The Justice Department joined immigration and other federal agency officials in Chicago over the weekend to carry out the Trump administration’s deportation operation — seemingly the start of a larger crackdown the president messaged during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Immigration advocates started getting phone calls at 6 a.m. on Sunday from residents seeing officials in their neighborhoods who appeared to be ICE agents, according to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “There are a lot of folks who are scared. But people also know not to open their doors. They know to call a lawyer. And they know to call the hotline. Knowing their rights is empowering,” said spokesperson Brandon Lee.
The feds’ goal is to target “potentially dangerous criminal aliens,” according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency says it enlisted the help of the multiple federal agencies, including the FBI, DEA and Customs and Border Patrol — a possible indication that the White House wants to work quickly.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who was in Chicago along with White House border czar Tom Homan, called it a “critical mission to take back our communities.” He also urged local officials to help, echoing a warning from a memorandum last week. “We will use all available tools to address obstruction and other unlawful impediments to our efforts to protect the homeland,” he said in a statement.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called such language a scare tactic. “They’re just putting that out because they want to threaten everybody,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Pritzker reiterated he supports federal efforts to deport violent criminals. “If that’s who they’re picking up, we’re all for it,” he said.
What he finds “quite disturbing, is they’re going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades, and they’re often our neighbors and our friends.”
Illinois follows the Trust Act, which, like Chicago’s sanctuary city status, prevents law enforcement from assisting in deportation efforts — though they aren’t allowed to obstruct, either.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Sunday that his office “received reports of ICE enforcement activity” in the city and that “Chicago police were not involved.” He pointed residents to the city’s resource guide for help on understanding their rights.
ICE made 956 arrests across the country Sunday, according to The Associated Press, and 286 on Saturday, though it’s not clear how many of those were in Chicago. Officials were also in Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, Colorado and Puerto Rico, according to CNN.
Homan acknowledged his team can’t arrest the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants that President Donald Trump has called for, according to an interview he gave to ABC’s “This Week.” The funding isn’t there, he said.
Illinois Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth echoed the governor, issuing a statement that they “agree” that dangerous individuals should be deported. But they worry about “the potential to sweep up dreamers who came to the United States as children, veterans who have served our nation, and essential workers who care for our family members, build our homes and ensure we have food on our tables.”
Sunday’s action follows a confusing Friday, when Chicago Public Schools believed ICE agents had visited an elementary school in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
Turns out it was U.S. Secret Service’s Chicago Field Office agents who “were investigating a threat made against a government official we protect,” according to a spokesperson.
“Agents were looking for an 11-year-old who posted an anti-Trump video,” according to reports.