ICE swarmed deportation officers to Illinois Monday, kicking off a massive new operation to arrest illegal immigrants whom the agency said had been protected by the state’s sanctuary laws.
Homeland Security officials dubbed the push “Operation Midway Blitz” and said it’s meant to counter “criminal illegal aliens” who have moved to Chicago to take advantage of its refusal to turn migrants over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Department officials particularly name-checked Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a vocal Trump critic, for defending the sanctuary policies.
“For years, Governor Pritzker and his fellow sanctuary politicians released Tren de Aragua gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers on Chicago’s streets — putting American lives at risk and making Chicago a magnet for criminals,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
She announced the new effort just after the Supreme Court issued a ruling giving tacit approval to ICE’s aggressive tactics in Los Angeles, the first city to see a major prolonged deportation push starting in June.
The justices said ICE can target people for brief investigative stops based on circumstances that include their ethnicity, language, jobs and where they congregate — as long as all of the factors are taken together.
That same approach can carry over to other cities, too.
Ms. McLaughlin said the Chicago operation is being conducted to “honor” Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old woman killed in January in a hit-and-run crash authorities blamed on an illegal immigrant.
Mr. Trump has talked about sending troops in to quell crime in Chicago — a move Mr. Pritzker has denounced as an attempt to foster chaos and undermine democracy.
“It is illegal, what they’re suggesting they’re going to do,” he told MSNBC over the weekend.
His office posted a know-your-rights memo to illegal immigrants on social media, urging them to demand a judicial warrant before opening their doors and to refuse to sign anything ICE offers them.
The Trump administration had previously sued Illinois, Chicago and Cook County over their sanctuary policies. A federal district judge tossed the lawsuit this summer.
Homeland Security released a list of sample targets for the new operation, pointing to illegal immigrants ICE has tried to arrest in the past.
They include Gabriel Valle Galvez, a Mexican illegal immigrant with a lengthy record spanning convictions for battery, aggravated assault and DUI. ICE said it has lodged 12 separate deportation “detainer” requests for Mr. Galvez to be turned over, but Cook County refused them all.
Also on the list are Tren de Aragua members from Venezuela and a 60-year-old illegal immigrant from Iraq with convictions of assault with a deadly weapon who was ordered deported nearly three decades ago but was “repeatedly released from Illinois jails despite ICE detainers,” Homeland Security said.
Sen. Richard Durbin, Illinois Democrat, denounced the ICE deployment, saying he expected it to “arrest hardworking immigrants with no criminal convictions.”
“These actions don’t make us safer. They are a waste of money, stoke fear, and represent another failed attempt at a distraction,” he said.
