SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — Labor Day for most people is spent enjoying a day off of work. But for more than 100 people at the Illinois State Capitol on Monday, there is still plenty of work left to do.

“Everything that all of us did could be gone. Just so someone can give tax cuts to a billionaire?” Dale Hawkins, a retired Union Boilermaker, said.

But budget cuts are making that work harder than ever to accomplish.

“It is just unbelievable to think benefits are being taken away from our clients. A lot of people are not aware of what they are going to lose,” home care worker Loretta Thompson said.

Thompson, along with her fellow home care provider Tericus Mackay, have seen firsthand how strained services have gotten since the passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill.”

They believe if the cuts move forward as planned, then services in Illinois’ smallest communities will be the first to go.

“It is devastating and it’s going to hit rural areas and communities. It’s going to be a major widespread epidemic, very hard on the seniors,” Mackey said.

But it wasn’t just funding on protester’s minds.

“Why they would select just a few cities they are going to target, it just doesn’t make any sense,” Jim Hade, a volunteer with Mother Jones, said.

On Sunday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed a rumored ICE operation in Chicago. It is set to begin sometime this week despite objections from state and city leaders.

“It is not freedom. It’s not liberty, it’s tyranny,” Hade said.