In early September 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson deployed salt trucks to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents out of the city.
The claim circulated as the Department of Homeland Security reportedly installed hundreds of federal agents near Chicago and the Trump administration warned of crackdowns (archived) in the city.
One Threads user wrote, "Chicago's mayor ordered city salt trucks to create mobile roadblocks to obstruct ICE operations. Salt for ICE"
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), X (archived), Bluesky (archived), TikTok (archived) and Reddit (archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the claim was true.
However, we found no evidence that Johnson or the city had deployed salt trucks specifically to block federal agents or immigration enforcement actions in Chicago. The city's Department of Streets and Sanitation said in a statement that it "deployed salt trucks to support public safety efforts related to a planned protest and the Taste of Chicago." The claim appeared to have spread via miscaptioned videos of those salt trucks posted on social media, according to local reports. Therefore, we rate this claim false.
According to the Coalition Against Trump, a group of organizations opposing federal troops in Chicago, 8,000 people gathered in downtown Chicago on Sept. 6, 2025, to protest (archived) the Trump administration's plan to deploy federal agents to the city. Taste of Chicago was a food festival hosted by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events from Sept. 5 to 7, 2025.
Social media users posted videos of salt trucks in Chicago on Sept. 5 (archived) and 6 (archived), both dates the streets department said it deployed trucks for events.
A Sept. 5 video showed trucks on East Monroe Street near Grant Park, which hosted Taste of Chicago. That video circulated widely in a since-removed post by Distill Social and the 50501 Movement, according to a screenshot by Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit news organization in the city. The 50501 Movement was one of the groups that organized the No Kings anti-Trump demonstrations in June 2025.
The deleted post claimed Johnson had deployed the trucks to "I-294, the Edens, and I-94" to block roads into the city. We found no evidence supporting that claim.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation said in a statement that deploying trucks such as those seen on Sept. 5 and 6, 2025, in Chicago was "routine practice."
One of the posts circulating alongside the claim that Johnson had deployed the trucks against ICE agents in September 2025 actually used footage of salt trucks used as a public safety measure in 2021. The 2021 footage supported the city department's statement.
At the time of this writing, activists (archived) and news outlets in Chicago were anticipating the arrival of federal immigration agents in the city. It was unclear whether the city would act to oppose ICE or other federal agents and, if so, how.