to dream,” Aranda said, adding those are the people being attacked, not criminals.

She said she spoke to a woman Thursday whose daughter had been taken on the way to work. The woman was trying to provide for her family, including a 2-year-old daughter.

“Now that grandmother is left to explain the unexplainable, why her granddaughter’s mother isn’t home,” Aranda said.

The woman didn’t have a criminal record, and countless people are scared to go to the store, church or drop their kids off at school or exist “in the open,” Aranda said.

“This is not the America my father brought me to. And yet here we are, still standing, more united than ever.

“We are not the enemy. We are the very fabric of what makes this country stronger, more vibrant and more just. We are the American Dream in motion,’ Aranda said.

Aranda asked those at the forum “not to give up on us. Don’t look away, don’t grow weary, because we are worth fighting for.”

Karina Garcia, who said she was the president of the Aurora Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said she was there on behalf of local businesses and community members “who are deeply hurting at all levels.

“What we are witnessing in our neighborhood is heartbreaking. Families living in fear, hardworking peoples being targeted” and a sense of uncertainty, Garcia said.

She said “we need leadership” and action to ensure people are not targeted based on the color of their skin or their background.

Garcia said her parents brought her to the U.S. when she was 9 to pursue the American Dream. “That dream has become a nightmare now.”

She said her mother is seeking a flight back to Mexico, and local businesspeople are afraid that federal officials will come in and take staff based on the color of their skin.

Attendee Edith Calderon said she is a co-lead on the Aurora Rapid Response team. The team began in 2018 and educates, advocates and investigates for immigrants and refugees in Aurora and surrounding areas, Calderon said.

Calderon said her team confirmed six ICE sightings in Aurora Thursday and detailed harassment that team members faced.

“Yesterday was very crazy for the whole community,” Calderon said Friday, thanking community members for coming out and helping the team.

Underwood said she is “horrified” by recent actions of federal agents in the community.

“Their conduct is making our community less safe,” Underwood said.

She said a constituent had been pepper sprayed Thursday in Aurora “without any apparent justification.”

“Our communities are being terrorized, brutalized and illegally occupied by a president who wants to be a king,” Underwood said.

Underwood represents Illinois’ 14th Congressional District and is the top Democrat on the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, which oversees the department’s funding.

“The Department of Homeland Security is tasked with protecting the American people, but that mission must always be carried out responsibly, with the utmost respect for civil rights and the rule of law,” Underwood said.

Laesch spoke briefly at the forum Friday, nodding to the “enormous level of anxiety” for the undocumented and for residents who have their papers.

“The temperature is certainly heating up,” Laesch said, adding it was “important” the community demonstrate peacefully and “let everybody know that we do not tolerate and accept” what’s going on in Illinois and Aurora.

Laesch said federal law enforcement is not operating with warrants, but patrols neighborhoods “looking for targets of opportunity, so we must all remain vigilant.”

Laesch told attendees to help neighbors who don’t feel safe by getting them groceries, mowing their lawns and shoveling their sidewalks in the winter.

Laesch also said in part in a statement: “This unconstitutional deployment of federal officers resulted in multiple snatchings of community members, targeting, specifically, our city’s strong and diverse Hispanic population. As mayor, I am committed to fighting for our residents against racism and fascism. ... This overarching power grab by the presidential administration is one that is rooted in intimidation and racial profiling, and I vigorously oppose this in our community.”

He said the city previously didn’t put out a statement on immigration enforcement “to protect our most vulnerable residents from being targeted. The large presence of ICE officials and deputized bounty hunters in our community, though, has demanded a public response.”

Laesch also said the Aurora Police Department hasn’t cooperated or coordinated with immigration officials, in accordance with the Illinois TRUST Act. He said claims that Aurora police assisted ICE with detaining a resident Thursday were not true, and body camera shows the opposite of the claims.

The TRUST Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, was signed into law in 2017 by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. The Illinois Way Forward Act, signed into law in 2021 by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, also limits sheriffs’ ability to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, Capitol News Illinois reported.

A judge blocked deployment of the national guard to Illinois for two weeks Thursday, saying there wasn’t substantial evidence that there was a “danger of rebellion” brewing, the Associated Press reported. Underwood nodded to that ruling in her remarks Friday, but an appeals court ruled Saturday the troops can stay in the state but can’t be deployed, the AP reported.