You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Who Are Chicago’s Immigrants?Almost 40 percent of immigrants living in Chicago are from Mexico. More than 800,000 of the city’s 2.7 million residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.The “Wings of Mexico” art installation at the Plaza of the Americas in downtown Chicago.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesWho Are Chicago’s Immigrants?Almost 40 percent of immigrants living in Chicago are from Mexico. More than 800,000 of the city’s 2.7 million residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.The “Wings of Mexico” art installation at the Plaza of the Americas in downtown Chicago.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesListen · 4:13 min Sept. 9, 2025Immigration has always shaped Chicago’s neighborhoods, its expansion and its culture.Immigrants have stabilized the city’s population, allowing it to maintain slow growth in recent years. Foreign-born workers are integral to the local economy, particularly in the construction, manufacturing and service industries.Chicago politicians brag about their immigrant backgrounds, as in the Irish American Daleys, and it is not uncommon to see signs in English, Spanish and Polish on downtown buildings.ImageMexican immigrants cutting weeds along the side of a road near Chicago in 1917.Credit...Chicago Sun-Times, via Chicago History Museum, via Getty ImagesImageThe Maxwell Street Market in Chicago, seen here around 1915, was a haven for immigrants who arrived in the city.Credit...Chicago History Museum, via Getty Image“Chicago has been very chill about immigration,” said Rob Paral, a demographer at the Great Cities Institute of the University of Illinois Chicago. “It’s not a radioactive issue here.”As the Trump administration announced this week that it had begun a crackdown on illegal immigration in the city, elected officials and local advocacy groups loudly pushed back, citing Chicago’s history as a city that has welcomed immigrants.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT