By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

Copyright truthout

After weeks of threatening to invade Chicago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched “Operation Midway Blitz” on Monday to abduct, detain, and deport some of the millions of immigrant community members in the city.

The Trump administration is, once again, using crime as a pretext to carry out its anti-immigrant agenda. In this case, officials are claiming that Operation Midway Blitz is in honor of Illinois resident Katie Abraham, who was killed in a drunk driving accident about 100 miles outside of Chicago, allegedly caused by a person who was undocumented.

“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” DHS said on X. “President Trump and Secretary Noem stand with the victims of illegal alien crime while Governor Pritzker stands with criminal illegal aliens.”

The DHS press release announcing Operation Midway Blitz contains no details about what it will entail, although news reports and officials’ statements have provided more information.

In a social media post on Tuesday, DHS announced: “Operation Midway Blitz will FLOOD THE ZONE with DHS law enforcement in Chicago. @POTUS Trump and @Sec_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.”

Days before DHS’s announcement, Trump posted to social media a bizarre play on the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now, in what appeared to be a threat to declare war on Chicago. (Trump later claimed he only wanted to “clean up” the city, not go to war with it.)

“I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” the post states over an image of Trump as the movie’s lead character with a helicopter and billowing smoke behind him and “Chipocalypse Now” scrawled across the bottom.

“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” the post reads, referencing the Department of Defense’s recent name change.

Illinois’s elected officials, community leaders, and city residents have roundly rejected Trump’s attacks on Chicago, which has seen a record decline in crime in recent years.

“We remain opposed to any potential militarized immigration enforcement without due process because of ICE’s track record of detaining and deporting American citizens and violating the human rights of hundreds of detainees,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) posted on X, adding that the city did not receive notice of DHS’s so-called operation.

The mayor then detailed the administration’s abuses against immigrants who are detained, stating, “[t]here are more than 500 documented incidents of human rights abuses at detention facilities since Trump took office, including deaths of detainees and alleged cases of sexual abuse of minors by federal immigration agents.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) also pushed back, posting on X, “this isn’t about fighting crime,” and that the “Trump Administration is focused on scaring Illinoisians.”

Community members and local leaders have held protests, press conferences, and meetings to protect their city from federal agents and, potentially, military troops.

“There is no emergency justifying these harsh and destabilizing operations — other than the Trump Administration’s authoritarian impulses to attack communities that do not support his unpopular and harsh immigration policies,” ACLU of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka told Truthout in an email.

Community members have confirmed that several abductions have already occurred. One of the people taken was a local flower vendor, according to WGN News. Surveillance video shows a man detained by people who appear to be federal agents wearing bulletproof vests, the outlet reported. One of the agents was wearing a Donald Trump-shaped pin.

“This is the type of racial ethnic profiling that is going on,” Illinois Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D) told WGN News. “They didn’t have a court order to come and pick up someone who sells flowers.”

Brandon Lee, director of communications for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), condemned the recent raids in Chicago in an email to Truthout.

“Since the start of last week we have seen the Trump administration escalate its terror campaign on our neighbors and our city,” Lee said, adding that ICIRR is committed to “making sure our community members in Illinois know their rights, and know the resources available to them,” which includes the Family Support Hotline at 855-435-7693.

“The hotline sends called-in tips to our network of Rapid Response Teams who verify ICE presence, and operators offer support to families whose loved ones have been taken,” Lee said.

“No matter how much he tries to make this seem like a narrow operation, Trump’s attacks are broad based and meant to target all immigrants — from grandparents in Albany Park, to flower vendors on Archer Avenue,” Lee continued. “This is a moment when people all across Chicagoland are coming together to reject Trump’s impending occupation and commit to looking out for all of our neighbors.”