The Trump administration announced Monday that it has begun an operation in Chicago against undocumented immigrants who commit crimes, a step President Trump had threatened to take, and advocates said people in Hispanic areas have already been taken into custody. The Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched what it called Operation Midway Blitz, saying the action is being taken "in honor of" Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old from a Chicago suburb who was killed in a hit-and-run in January by Julio Cucul Bol, a Guatemalan national in the US illegally, per USA Today.
The operation is part of the Trump administration's campaign against sanctuary cities, per the Washington Post. The announcement said agents will go after "the worst of the worst" and blamed Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who opposes federal deployments, and other politicians for releasing "gang members, drug traffickers, kidnappers, and rapists" onto the streets. "No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens," the statement said. "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."
Protesters gathered Monday in a part of the city historically home to Mexican immigrants. "It's never been about arresting the worst of the worst," said Alderwoman Jeylu´ Gutierrez. "It's about terrorizing our communities. But we will not be intimidated." Three people in her ward have been detained, she said, including a street vendor selling flowers and someone waiting for a bus, per the New York Times. The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute says research shows that "not only do immigrants commit fewer crimes, but they also do not raise crime rates in the US communities where they settle," per the Post.