Federal agents, with top Trump administration officials and right-wing media personality Dr. Phil McGraw in tow, descended on Chicago Sunday for a series of targeted immigration arrests across the Chicago area — capping off a week of fear and confusion as the feds set out to enforce the president’s mass deportation pledge.
A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said a range of federal agencies conducted “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago “to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.”
The top officials included border czar Tom Homan, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and other officials. Several federal agencies including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were also involved after the Department of Homeland Security gave expanded immigration authority to agencies in the Department of Justice.
“We will support everyone at the federal, state and local levels who joins this critical mission to take back our communities,” Bove said in a statement. “We will use all available tools to address obstruction and other unlawful impediments to our efforts to protect the homeland. Most importantly, we will not rest until the work is done.”
Nationwide, officials said 956 arrests were made on Sunday and 286 on Saturday. While some of the operations may not have been unusual, ICE averaged 311 daily arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
Officials told McGraw that 300 people were being targeted in Chicago, but specific details of the Chicago operations, including locations or number of arrests, were not released. Until Sunday, there were few reports of large immigration actions in Chicago despite previous statements that Chicago would be targeted as early as Tuesday morning, the day after President Trump’s inauguration.
Reports circulate of Chicago neighborhoods impacted
But reports of the homes and areas targeted circulated on social media and beyond, contributing to a fear that has gripped some neighborhoods since Trump took office.
Two residents who live in the 9900 block of South Commercial Avenue in South Deering told the Sun-Times that immigration officers were on their block about noon Sunday and knocked on at least one door. The officers were in an unmarked van and “ICE” was clearly visible on their clothing, the men said.
The residents said neighbors were on edge after the officers showed up.
Related Post
Other residents are “not going to open their doors for you,” one of them told a Sun-Times reporter doing interviews Sunday evening. The two men asked not to be identified for fear of being targeted in future raids.
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) said federal officials conducted operations in Logan Square but not in his ward.
A spokesperson for Organized Communities Against Deportations, an immigrant advocacy group, said they received reports that people were taken from Albany Park, Hermosa and Edgewater, and also from suburban Bolingbrook and East Chicago.
“We are continuing to inform folks of their rights, and it seems at least in some circumstances asking for judicial warrants have at least prevented some folks from getting detained,” said Antonio Gutierrez, the group’s strategic coordinator.
Dr. Phil allowed on ride-alongs with federal agents
While federal officials said little to local media, they did allow Dr. Phil McGraw an interview with Homan and other access that no other media received. He and a film crew joined officials on some raids and livestreamed some of the arrests on Merit TV, which he founded after his long-running daytime TV show, “Dr. Phil,” was canceled in 2023.
Video that livestreamed on Merit TV showed McGraw accompanying Homan as they approached a man outside a car in handcuffs around 6:30 a.m. Sunday. Another person whose face was blurred out in the video was in the car.
“What have you been charged with?” McGraw asked the man in the video.
“Charged with?” he asked.
“Before,” McGraw said.
The man looked away before answering, “I’m not going to say nothing. I want to talk to my lawyer.”
“Are you a citizen?” McGraw then asked on the video.
“My mom’s a citizen.”
“Your mother is a citizen?” Dr. Phil asked. “But you’re not?”
“No,” the man in the video answered.
Merit TV described the man as a 42-year-old from Thailand who has faced criminal charges. While in its reporting the outlet named some of the people detained along with criminal charges they faced, federal officials did not confirm any of those details to the Sun-Times.
Homan used the man’s case as an example of the problems he sees with “sanctuary cities” where police are forbidden from cooperating with immigration officials in many cases.
Request for emergency action denied by court
Organized Communities Against Deportations filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Saturday over its plans for “mass deportations” and asked for an emergency hearing or injunction in federal court Sunday. Prior to the request for an emergency order, the government was required to respond to the suit by noon Wednesday, according to court documents; no hearing had been set.
Federal district Judge Edmond E. Chang denied the request for immediate action Sunday night, raising questions about the need for an emergency hearing given the plaintiffs weren’t the targets of the raids themselves, according to court documents. Chang said the already expedited schedule for briefings “remains the right course.”
Chicago residents, especially in immigrant circles, have been on edge for months in anticipation of large-scale arrests touted by the Trump administration. On Friday, Chicago Public Schools caused alarm when they said Hamline Elementary School in Back of the Yards had been targeted by immigration officials when actually Secret Service agents had visited the school to investigate a threat.
Sen. Durbin, Duckworth respond
While local officials were given little details of the actions, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Illinois Democrats, issued a joint statement on the raids Sunday night, saying those “who pose a danger to our country” should be the focus of deportation efforts while others are given a chance to earn legal status by registering with the government, submitting to background checks and “paying their dues.”
The two said their offices were ready to help people “improperly caught up in these raids” with caseworkers.
“We stand with the immigrant community in Chicago and across the country,” the statement said.
Asked about the possibility of immigration raids in Illinois on CNN Sunday, Gov. JB Pritzker said there’s a difference between targeting undocumented “violent criminals” and law-abiding people.
“They’re going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades, and they’re often our neighbors and our friends,” Pritzker said.
“These are not people who are causing problems in our country, and what we need is a path to citizenship for them. We need to secure our border. We need to get rid of the violent criminals, but we also need to protect people, at least the residents of Illinois and all across the nation, who are just doing what we hope that immigrants will do.”
Contributing: AP