A federal investigation in New York is upsetting some Puerto Ricans in Chicago. They say it’s a witch hunt that could expand to their doorstep.

Spokesmen for the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn and New York’s FBI office refused to confirm there’s an investigation. But agents have delivered subpoenas ordering three young Puerto Rican professionals to appear before a grand jury. Newspapers in New York and Puerto Rico have reported that the subpoenas are part of a federal probe of the Macheteros. That’s a largely dormant Puerto Rican group that employed violence to push for the island’s independence from the United States.

PROTESTERS: The human rights problem in the world today is right here in the U.S.A.!

About a hundred people protested the investigation last night in downtown Chicago’s Federal Plaza.

MORRIS: If these three young Puerto Ricans in their late 20s and early 30s are getting harassed now, who’s next?

Michelle Morris of the National Boricua Human Rights Network says the feds have long targeted Puerto Ricans in Chicago.

MORRIS: For the past 50 years, Chicago has been the leader of the independence movement here in the states. So if any city was targeted for repression, it usually was Chicago.

A former DePaul University professor named José Solís served 43 months in prison for allegedly planting bombs at an Army recruiting station here. Years earlier, federal agents raided the Puerto Rican Cultural Center. The center’s director, José López, once spent nine months behind bars for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury.

The Puerto Ricans in New York have orders to appear before the Brooklyn grand jury February 1. Puerto Ricans in Chicago say they’ll be paying close attention.