As President Donald Trump’s federal agents continue raiding homes and businesses and marching on city streets to crack down on illegal immigration, many members of Illinois’ legislative branch — typically confined to the guardrails of government — have shifted into rabble-rouser mode.

Working alongside community groups and advocates who usually lead the charge against arrests and sieges by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, state lawmakers who often came up in politics through grassroots organizations have reaccelerated their activist origins as they have no role in broader immigration policymaking and find themselves unable to change things from within.

The result has been several state lawmakers supporting rapid response efforts, assigning staff to respond to ICE sightings and even one state senator running down the street to warn residents of ICE’s presence nearby.

State Rep. Lilian Jiménez, who represents parts of Chicago including Humboldt Park, used Facebook on Friday to alert constituents that ICE was nearby a local grocery store close to her district and had “armed agents stopping people in the streets, Walmart, Home Depot, all the places people congregate.”

“It gets tiring at times to talk to people and not have the solutions that they’re looking for, which is to have a humane immigration policy that allows families to stay together. It’s exhausting to have to explain how unfair our system is,” Jiménez said in an interview prior to the Friday escalation. “Action and engagement really does get me through the day.”

The Trump administration, for its part, has condemned elected officials engaging in activism against ICE. The Republican administration has said resistance to ICE demonizes and endangers federal agents, even going as far as calling some protesters outside the ICE facility in Broadview “Antifa-Aligned” — in turn trying to link them to a loose network of people that the administration has designated a domestic terrorist organization.

Although Trump hasn’t opined about state lawmakers in Illinois, he has hurled insults at Illinois politicians in general, including Gov. JB Pritzker, for the governor’s resistance to federal agents being deployed into Chicago’s streets. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News recently that some higher-profile congressional candidates who protested against ICE were “desperate politicians (who) want their 15 minutes of fame.”

And in response to Pritzker’s criticisms of federal agents and the ramped-up raids, the Illinois GOP has cheered on ICE, even fundraising for the party by producing T-shirts and other merchandise that “celebrates the importance of strong borders and a safer America.”

But rank-and-file state Democratic lawmakers say McLaughlin is wrong and claim their motivation for opposing ICE is not about advancing their political profiles.

“I’m born and raised in Elgin, so what I do is because a lot of these people I know have been in the fabric of my community,” state Sen. Cristina Castro of Elgin said. “So I don’t do this because I want attention. I do this because I feel it’s my job.”

To be sure, it’s a different role than what the public often sees from the typically little-known state lawmakers, who usually play a backbench role in Springfield while being asked to follow their party line on an array of bills every spring, while handling nuts-and-bolts issues in their home districts.

Because the federal government holds responsibility for creating and enforcing immigration laws, Trump’s administration has almost completely cut local Illinois officials out of the loop of its surging enforcement against illegal immigration in the Chicago area. Since “Operation Midway Blitz” began last month, DHS said last week, it has arrested more than 800 individuals.

And while the federal government claims many of those arrested are the “worst of the worst,” DHS has not identified everyone who has been arrested and there have been numerous cases of individuals with no known criminal records being arrested or detained.

Which, in part, is what has spurred lawmakers into street action. But because the state has been left largely in the dark about the federal enforcement actions, the legislators are forced to act on the same trickle of information coming from ICE- and Border Patrol-tracking Facebook pages, “rapid response” immigration rights group chats and flashy videos of Homeland Security agents from the Trump administration’s X channels as everyone else.

“In this particular issue, everybody knows when the social media posts get put up,” state Rep. Dagmara Avelar of Romeoville said.

And like other activists, lawmakers are passing along information about ICE sightings, talking directly with neighbors to ensure they know their rights — no need to open the door without a judicial warrant, for one — and sometimes directly approaching federal agents in the Chicago area.

Some constituents — and social media scrollers — are taking notice.

A video of state Sen. Karina Villa of West Chicago yelling at residents to stay inside to avoid ICE agents received more than 1.6 million likes and 26 million views on The Washington Post’s Instagram page, as well as millions of views on local Reddit pages, TikTok and other platforms.

The video, which depicts Villa rushing down a suburban street in heels and a blazer before directly confronting masked ICE officers in a black vehicle, was shot right after she saw agents in a West Chicago Police Department parking lot, she said.

“We really need leaders who are going to continue to fight, that are going to do everything that we can, not only in the Capitol, under the dome, but also on the streets,” Villa said in an interview with the Tribune. “Legislators can’t just write laws. We must be showing up.”

Joining the fold in one of the biggest stories in Illinois in recent years may also prove to be a political opportunity: Villa is running for Illinois comptroller, a statewide elected office, and she said she’s seen greater support for her candidacy in the weeks since she confronted ICE officers.

Other lawmakers said they’re working as conduits for the community responses they say are critical when there are credible sightings of immigration enforcement agents in their communities.

State Rep. Maura Hirschauer, who represents part of the same suburban district as Villa, said late last month the lawmakers were meeting daily with at least 15 to 20 — and once as many as 50 — people representing different local organizations concerned about the enforcement efforts.

Jiménez, the Chicago lawmaker, said some of her staffers responded at pickup time at a local elementary school after community members saw ICE agents at a nearby grocery store, and Sen. Castro of Elgin said she has been handing out know-your-rights cards at events, including at a suburban prayer vigil that raised awareness about ICE’s presence.

Lawmakers also work between community members and local officials or police at a time when some community members might be distrustful of any law enforcement, Avelar said.

For some, the recent weeks’ activist response meant tapping into old skills. Avelar recalled that the reason she initially became involved in politics was “my own story as somebody who was an undocumented immigrant” in high school and college.

“Does it take me back to my years in community organizing? Absolutely,” Avelar said of the current moment. “I will say that this time is on steroids.”

In a little more than a week, state legislators will return to Springfield for a six-day fall veto session. But it’s unclear whether they’ll address the federal immigration surge during that time, given the limited power of state government on the topic and other massive unresolved issues, such as the transit fiscal cliff.

Under Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2017, Illinois passed the TRUST Act, which the Trump administration has derided as a “sanctuary” law that generally prohibits cooperation between federal immigration enforcement and local police. Lawmakers could try to further strengthen that law, Jiménez said, though she and other lawmakers added that the legislature will need to ensure it doesn’t come into conflict with federal law.

Another potential reform on the table: a mask ban for ICE agents, who throughout Chicago’s immigration surge have often operated with their faces obscured by bandanas or gaiters. Earlier this month, California became the first state to ban most law enforcement officers from covering their faces during official business, in direct response to the ICE raids in Los Angeles.

Until then, lawmakers are stepping up to fill what Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Executive Director Lawrence Benito described as a lack of helpful action from the federal level.

“Particularly in the state legislature, when you have elected officials that come from the community… the issue is not a theoretical one, right? It’s a personal one,” Benito said. “I think that’s what you’re seeing in this moment.”