On a recent weekday evening, several protesters carrying homemade signs made their way to the corner of Finley Road and Opus Place near the Hampton Inn & Suites Downers Grove to call attention to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency officers who are staying at the hotel.

A grassroots effort, the nightly demonstration started on Sept. 7 with about 250 to 300 individuals in attendance.

“Right now, Chicagoans and suburban Chicagoans all feel a little dumbfounded that we have federal troops patrolling our streets,” said Elmhurst Sixth Ward Councilman Guido Nardini, who participated in Sunday’s event.

“We are demonstrating American ideals. It is crazy to have people swept up for the street without due process.”

M.B. McCarter, who lives in the far south suburbs but works near the hotel, has regularly participated in the demonstrations.

“Last week, I noticed a bunch of DHS [Department of Homeland Security] vehicles in the [hotel parking] lot,” McCarter said.

“From there, I made it a point to show up every day on my lunch and after work with a sign saying be careful, ICE is here,” she said.

“I see a lot of construction workers and landscapers coming through,” McCarter said. “I am worried for those who don’t have the ability or privileges to use their voices, so I want to use mine while I still have it. If it comes back to bite me, so be it.”

Sometimes McCarter stands outside the Best Western near Finley and Butterfield roads where private contractors who work with ICE agents are staying.

The protests have “gotten some traction” as they continue each night, McCarter said.

With a field office in Lombard, McCarter wasn’t surprised that ICE chose a Downers Grove hotel to house its agents.

McCarter said many of those passing by have been supportive, but she also has heard a fair amount of expletives.

“I am not out here for the support, I am out here to alert everyone,” she said.

Elmhurst’s Susan O’Donnell, whose husband emigrated from Ireland many years ago, said today’s immigrants have the same goals and dreams as immigrants from previous generations.

“They want to work, build a better life for their families. They believe in the American dream, and they are willing to work for it,” O’Donnell said.

“There have been parents separated from young children,” she said.

O’Donnell added that these individuals have not committed illegal acts and are working in factories, as home health aides or in restaurants – all jobs that have vacancies.

“They are not taking jobs away,” she said.

Lombard resident Casey Caballero said part of the reason she is “speaking loudly” is because she is a Heritage American – a conservative term used to describe individuals who can trace their roots to the nation’s founding generations.

“Both sides of my family can trace their roots to the 1700s,” and George Washington, said Caballero, a Downers Grove native.

Caballero is married to a naturalized citizen who looks and sounds Latino, she said.

“In this moment, citizens who are brown-skinned and speak Spanish do not feel safe to be out protesting,” she said.

So Caballero is out protesting on their behalf.

Even though her husband has been a citizen for several years, the couple checks in periodically throughout the day.

But they have decided not to carry documents because that “is not something you do in a Democratic country,” she said.

“Being American is not blood and soil, it is not defined by when your ancestors got here,” Caballero said. “It is defined by a shared set of values and commitments, the belief that all men are created equal.”

“It is those shared democratic values that make us Americans. It doesn’t matter where you came from or when you came,” she said.

Vicky Villagomez of Lisle said her father came from Mexico in the 1970s and is a U.S. citizen.

“It was a little easier to get citizenship then,” Villagomez said. “Now there is no easy way to obtain citizenship.”

“ICE is making it even harder by arresting people, and I don’t believe that is right,” she said.