The federal government is significantly ramping up immigration enforcement in the Chicago area as a specialized federal law enforcement team arrived in Chicago on Tuesday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino posted a video on social media announcing his specialized team has arrived in Chicago to “continue the mission we started in Los Angeles.”
At the same time, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a video of herself participating in an early morning immigration raid reportedly at a house in Elgin , where the Chicago Tribune reported an American citizen was briefly detained.
“President Trump has been clear: if politicians will not put the safety of their citizens first, this administration will,” Noem said in a statement. “I was on the ground in Chicago today to make clear we are not backing down.”
The enhanced immigration enforcement began earlier this month and has been dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while Bovino said he is leading a separate CBP plan called “Operation At Large.” It’s not clear what, if any, difference there is between the operations.
The operations have not been strictly limited to Chicago. Residents have reported seeing federal agents in several suburbs. How long the operations will last also remains unclear. Illinois officials say they have been left almost entirely in the dark about federal agents’ work.
Gov. JB Pritzker said federal officials are not communicating with Illinois law enforcement groups, which he argued is making their work more dangerous.
“When they (local law enforcement) see skirmishes going on, they don’t know if those are real ICE officials, especially if they’re wearing masks and in unmarked cars and aren’t carrying or showing their identification,” Pritzker said Tuesday.
Illinois law prohibits law enforcement from participating in civil immigration enforcement, but it does not outright ban communication between state and federal agencies.
Tense encounters
DHS’ work has already turned deadly after an ICE agent shot and killed a man last week in Franklin Park. The undocumented man, who CBS News reported has no criminal history beyond traffic violations, allegedly tried to flee from ICE agents during a traffic stop and struck and dragged an agent in the process, causing serious injury, according to DHS. Federal authorities said that prompted an agent to shoot and kill the man.
DHS has released little information about the shooting, prompting calls for answers by state leaders. Pritzker pointed out Monday that Illinois law enforcement agencies would have already released substantial information and began investigations had the incident been an officer-involved shooting.
“This is the most unusual situation I’ve seen in my entire lifetime where we have no transparency and the federal government is not policing itself,” Pritzker said Monday.
Some public officials have directly confronted DHS agents. State Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, posted a video Monday showing her approaching masked federal agents in SUVs in a West Chicago neighborhood. Villa, a candidate for comptroller, was seen running down the street telling people to hide in their homes.
Crowds have also gathered in protest outside a Broadview detention facility where ICE is holding people in custody. The protests have occasionally devolved into skirmishes with ICE tactical teams as protesters have blocked entries and exits into the facility.
The Hands Off Chicago coalition of groups opposing ICE and National Guard soldiers in Chicago released a poll Wednesday showing Chicagoans largely oppose the Trump administration’s immigration tactics. The poll conducted last week by Public Policy Polling of 582 registered Chicago voters found 66% oppose federal immigration enforcement and 73% believe President Donald Trump is threatening to send the National Guard to Chicago for political reasons.
Trump reconsidering National Guard
After initially backing off sending the National Guard to Chicago in favor of an apparent crime-focused mission in Memphis, Trump has again pledged that Chicago will be the next city to see a National Guard deployment.
Trump had previously backed off sending the Guard to Chicago because Pritzker refused to ask the president for a deployment, but Trump now says he will do it anyway. The Constitution places significant limits on the federal government to send the U.S. military into a city for police action without a request by the governor or mayor.
Pritzker told reporters Tuesday he is done trying to guess what Trump will do as the pair continues to exchange barbs through TV cameras.
“I think he might be suffering from some dementia,” Pritzker said. “You know, the next day he’ll wake up on the other side of the bed and stop talking about Chicago. So I’ve never really counted on anything that he said as real.”
State leaders have encouraged people protesting immigration enforcement to remain peaceful as they fear Trump will use any skirmishes with law enforcement as justification to deploy the National Guard.
Meanwhile, immigration advocacy groups are encouraging residents to know their rights, such as what types of warrants require them to open the door to police, and their right to an attorney if detained.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
