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brandon johnson
ICE Operation 'Midway Blitz' Underway as Authoritarian Trump Targets Chicago
"Donald Trump and his departments of alphabet boys and National Guard troops aren't welcome and aren't needed in Chicago," said the head of the city's teachers union.
Sep 08, 2025
After several days of US President Donald Trump threatening a militarized invasion of Chicago, his administration on Monday announced "Operation Midway Blitz," claiming it is "in honor of" a young woman allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant accused of drunk driving about 140 miles south of the Illinois city.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled the immigration operation with a nearly five-minute video featuring Michelle and Joe Abraham, whose 20-year-old daughter Katie was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Urbana in January. The alleged driver, a Guatemalan national, was arrested in Texas a few days later.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation "will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago," even though the libertarian CATO Institute revealed in June that 65% of immigrants booked by the agency under Trump had no criminal convictions and over 93% were never convicted of violent offenses.
Like Trump has in recent days, McLaughlin took aim at Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, saying that he "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."
While Chicagoans have made their thoughts on a federal invasion clear, carrying signs that said "No Trump! No Troops!" and "No Nazis—No Kings" during a weekend protest, McLaughlin said that Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem "have a clear message: No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return."
Pritzker and Chicago's Democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, have forcefully pushed back against Trump's threats to launch a major anti-migrant operation in the city and possibly deploy the National Guard, as he has done in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, California.
In a New York Times opinion piece published hours before the widely anticipated DHS announcement, Johnson argued that "lowering crime rates here does not require an occupation of our city by armed members of the National Guard, as the White House continues to threaten us with. Chicagoans, including survivors of violence, have spoken out against such an extreme measure."
"If President Trump had listened to the city's leaders, he would recognize that Chicago just experienced record-low homicide numbers, making this the safest summer since the 1960s, a result of effective collaboration between communities and law enforcement," wrote the mayor, who signed an executive order ahead of the federal operation and is raising a family in Austin on the West Side, "one of the parts of our city where gun violence is most pervasive."
"My administration has managed to make progress in crime reduction with three interconnected strategies: effective and law-abiding policing, violence prevention, and addressing the root causes of crime," Johnson explained. "Our violence prevention work includes programs that employ former gang members to de-escalate conflicts as well as initiatives that connect people to jobs and resources."
"We have directed funding to neighborhoods that have suffered from chronic disinvestment to create jobs, provide mental health services, and more. We are on track to build, rehab, or preserve over 10,000 units of affordable housing," he continued. "We don't need the National Guard; we just need to invest in what works."
In a Monday statement, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates acknowledged "the successful efforts of our mayor in reducing crime and investing in our community," and similarly stressed that whatever Trump is "spending on his raids is better spent on building affordable housing, reopening school libraries, and funding social workers to support children through the trauma this administration is inflicting on an entire generation who are worried every day if they will ever see their parents again."
"As a history teacher, I can tell you that history will not look kindly on Donald Trump or the individuals who are acting as his personal army," Davis Gates also said. "For weeks, the people of Chicago have made it clear that we do not need federal agents in our city, whether that is to separate immigrant families or racially profile in our Black neighborhoods."
"Chicago might have been built to keep our communities divided, but we are coming together now, like working people do against any bad boss, in radical solidarity to keep each other safe," the union leader added. "Donald Trump and his departments of alphabet boys and National Guard troops aren't welcome and aren't needed in Chicago."
Congressional Democrats who represent Illinois have also denounced the president's targeting of the country's third-largest city—including Sen. Dick Durbin, who took to the chamber's floor on Monday following the DHS announcement. Durbin accused Trump of attacking Chicago for "political theater."
While the Trump administration hasn't yet provided any update on the involvement of the National Guard, after the president moved to rename the US Department of Defense, he took to his Truth Social platform on Saturday morning with an image referencing the 1979 film Apocalypse Now and said, "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR."
Appearing on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), said that "we don't have any indications of them getting ready to send troops into Chicago," but also that "the president of the United States essentially just declared war on a major city in his own nation. This is not normal... This is not acceptable behavior."
Responding to the recent developments in a Monday statement, Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the national advocacy group America's Voice, said that "we have gone from a supposed war on immigrants to a war on Americans."
"America's Voice has long said that immigration was merely the 'tip of the spear' for this administration to justify and lead an attack on all of us—including violating due process, constitutional rights, and core democratic norms and pillars, such as deploying the military against American communities," she noted. "Sadly, all are coming to pass."
Cárdenas continued: "Why is the American president openly threatening an American city, as he readies the deployment of American troops against those residents? It's not about immigration, just as the Washington, DC deployment wasn't about crime. Instead, it's for purposes of retribution; sowing fear and dissent; provoking violence and dividing us as a nation."
"Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court just sided with the president and his plans to target indiscriminately and racially profile with impunity, effectively making racial profiling now the law of the land," she added, citing a Monday decision from the chief justice. "Whether calling it 'authoritarianism' or something else, it's clear we are fighting not just for immigrants, but also for a different vision of America that's now imperiled."
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Chicago Preps for Trump's Looming Militarized 'Invasion'
"If the federal government wants to help they should invest, not invade," said Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Sep 05, 2025
With some federal agents already at a nearby naval station and fencing erected around the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse overnight, Chicagoans and Illinois' elected officials on Friday continued to prepare for US President Donald Trump's militarized "invasion" of the country's third-largest city.
Trump has threatened to not only send immigration enforcement agents but also deploy the National Guard and even potentially active-duty military, mirroring what he has done in Los Angeles and the District of Columbia.
Anticipating imminent federal action, last Saturday, Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order targeting what he called Trump's "tyranny," and Gov. JB Pritzker, another Democrat, pledged Thursday that "we're going to immediately go to court if National Guard or other troops are deployed to the city of Chicago."
Trump has sent mixed messages this week. He said Tuesday that "we're going in" to Chicago, but "I didn't say when." The next day, he said the administration was still "making a determination" about the city and may target Louisiana, whose "great governor," Republican Jeff Landry, "wants us to straighten out a very nice section of this country that's become quite, you know, quite tough."
However, the Illinois action seems to be already underway. The New York Times reported Friday that it obtained an internal document which indicates that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials "would arrive at the Naval Station Great Lakes this week and that there would be 30 days of operations in the Chicago area."
Congressman Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Illinois' two Democratic US senators, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, visited the naval station on Friday seeking answers from DHS.
"They ended up saying they were unavailable and that they were locking the doors to the building that's being considered, and we wouldn't be able to enter it and see it," Durbin said. "This kind of secrecy shouldn't be part of our government."
Citing unnamed sources familiar with federal plans, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday that "230 agents, at least some of whom work for US Customs and Border Protection, are coming from Los Angeles, where an immigration blitz this summer spurred protests that pushed Trump to call in the National Guard."
Amid fears of operations targeting immigrants, volunteers are patrolling for signs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the Chicago newspaper noted Friday. It also highlighted that deploying National Guard troops in the city could cost taxpayers nearly $1.6 million per day, according to the nonpartisan National Priorities Project.
The looming threat of stepped-up ICE action in Chicago is already having an impact: Organizers have canceled a Mexican Independence Day festival planned for September 13-14 in Grant Park, explaining that "it was a painful decision, but holding El Grito Chicago at this time puts the safety of our community at stake—and that's a risk we are unwilling to take."
Community organizers and the Little Village Chamber of Commerce announced Friday that for now, the 54th annual 26th Street Mexican Independence Day Parade is still scheduled for September 14—a decision that was met with cheers from residents, according to WGN. One parade organizer said, "Our existence is our resistance."
The expected federal operation in Chicago has provoked protests. As part of the national "Workers Over Billionaires" marches on Monday, which was Labor Day, Chicagoans carried signs and chanted about their opposition to the deployment of National Guard troops and immigration agents.
On Friday, "demonstrators gathered on overpasses by I-94 in Wilmette and Evanston, holding up signs and flags calling out ICE's bolstered presence in the area," ABC7 reported. Protesters also descended a facility in suburban Broadview, "demonstrating against the planned use of the location as the main processing hub for those detained by ICE as a part of their upcoming operation."
Critics of Trump's attacks on Chicago and other Democrat-led cities have also pushed back against his lies about crime rates and called out his cuts to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
"Why did Trump cut $468 million from ATF's budget in his nasty, signature bill? Why did he cut funding for the agency responsible for getting guns off our streets by 29%? Why did he cut 1,465 positions from an agency that is so critical to reducing gun violence?" Chicago's mayor said Tuesday. "They cut funding from the agency that is actually stopping gun traffickers so that they could increase funding for ICE and Border Patrol."
Although at least eight people were killed and 50 others were wounded in Labor Day weekend shootings, data from the Chicago Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that the city is not the "murder capital of the world," as Trump has claimed.
On Friday, the Gun Violence Prevention PAC (G-PAC) of Illinois joined with the national groups Brady, GIFFORDS, and March for Our Lives to call for federal reform and restoration of funding to address shootings in Chicago rather than the deployment of the National Guard.
"Chicago's gun violence problem is directly related to the availability of illegal guns on our streets," said Kathleen Sances, president and CEO of G-PAC. "Illinois has made significant progress in passing commonsense gun laws with the help of GIFFORDS, Brady, and March for Our Lives, and these reforms have helped prevent access to illegal weapons."
"These efforts have contributed to Chicago's reduced crime rates, with the city recently experiencing the fewest summer murders in 60 years," Sances added. "But without meaningful reform at the federal level, guns will continue to cross into our state, and violence will persist. If the White House wants to get serious about violence, it can start by supporting gun safety efforts instead of the gun lobby."
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As Trump Targets Chicago, Mayor Fights His 'Tyranny' With Executive Order
"We will protect our Constitution, we will protect our city, and we will protect our people," Mayor Brandon Johnson declared. "We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart."
Aug 30, 2025
Continuing the battle against US President Donald Trump's "erratic and petulant behavior," Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order responding to the Republican's threats to deploy federal immigration agents and potentially National Guard and active-duty troops to Illinois' biggest city.
Just before signing the order, Johnson told journalists that he would have preferred to work with City Council to pass legislation, "but unfortunately we do not have the luxury of time," given "credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government."
Asked about which specific reports he was referring to, the mayor just said that the deployment could occur as soon as Friday, so he had to take "immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach."
"We will protect our Constitution, we will protect our city, and we will protect our people," he declared. "We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don't want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents. We don't want to see Chicagoans arrested for sitting on their porch. That's not who we are as a city, and that's not who we are as a nation."
A spokesperson for the suburban Naval Station Great Lakes confirmed to Military Times earlier this week that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has contacted the base about possibly using it for immigration enforcement activities.
The Chicago Sun-Times obtained an email in which the station's commanding officer, Navy Cpt. Stephen Yargosz, told his leadership team: "These operations are similar to what occurred in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Same DHS team."
According to the newspaper, Yargosz added in his Monday email that "this morning I received a call that there is the potential also to support National Guard units. Not many details on this right now. Mainly a lot of concerns and questions."
In addition to targeting California's largest city, Trump has recently federalized Washington, DC's police force and deployed the National Guard there—and he has threatened to similarly target other Democrat-led cities, despite their falling crime rates.
As the Sun-Times reported Saturday:
White House officials have distinctly said the operation in Chicago would mirror Los Angeles more than DC, which saw thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of active-duty Marines—some of whom are stationed there through November—activated to quell protests against immigration raids.
"If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the president, their communities would be much safer," wrote White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. "[Democrats] should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser who recently celebrated the Trump administration's success in driving down violent crime in Washington, DC."
Johnson's order against Trump's "tyranny" states that the mayor demands the president "and any agents acting under his authority stand down from any attempts to deploy the US armed forces—including the National Guard—in Chicago."
"The city will pursue all available legal and legislative avenues to counter coordinated efforts from the federal government that violate the rights of the city and its residents, including the constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, and the right to due process," the document warns.
The order also establishes the Protecting Chicago Initiative, which will include making information regarding residents' rights and federal government action available; coordinating efforts to identify and address community needs; and regularly submitting public records requests to DHS, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection.
The document states that the Chicago Police Department "shall remain a locally controlled law enforcement agency" under the authority of the city and the mayor, no CPD personnel shall participate in civil immigration enforcement, and all officers, "when engaged in any law enforcement, crowd management, or public safety operations, will wear department-authorized uniforms."
It further says that "CPD officers are prohibited from intentionally disguising or concealing their identities from the public by wearing any mask, covering, or disguise while performing their official duties," and "all other law enforcement officers, including federal agents, as well as members of the military operating in Chicago, are urged to adhere to these requirements to protect public safety and promote accountability."
Under Trump, federal immigration officials have often donned masks—which has led to people targeted for arrest questioning whether they are encountering real agents, as well as criminals impersonating agents.
During Saturday's signing event, Johnson said that his office has communicated with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and the state's congressional delegation, and "we are in complete alignment."
The mayor's move won praise from the Chicago Teachers Union, which said in a statement that CTU "stands in firm opposition to the president's threat to occupy our city with federal forces and terrorize our communities. As educators working and living in every one of Chicago's 77 neighborhoods, we know that safety does not come from federal forces invading our city. Real safety comes from the types of community investments that Mayor Johnson has made into public health, public education, summer youth jobs, affordable housing, small business development, and mental health care."
Noting Trump's recent attacks on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the union said that "if Trump wants to spend a million dollars a day in Chicago, he can send it for crossing guards to help our children move safely across this city, for Safe Passage to make sure that our children have a friendly face to see on their journey back and forth to home, for SNAP benefits to make sure our children have the nutrition they need to thrive and flourish, for special education and dual language supports for our students, and for healthcare so their families can afford the medicine and care they need."
"The CTU applauds Mayor Johnson for taking steps to protect the rights of Chicagoans, and to not be conscripted into Trump's threatened occupation of our city," the union continued. "We stand in solidarity with all of our fellow Chicagoans, as we say no to occupation and demand that our federal tax dollars be used to provide the services our communities actually need: healthcare, SNAP, and fully funded schools to our communities, not to send federal troops to terrorize them."
"This is why we will join tens of thousands of Chicagoans on Monday at 11:00 am, for the Workers Over Billionaires march and rally," the CTU added. "This Labor Day, we will be in the streets of our city, marching peacefully, to say NO to Trump, his occupation, and the billionaire takeover of our country."
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