Operation Midway Blitz appears as a Chicago appliance for federal forces and more ice agents, a potential deployment.
Trump defends “Chipocalypse Now” amid the threat of the Chicago military
Donald Trump defends the military threat to Chicago, causing backlash from officials and residents.
- The Department of Homeland Security is launching Operation Midway Blitz to target undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in Chicago and Illinois.
- The operation is named in honor of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old woman killed in hit and run by undocumented immigrants.
- The initiative follows President Trump’s promise to send more ice ages with federal forces to Chicago in response to the violent Labor Day weekend.
CHICAGO — After a lot of speculation and teasing by President Donald Trump, the Department of Homeland Security said it is launching Operation Midway Blitz, a new initiative aimed at undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in Chicago and Illinois.
In a social media post on September 8, DHS honors Katia Braham, a 20-year-old woman from the northwest suburb of Chicago, who was killed by Julio Kukulbor, a 29-year-old Guatemalan national who violated the United States in January.
The DHS said the immigration customs enforcement business would commit crimes and illegally target people in the country, “flocking to Chicago and Illinois.” Hundreds of Homeland Security authorities are expected to operate from naval bases outside of Chicago.
Homeland Security Advisor Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that she accused Illinois Gov. JB Pretzker and other local politicians of putting gang members, rapists, temptants and drug traffickers at risk.
“President Trump and Secretary Noem have a clear message: cities are not safe shelters for criminal and illegal aliens,” McLaughlin said. “If you illegally come to our country and break our laws, we will corner you, arrest you, banish you, and you will never return.”
The announcement by Homeland Security comes as Chicago supports the Trump administration deploying National Guard forces and more ice agents. Last week, Trump said “We’re coming in” in response to the violent Labor Day weekend. Meanwhile, Pretzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have vehemently rejected the concept and said they will stand up to Trump’s “tyranny.”
On September 7, Trump told reporters that Chicago is a “very dangerous place” and that “we can resolve Chicago very quickly.”
“It’s about terrorizing our community”: Chicagoans slumping Trump attacks
A large group of Chicago’s immigration activists and local Latino political leaders gathered on the southwest side of the city, a long-standing destination for Mexican immigrants, slamming Trump’s immigrant raid.
“What we are experiencing today is not normal,” said Ray Wence, of the Prairie National Immigration Advocacy Group, the Illinois Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition. “It’s not normal for people to go out into the streets and be taken away from their families.”
Immigration agents have so far detained at least three people, according to the Immigration Rights Group. Group spokesman Brandon Lee said he expects the actual number to be high as the reported arrests are delayed.
“These adductions were seemingly random,” Vence said, “we’re approaching agent profiling and community members on the street.”
The Illinois Immigration Rights Group has established a hotline where Chicagoans can report sightings of ice agents. Immigration activists will also respond to in-person sightings, distribute information about what rights people have when faced with immigration agents, and record detention if they arrive in time.
“We never arrested the worst,” said Mayor Jail Gutierrez, Chicago’s 14th Ward City Council representative. “It’s terrifying our community, but we’re not threatened.”
The escalating war of words between Trump and the Pretzker
In a Truthful Social Post on September 8, the president criticized Pretzker for not asking for federal aid after saying six people were killed and 12 people were injured in the shooting over the weekend in Chicago.
“I don’t hurt them, I want to help the people of Chicago,” Trump wrote. “Only criminals get hurt!”
Pretzker immediately responded with X’s own post: “I want to help people, not hurt people,” says the man who just threatened American cities in the War Department. ”
In the Truthful Social Post on September 6th, Trump rephrased the line from the Oscar-winning film Apocalypse Now, threatening the ongoing deportation of Chicago’s undocumented immigrants. The day after Trump signed an executive order to change the Pentagon’s name to the War Division, it was the name from the country’s founding through World War II.
“I love the smell of morning deportation,” Trump wrote, bringing together lines on the Napalms of the Vietnam War and referring to deportation. “Chicago is trying to find out why it’s called the Department of War.”
In response, Pretzker later said that his condition was not threatened with X.
“The US president is threatening to go to war with American cities. This is no joke,” Pretzker wrote. “This is not normal. Donald Trump is not a strongman. He is a scary man. Illinois is not threatened by an aspiring dictator.”
And longtime US Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois said on September 8 that Trump continues to deploy troops to Chicago and “mistaked by mistake.”
“These actions don’t make us safer. They are a waste of money, representing another failed attempt to blow fear and distract us,” said Durbin, a ranking Democrat for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Durbin also had a message to hardworking immigrant families who said he was scared of sending his child to school or hospital or reporting crimes to police.
“We’re standing with you. Know that the majority of Americans do not support these anti-immigrant actions by the Trump administration,” said Durbin, who will step down at the end of the year. “The president is showing off the light-da to immigrants, but Chicago accepts them as families, helping us to thrive our economy and strengthen our cities.”
