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New immigration enforcement in Chicago, protesters show out
Border patrol agents came to Chicago Tuesday morning to start "Operation At Large," targeting undocumented immigrants.
CHICAGO - Border patrol agents came to Chicago Tuesday morning to start "Operation At Large," targeting undocumented immigrants.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection commander Gregory Bovino announced their arrival in the city with a half-minute-long video posted to X, showing agents and vehicles on city streets.
"Well, Chicago, we’ve arrived!" the post read. "Operation At Large is here to continue the mission we started in Los Angeles—to make the city safer by targeting and arresting criminal illegal aliens."
Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem said she was also in Chicago on Tuesday.
"Just this morning, DHS took violent offenders off the streets with arrests for assault, DUI, and felony stalking. Our work is only beginning," Noem posted on X.
The backstory:
The deployment comes a day after Gov. JB Pritzker addressed President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, saying mass deportation efforts and threats to deploy the federal forces have created widespread fear.
"People are frightened about the potential of military troops coming to our neighborhoods. People are fearful of masked men in unmarked vans who could grab them on a street corner because of how they look or how they sound," Pritzker said.
Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, named in honor of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old woman who was killed in January in a drunk driving crash in Champaign, Illinois. Authorities said the driver, who fled the scene but was arrested days later on a bus in Texas headed for the Mexican border, was a Guatemalan national in the country illegally.
ICE officials said they arrested at least 13 people in Chicago in the operation. Federal officials said those arrested include "dangerous criminal illegal aliens" with prior convictions or pending charges for crimes ranging from sexual assault of a child to armed robbery and domestic violence. Among them were individuals from Mexico, Guatemala, India and Kyrgyzstan.
On Tuesday, ICE announced the arrest of Aldo Salazar Bahena, 37, who was convicted of murder in 2005 and recently released from Stateville Correctional Center. Officials said Bahena was taken into custody on Monday in Elgin as part of Operation Midway Blitz.
Big picture view:
ICE has been ramping up its mass deportation efforts since Trump took office in January, including in large cities such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
In recent weeks, Trump has expressed interest in cracking down on crime in Chicago after a multi-agency surge in D.C. has led to a reported decrease in crime and hundreds of immigration-related arrests.
What they're saying:
With more agents on the ground and uncertainty looming, a group of high school students from CPS and Noble Charter Schools staged an anti-ICE protest near Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon.
Additionally, officials from the Latino Leadership Council called an emergency news conference at Daley Plaza, which was attended by Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
"This administration is not going after the 'worst of the worst.' What we're seeing is very different. They are targeting hard-working people who have been our neighbors for decades," Stratton said. "And I want everyone to hear this, that ICE handcuffed a United States citizen and then bragged about it on social media."
Stratton was referring to the detainment of a man in Elgin on Tuesday morning, in which he was later released due to his legal citizenship status. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posted about the raid on X. During that raid, undocumented immigrants were also arrested, Noem said online.
"The deceptive and aggressive tactics used by federal immigration agents undermine our commitment to being a welcoming county," Preckwinkle said.
On Tuesday, leaders from the Latino Leadership Council encouraged undocumented residents to know their rights.
"We're going to turn that anger into peaceful protest and we're going to get through this by looking out for one another," said Berto Aguayo, policy co-chair, Latino Leadership Council.
What's next:
Mayor Brandon Johnson, on Tuesday, signed an executive order protecting Chicagoans' 'Right to Protest' against ICE, which orders police to work with protest organizers if federal officials try to stop demonstrations.
The Source: The information in this report came from the U.S. Border Patrol and previous FOX 32 reporting.