ICE launches operation in Chicago despite objections from mayor and Illinois governor

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is launching an operation in Chicago targeting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, the Department of Homeland Security announced Monday — a decision long rumored and opposed by local officials.

DHS said the ICE effort is called “Operation Midway Blitz" and blamed so-called sanctuary policies in Chicago and Illinois. The DHS announcement didn’t mention using the National Guard, which President Donald Trump has publicly talked about.

Trump has been talking for weeks about possibly ordering federal authorities to Chicago, an effort he has said is intended to fight crime.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats, as well as others, have criticized any such move, calling it unnecessary.

"Chicago doesn’t want to see reckless, unconstitutional, militarized immigration enforcement in our city," Johnson said Monday on X.

Pritzker said last week that the expected immigration operation was planned to be announced this month, when Mexican Independence Day celebrations are held every year in the city, which has a large population of residents with Mexican origin.

"Let’s be clear: The terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anyone living here," Pritzker said at a news conference last week.

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Trump campaigned on deporting large numbers of people in the country illegally and has sought to use government funding to punish cities with "sanctuary" policies, in which local police limit their cooperation with immigration authorities.

Proponents of the policies argue that immigration is a federal matter and that local police can't retain the trust of victims and witnesses to crimes while being perceived as immigration agents.

DHS cited sanctuary policies in its announcement about the Chicago ICE operation.

"This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets," it said.

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It said the operation was named after Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old Illinois woman who, along with a friend, was killed January in a suspected DUI crash in Urbana that was alleged to have been caused by a Guatemalan man in the country illegally.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., objected on the Senate floor Monday to Trump's remarks about Chicago, crime and the National Guard. Trump had threatened deportations Saturday on Truth Social, posting an image of himself as a figure in the film "Apocalypse Now" but with Chicago as a backdrop instead of Vietnam. "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR," the post was captioned.

"President Trump attempted to walk back his comments yesterday, but let’s be clear: The president of the United States essentially declared war on an American city, a city I’m honored to represent," Durbin said.

Durbin accused Trump of targeting Chicago for "political theater" and said Trump "finds objections to crime in communities that are governed by Democrats but not Republicans.”

Immigration agencies targeted Los Angeles in a crackdown that began in early June, a little more than four months after Trump was sworn in for a second term.

There were protests in Los Angeles over the immigration raids, with some violence and looting of stores downtown. The Trump administration responded by deploying the National Guard and some active-duty Marines despite the opposition of Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Bass and Newsom, both Democrats, called the administration's crackdown and use of troops a political stunt intended to terrorize residents.

The crackdown sparked a lawsuit that led a federal judge to rule that immigration agents in the Los Angeles area couldn’t stop people purely because of their race or ethnicity, because they speak Spanish, because of their work or because of the places they congregate. On Monday, the Supreme Court blocked the judge's ruling.