Operation Midway Blitz
Operation Midway Blitz is an operation by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted in and around Chicago, Illinois, starting on September 9, 2025. The United States Department of Homeland Security stated that the operation will arrest illegal immigrants with criminal records and is intended to crack down on sanctuary policies. Hundreds of DHS agents used a nearby naval base as a staging area.
Some legal experts questioned the legality of the operation, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is planning legal action. Pritzker's office has stated that the Trump administration did not communicate with his office about the operation. The operation has caused anxiety among certain Chicago residents such as Latinos. Religious organizations in Chicago have coordinated to schedule gatherings and make resources available for immigrants. A hotline set up to report ICE sightings was very busy on the first day of the operation, confirming that enforcement actions increased.
On December 31, 2025, the National Guard ceased to be a part of the Chicago deployments.
Background
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump stated he would use the military to end protests without consent from state governors, actions which his aides had previously talked him out of during his first term. Also during Trump's second campaign and current tenure, his administration has pursued a deportation policy characterized as "maximalist", and a mass-deportation campaign affecting hundreds of thousands of immigrants through detentions, confinements, and expulsions. The Trump administration has also launched successive purges of top military and intelligence leadership whose views were seen as being at odds with Trump. During a September 30 meeting with over 800 generals and admirals, Trump stated that the deployments should be used as "training grounds for our military" and described America as waging "a war from within", adding that "America is under invasion from within" and that it was "o different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms".In 2025, the Trump administration deployed forces of the federal government such as the National Guard to select U.S. cities. Deployments began in Los Angeles in June 2025, followed by deployment to Washington, D.C., in August 2025, and planned deployments to Memphis, Chicago and Portland, among others. On September 8, 2025, DHS announced that ICE would lead Operation Midway Blitz, a multi-agency surge aimed at "criminal illegal aliens" in Illinois. According to U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood, the operation began on September 6, 2025. According to DHS, the mission honors Katie Abraham, a Chicago-area woman killed earlier in the year by an undocumented drunk driver in Urbana.
Launch and scope
While announced as a Chicago crackdown, the operation's jurisdiction covers the entire state of Illinois and neighboring Lake County, Indiana. In addition to ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, personnel from the U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were included. The ICE processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview was the site of clashes between protestors and federal agents. ABC 7 Chicago reported that more than 250 people had been taken into custody during the first nine days, with detainees transferred to immigration detention centers in Indiana and Wisconsin. Thirteen days after the operation began, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin stated that officials had arrested almost 550 people. The operation includes detaining truck drivers without immigration documentation. By November 11, 140 migrant drivers had been taken into custody.Events
September
On September 6, thousands of people protested in the Chicago Loop against Trump sending ICE and the National Guard. A similar protest was held outside of the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago, Illinois, where federal agents were being sent for the operation. Additional protests against Trump sending ICE and the National Guard to Chicago were held in Joliet, Illinois, and Rockford, Illinois. That same day on Truth Social, Trump posted an AI image of himself depicting himself as an officer in the film Apocalypse Now, stating "Chicago is about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR", a post that was sharply criticized by state and city officials.On September 12, ICE agents in Franklin Park, Illinois, shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez. After Villegas-Gonzalez was stopped at a traffic stop, he tried to flee and struck an officer with his car. The injured ICE officer was released from the hospital after being treated for "severe back injuries, lacerations to the hand and substantial tears on his knee". DHS officials released a statement stating: "During a vehicle stop, the subject resisted and attempted to drive his vehicle into the arrest team, striking an officer and subsequently dragging him as he fled the scene. Fearing for his life, the officer discharged his firearm and struck the subject". However, bodycam footage from a responding officer contradicted this claim, as it showed no ICE agents were injured.
El Grito Festival, a festival celebrating Mexican Independence Day scheduled to take place in Grant Park on September 13–14, was postponed due to news of increased ICE activity in Chicago. A separate celebration was held in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago on September 15.
File:Kat at the Broadview Processing Center - 20250919 - 0843.jpg|thumb|Journalist and House of Representatives candidate Kat Abughazaleh protesting at the ICE Broadview processing center on September 19, 2025|left
In northwest suburban Elgin, federal agents in military uniforms used explosives to breach the door of a residence around 6:00 AM on September 16, while at least one helicopter circled the neighborhood. They detained at least six persons, two of whom were later determined to be U.S. citizens. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem may have been present. Noem shared a video of the operation on her social media channels.
In downtown Chicago on September 28, protesters heckled armed U.S. Border Patrol agents as they marched through the downtown and Gold Coast neighborhoods, chanting "Shame", "Pigs", and "Get out of Chicago". Agents arrested a Latino family in Millennium Park, including an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old child, during the patrolling. Bovino said "obviously, the particular characteristics of an individual, how they look. How do they look compared to, say, you?".
On September 30, ICE conducted a late-night raid on a South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, using a Black Hawk helicopter to rappel onto residential buildings. The FBI, U.S. Border Patrol, and ATF assisted in the operation. DHS stated it arrested 37 people in the raid. Stephen Miller declared after the raid that the building was "filled" with Tren de Aragua "terrorists", but later statements by DHS identified no more than two people as suspected gang members. Eyewitness reports stated that several U.S. citizens were removed from their homes, zip-tied and detained by federal agents for around three hours before being released. Reports on the raid stated that some children were taken from the building while naked.
In the Chicago Loop, hundreds continued to protest ICE and Trump threatening to send the National Guard.
October 1–15
On October 1, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a first-of-its-kind restriction on drones over Chicago. According to Newsweek, the restriction was at the request of DHS. Centered on Chicago, the restriction zone measured wide, larger than those imposed over Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, during similar law-enforcement operations.On October 3, Alderwoman Jessie Fuentes of Chicago, a Puerto Rican US citizen, was handcuffed by federal agents inside of an ER. They threatened her with arrest before releasing her outside of the hospital. In Logan Square, an ICE agent threw smoke grenades onto a crowded street, affecting several bystanders.
On October 4, U.S. Border Patrol agents shot a woman after, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security, their patrol vehicle was boxed in and then rammed by 10 other vehicles. Local community groups disputed federal claims that the agents had been boxed in, claiming that federal agents crashed into a civilian car and caused a multi-car crash. The victim was taken to a local hospital and discharged later that day. Protests broke out in Brighton Park in the area of the shooting, and federal agents shot pepper balls and tear gas at the protesters. The tear gas also affected several Chicago police officers on the scene, and Mayor Brandon Johnson called for an investigation. Over 500 national guard troops were deployed to the Chicago area from Illinois and Texas by the White House.
On October 6, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order prohibiting federal agencies from using city property for civil immigration enforcement. Dariana Fajardo, a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE agents in Waukegan, Illinois. They claimed she was trying to box in ICE vehicles, a claim she and community leaders denied.
On October 7, Trump sent the National Guard to Chicago against the wishes of Governor J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson, and a lawsuit filed by the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago to declare the deployment illegal was pending until a court hearing on October 9. Four workers at a cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, were detained by ICE agents after attempting to help a man who was struggling in the Des Plaines River near the cemetery's perimeter. ICE agents pepper sprayed them before tackling, zip-tying and shackling them.
An ICE agent was charged with drunk driving.
On October 8, a federal grand jury refused to indict a couple arrested while legally carrying firearms in Broadview, Illinois in September. Prosecutors also abandoned charges against a third protester arrested on September 27 after reviewing new body camera footage of their arrest. In Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, protests continued over Trump sending ICE and the National Guard to Chicago.
On October 9, after detaining four people in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, ICE wrote a man a $130 ticket for not having papers on him proving that he was a legal resident. An anti-ICE protest was held at the University of Illinois Chicago, following a viral video showing ICE arresting two women near campus.
On October 10, Debbie Brockman, an employee of WGN-TV, was detained in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago by federal agents for seven hours after videotaping agents detaining a Latino man and asking if they had a warrant. On October 14, Brockman's attorney released a statement saying that Brockman was pursuing legal action against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for assault and wrongful arrest. In Broadview, Illinois, protests continued outside of an ICE facility guarded by Illinois State Police instead of the National Guard, which was suspended from being deployed into Illinois by a federal judge. Meanwhile, Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth were denied entry to the building for a fourth time.
On October 11, in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, officers detained an 18-year old girl in a video that went viral, though DHS denies that officers were ICE agents. Over 400 people protested in the Rogers Park neighborhood after 4 people were detained there by ICE two days earlier.
On October 12, ICE agents deployed tear gas in the Albany Park neighborhood, in direct violation of a court order that had been handed down by a federal judge just days before. A procession offering Catholic eucharist to detainees at the Broadview ICE facility was denied.
On October 14, several people were detained in ICE raids in the Pullman and Roseland neighborhoods. In the East Side neighborhood, hundreds of residents confronted ICE agents after they rammed a vehicle and caused a multi-vehicle car crash during a chase. ICE agents deployed tear gas for the second time in violation of a court order handed down on October 9. The tear gas also affected Chicago police officers who were at the scene. Three people who gathered around the site of the crash were arrested.
Also on October 14, hundreds of residents attended a whistle-making event to create whistles to distribute to the public to alert neighbors of observed ICE activity.
On October 15, a Cook County judge signed an order barring ICE from arresting people while going to court proceedings, including arrests outside courthouses, in parking lots, surrounding sidewalks and entryways. A U.S. citizen with the first name "Angel" was grabbed off the street and pulled into a vehicle by U.S. Border Patrol agents in the South Chicago neighborhood on October 15, 2025. The incident was captured on his cousin's Ring camera. After interrogating him, agents dropped him off a half a mile away from where they had pulled him into the vehicle.