The announcement comes more than two weeks after the Republican president began to say he was planning to target Chicago over crime, causing Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson to caution residents to prepare for potential immigration sweeps.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, Governor (JB) Pritzker and his fellow sanctuary politicians released Tren de Aragua gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers on Chicago\u2019s streets \u2014 putting American lives at risk and making Chicago a magnet for criminals,\u201d said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary. \u201cPresident Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem have a clear message: No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.\u201d<\/p>\n Pritzker, the state\u2019s two-term Democratic governor and vociferous critic of the Republican president, took to the social platform X<\/a> to contend the ICE surge \u201cisn\u2019t about fighting crime.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat requires support and coordination \u2014 yet we\u2019ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks,\u201d he wrote. \u201cInstead of taking steps to work with us on public safety, the Trump administration\u2019s focused on scaring Illinoisans.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson also said the city had \u201cno notice of any enhanced immigration action.\u201d<\/p>\n The Homeland Security statement marks the first official word from the Trump administration about increased immigration enforcement after weeks of Trump vacillating between vows of \u201cgoing in<\/a>\u201d to Chicago with the potential deployment of National Guard troops to fight overall crime, to a stepped-up immigration enforcement<\/a> role by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents<\/a>. ICE has secured an office at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago<\/a> to serve as an operations hub for its activities.<\/p>\n There was no word on how long the ICE operation would last, and there was also no mention of whether Trump would deploy the National Guard to play a supporting role.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are concerned about potential militarized immigration enforcement without due process because of ICE\u2019s track record of detaining and deporting American citizens and violating the human rights of hundreds of detainees,\u201d Johnson said in a statement.<\/p>\n Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth said the ramped-up ICE activity was a waste of federal law enforcement resources, and she warned Trump was looking to \u201cprovoke a response to his un-American actions, hoping for images of chaos and violence to validate his lie that Chicago is an apocalyptic city in crisis and justify sending in the military to intimidate Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the \u201cblitz\u201d announcement, it remained unclear Monday how extensive the actions were in the early going. Local officials and immigrant activists cited only a handful of arrests.<\/p>\n Advocates said they had confirmed ICE presence on the Southwest Side and at least three detentions of \u201ccommunity members in a stretch along Archer Avenue,\u201d said Rey Wences, senior director of deportation defense at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe this operation signaled the beginning of ICE(\u2018s) full escalation in Chicago and Illinois,\u201d Wences said, noting it came after \u201cmany other raids.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been happening, and it has been starting to get normalized in many of the places in the state and across the city, but this is not normal,\u201d Wences said.<\/p>\n Although the Trump administration portrayed its actions as targeted toward arresting only immigrants who are criminals<\/a>, studies<\/a> have also shown<\/a> that ICE has\u00a0arrested thousands of Latinos with no criminal history in random locations across the nation.<\/p>\n Under Illinois\u2019 sanctuary state policies, enacted by Pritzker\u2019s Republican predecessor, one-term Gov. Bruce Rauner, Illinois law enforcement cannot cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agents unless they have a detainment warrant issued by a judge. ICE routinely uses an administrative detainment warrant that it issues on its own.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has been previously rebuffed in challenges to the state\u2019s sanctuary policy, with the courts noting that immigration enforcement is the purview of the federal government.<\/p>\n Trump set the stage for the operation with a social media post Saturday<\/a> morning depicting military helicopters flying over the city\u2019s lakefront skyline using the title \u201cChipocalypse Now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI love the smell of deportations in the morning\u2026\u201d Trump posted on his Truth Social account, altering the famous phrase from the 1979 movie \u201cApocalypse Now,\u201d about the smell of \u201cNapalm.\u201d In the post, Trump was depicted in U.S. Army fatigues and sunglasses and wearing a Stetson U.S. Cavalry hat like the lieutenant colonel portrayed in the movie by actor Robert Duvall.<\/p>\n \u201cChicago is about to find out why it\u2019s called the Department of WAR,\u201d Trump wrote, a day after signing an executive order to rename the Department of Defense to its pre-1949 title.<\/p>\n Hours before the DHS announcement, Trump on Monday morning once again urged Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential aspirant, to call the White House for federal help to request National Guard assistance with city crime. The governor has repeatedly vowed he will not make such a request because it is not necessary, adding that Trump is trying to normalize the sight of military on city streets as part of the president\u2019s moves toward authoritarian rule from the White House.<\/p>\n On his Truth Social platform, Trump cited<\/a> six shooting deaths recorded in the city over the weekend, as well as other murders in recent weeks, as he criticized Pritzker and Johnson for inaction.<\/p>\n Just days after his \u201cChipocalypse Now\u201d post, which he backed off a day later<\/a> by saying it wasn\u2019t directed at the city but at criminals,\u00a0Trump sought to cajole Chicago residents into supporting a federal intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Pritzker just stated that he doesn\u2019t want Federal Government HELP! WHY??? What is wrong with this guy, and the 5% in Polls Mayor. I want to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them. Only the Criminals will be hurt!\u201d Trump wrote on Monday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can move fast and stop this madness. The City and State have not been able to do the job. People of Illinois should band together and DEMAND PROTECTION. IT IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE!!! ACT NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!\u201d he wrote. \u201cThank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, speaking at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., he told the audience, \u201cWe\u2019re waiting for a call from Chicago. We\u2019ll fix Chicago,\u201d as he cited reduced crime in the District of Columbia after he federalized law enforcement there<\/a>, something he cannot do in the individual states.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could do the same thing in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know why Chicago isn\u2019t calling us, saying, please give us help when you have, over just a short period of time, 50 murders and hundreds of people shot, and then you have a governor that stands up and says how crime is just fine,\u201d Trump said, before explaining one major political reason for continuing the rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really crazy,\u201d the Republican president said of Democrats, \u201cbut we\u2019re bringing back law and order to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n But\u00a0faith leaders and immigration advocates in Chicago continued to push back against Trump\u2019s narrative that Chicago is crime-ridden and rallied in support of a handful of individuals believed to have been detained by federal agents on Sunday.<\/p>\n Wences described the detentions as \u201cabductions,\u201d and said they were \u201cseemingly random, with agents profiling and approaching them on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n Among those was a street vendor selling flowers on a busy intersection in the Archer Heights neighborhood. He was arrested by three men wearing vests that read \u201cPolice Federal Agent.\u201d They were in two vehicles, including a dark Subaru with a Missouri license plate. ICE had not confirmed the arrest as of Monday evening.<\/p>\n Gissele Garcia, 26, pulled over her car as she was driving home from the grocery store when she saw the commotion in the parking lot of a Honda City car dealership on South Archer Avenue and South Pulaski Road. The West Lawn resident approached with her phone up, filming the encounter. She tried getting the street vendor\u2019s name and asked him if he had any family she could call.<\/p>\n Speaking in Spanish, the man said he didn\u2019t know his relatives\u2019 phone numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seemed \u2014 I don\u2019t know how to put this \u2014 like he had given up,\u201d she told the Tribune Sunday.<\/p>\n By Monday morning, around 50 people shouted \u201cfaith over fear,\u201d in Daley Plaza in response to the escalating threat. The event was led by leaders of the Inner City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), LIVE FREE Illinois and New Life Centers.<\/p>\n Speakers said there were other ways to improve Chicago than sending in federal agents, including federal spending on health care and education.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not America,\u201d said rally attendee Donald Nye, 68 of Downers Grove. \u201cThis is not what my grandson is gonna grow up in. I got a 4-year-old grandson and I\u2019m not gonna allow him to grow up with this. I mean, this is not the way I grew (up).\u201d<\/p>\n Chicago Tribune\u2019s Dan Petrella, Alice Yin and Adriana Perez contributed<\/em>.<\/p>\n Originally Published: September 8, 2025 at 4:25 PM CDT<\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Donald Trump\u2019s Department of Homeland Security announced Monday it is beginning a surge of immigration law enforcement in Chicago, dubbing it \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d and claiming it will target \u201ccriminal illegal aliens\u201d who have taken advantage of the city and state\u2019s sanctuary policies. The announcement comes more than two weeks after the Republican president … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Trump-administration-starting-Chicago-immigration-blitz.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1801,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions\/1801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-chicago-federal-deployment-07_233901271_def976.jpg\")
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