How ICE Crackdown is Chilling Chicago Real Estate

Real estate business in Chicago’s immigrant communities is becoming trickier as federal officials ramp up arrests with their crackdown in Chicago.

Fears around being targeted by immigration officials have created a cooling effect in Chicago’s Hispanic and Latino communities, said Maria Kharot, president of Chicago’s chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. The fear extends beyond just undocumented immigrants, she said.

“A lot of people are not wanting to purchase, not wanting to buy, and they’re just afraid,” Kharot said. “Not that they’re undocumented. They’re scared because they feel like they’ve been profiled in general, regardless of their immigration status.”

National Association for Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ Maria Kharot (NAHREP)

The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday it had arrested more than 1,500 people across Illinois as part of what it dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” President Donald Trump and his administration said authorities are targeting dangerous criminals in the operations. In a statement to The Real Deal, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the widespread immigration enforcement is making Chicago’s neighborhoods safer.

“Our top enforcement priority is removing dangerous criminals from our streets, making our neighborhoods safer for everyone — including new potential home buyers,” McLaughlin said.

But immigration activist groups have argued the arrests have been far broader, targeting day laborers, street vendors and people without criminal histories. The uncertainty has left many Chicago immigrants — both undocumented and those who have some legal protections — fearful that they could be swept up next, and that going through the process of buying or selling a home could raise unwanted scrutiny.

Most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. live in mixed-status households, where a spouse, child or other family member has citizenship or lawful residence, according to 2024 Pew research. In other cases, immigrants have some documentation but may not be full permanent residents. They could be awaiting asylum hearings or other court dates to adjudicate their status.

“Sometimes it may be one person in the household that is going through the process and they’re waiting for their final approval. They don’t want to risk it,” Kharot said. “They’re being intimidated.”

Under the Trump administration, immigration officials have often asked an immigration judge to dismiss the case of asylum seekers at their court appearances, leaving them eligible for arrest and faster removal when they attend hearings.

Brokers who work with Kharot’s group have had clients pull out of the homebuying search or change their minds about selling because of concerns about the federal immigration crackdown, she said, and property showings in immigrant communities have dipped.

For brokers, the circumstances make the normally routine process of filing paperwork a trickier task, Kharot said. Non-citizens buying or selling homes often use different processes than citizens, so brokers need to know citizenship status to move the transaction along. Clients without legal status may be worried about offering that information.

“We need to ask whether they are a citizen, what their immigration status is, but we have to build that level of trust,” Kharot said. “Because if we don’t ask that, we’re not giving our clients the right service level.”

Beyond buying and selling real estate, the immigration crackdown has also impacted the labor market when it comes to construction and home contracting, Kharot said. She said an investor she’s worked with had to put rehab projects on hold because their construction workers did not feel safe working on the site. About one-in-five construction workers in Chicago are foreign-born noncitizens, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Similar concerns are playing out in Miami and Los Angeles as builders worry that lost labor from raids on job sites will increase costs and delay construction timelines.

The federal spotlight on Chicago is also reigniting long-festering concerns about Chicago’s safety. Trump has hammered on Chicago in public events and on social media, calling crime in the city “out of control” and branding the city a “war zone.”

National Guard troops from Illinois and Texas were briefly deployed in early October before a court order restricted their deployment. The troops remain federalized and stationed in Illinois as the court process plays out.

Grigory Pekarsky, managing broker of Vesta Preferred Realty, said he worries the heightened negative attention on Chicago will make people rethink buying property in the city. Already, he’s seen some people drop out of the market because of the high tensions: one of the brokers on his team recently had a client cancel because of the National Guard deployment.

Showing activity is still high citywide, but anecdotally, Pekarsky said buyers are less likely to make offers and commit to a property since federal intervention in the city has intensified.

“The overall sluggishness or concern of making decisions with next steps is a lot more obvious right now,” Pekarsky said. “Where people just have real hesitations of, how is it going to affect Chicago in general? It certainly is a slowdown.”