Chicago braces for added ICE agents as standoff with Trump continues

With expanded immigration enforcement operations expected to focus largely on Democratic-led cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, a standoff between city leadership and the Trump administration could reach new levels — creating concerns of collateral damage for some migrants calling those places home.
After President Trump deployed National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles to contend with protestors opposing deportation raids, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) is expecting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to be sent 'in force' to Chicago.
When more federal agents arrive, and what enforcement operations will look like, remain unknown for now.
However, the city remains in the sights of Trump administration officials and allies, such as U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) who toured the Chicago ICE field office on Wednesday and blamed Democrats like Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for 'being on the wrong side of the law.'
'Any politician — it doesn't matter what party you're in — you should be in favor of the people who are upholding the law and trying to keep our communities safe,' the Speaker said Wednesday. 'The idea that the mayor here would say the crazy things that he has said about ICE, he's got it completely upside down.
'He is applauding and supporting dangerous criminals instead of the people who are trying to keep our citizens safe,' he added.
The Louisiana Republican has criticized Pritzker, who told reporters this week that Trump is 'going after the wrong people' in his mission to pull off the largest mass deportation mission in history.
While Pritzker agrees migrants who entered the country illegally and have committed crimes should be deported, he insists that other migrants are being unfairly targeted by ICE as more enforcement operations ramp up around the Windy City.
'We don't know exactly how big that force will be, but I do know that (Trump) has used other law enforcement along with ICE to carry out his ill-conceived mission,' the governor said.
Sam Olson, the field director of the Chicago ICE field office, told local outlet WGN, a Nexstar station, this week that federal agents will be in the streets seven days a week to enforce immigration law.
The ramp-up comes as the White House has called for ICE to make 3,000 arrests per day. Administration officials say ICE has made 100,000 migrant arrests since Trump took office.
But Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday that the Chicago field office is understaffed and overwhelmed at a time when Department of Homeland Security officials claim that assaults on federal agents were up 413 percent.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knock on the door of a residence during a multiagency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago on Jan. 26. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Speaker's comments came a day after New York City Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by ICE while attempting to accompany a migrant out of immigration court and was taken into custody, sparking outrage among Democrats who credit Trump for being behind ICE's tactics.
Yet with tensions high, Olson said agents in Chicago have a job they are committed to doing.
'While we're focusing on a lot of the criminals, there are a subset of those who are here illegally that have final orders of removal that were maybe on some type of reporting procedure, but at some point, they've already been already ordered removed by a judge, so again, we're just enforcing that order,' Olson told WGN.
Pritzker claimed this week that Trump sending Marines and the National Guard troops to Los Angeles hasn't worked out too well for him politically. Due to pushback, the governor doesn't expect military troops to be deployed to other locations, such as Chicago. However, that will keep the focus on ICE and other agencies that the president has vowed to use in immigration enforcement.
The push for more arrests comes as GOP lawmakers are attempting to pass Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which has $150 billion earmarked to provide more funding to ICE and other agencies for immigration enforcement.
With more money in ICE coffers, Chicago Democrats fear that it signals more trouble for migrants who are already on edge over the increased presence of more agents who are already seeking to meet arrest number expectations coming from the top.
'If money is allocated like that …. not only are (ICE enforcement operations) going to be normalized, but they're also going to be expanded to the dire consequences of destroying entire cities,' Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez told NewsNation. 'It's going to happen because of an individual who is acting as a dictator and not as a president.'
As Chicago's mayor continues to call for more resistance to Trump's immigration policies directed at left-leaning cities, other city leaders are hoping for compromise.
Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat who has pushed for the city to tweak its existing sanctuary city policy, predicted Trump's focus on Chicago was looming. Lopez previously accused the mayor of engaging in a 'political game of chicken' with the president and is calling on the city to extend an olive branch. Realistically, though, he fears nothing will happen.
'I think it's only going to get worse,' Lopez told NewsNation on Wednesday. '(City leaders) want to have a continual state of distraction with this administration because it deflects from their own failures to actually solve any problems in our city and in our country.'
Lopez, who has met privately with White House border czar Tom Homan, believes focusing on migrant criminals who have entered the country illegally over the past four years is 'more than enough to keep this administration busy and more than enough to allow the president to meet his goals.'
But he says with the mayor and others unwilling to budge, the spotlight pointed at Chicago will not dim, and that 'collateral captures' of migrants attempting to find asylum in the city to achieve a better life will continue as ICE ramps up its activity.
'We are choosing to keep the target on the backs of our city and the backs of our undocumented community by thumbing our noses at Trump 2.0,' Lopez said. 'He's been very true to his word about what he wants to do. And no one should be surprised he's acting on what he said.'
'The federal government is bigger than the city of Chicago,' he added. 'And now, we're going to feel it.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Chicago Tribune

17 minutes ago

• Chicago Tribune

Appeals court lets President Donald Trump keep control of National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — An appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids. The decision halts a ruling from a lower court judge who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The deployment was the first by a president of a state National Guard without the governor's permission since 1965. In its decision, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously concluded it was likely Trump lawfully exercised his authority in federalizing control of the guard. It said that while presidents don't have unfettered power to seize control of a state's guard, the Trump administration had presented enough evidence to show it had a defensible rationale for doing so, citing violent acts by protesters. 'The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters 'pinned down' several federal officers and threw 'concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects' at the officers. Protesters also damaged federal buildings and caused the closure of at least one federal building. And a federal van was attacked by protesters who smashed in the van's windows,' the court wrote. 'The federal government's interest in preventing incidents like these is significant.' It also found that even if the federal government failed to notify the governor of California before federalizing the National Guard as required by law, Newsom had no power to veto the president's order. Trump celebrated the decision on his Truth Social platform, calling it a 'BIG WIN.' He wrote that 'all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done.' Newsom issued a statement that expressed disappointment that the court is allowing Trump to retain control of the Guard. But he also welcomed one aspect of the decision. 'The court rightly rejected Trump's claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court,' Newsom said. 'The President is not a king and is not above the law. We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump's authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens.' The court case could have wider implications on the president's power to deploy soldiers within the United States after Trump directed immigration officials to prioritize deportations from other Democratic-run cities. Trump, a Republican, argued that the troops were necessary to restore order. Newsom, a Democrat, said the move inflamed tensions, usurped local authority and wasted resources. The protests have since appeared to be winding down. Two judges on the appeals panel were appointed by Trump during his first term. During oral arguments Tuesday, all three judges suggested that presidents have wide latitude under the federal law at issue and that courts should be reluctant to step in. The case started when Newsom sued to block Trump's command, and he won an early victory from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said only allows presidents can take control during times of 'rebellion or danger of a rebellion.' 'The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of 'rebellion,'' wrote Breyer, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton and is brother to retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. The Trump administration, though, argued that courts can't second guess the president's decisions and quickly secured a temporary halt from the appeals court. The ruling means control of the California National Guard will stay in federal hands as the lawsuit continues to unfold.

Wall Street Journal

24 minutes ago

• Wall Street Journal

Oil Futures Diverge on U.S. Holiday Price Lag, Contract Expiration

Oil prices were mixed in European afternoon trade on Friday, with Brent crude down more than 2% to around $77 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate edging 0.7% higher to $74 a barrel. Brent futures fell after President Trump set a two-week deadline to decide whether the U.S. will strike Iran, easing fears of an imminent military intervention. The international oil benchmark had settled 2.8% higher on Thursday at $78.85, its highest close since January.

Yahoo

25 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Trump Gives Netanyahu Green Light to Continue His Reckless Wars

President Trump took time on Wednesday to reaffirm his unwavering support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wars. 'I said, 'Keep going.' What do I say?' Trump said when asked about his recent conversations with Netanyahu. 'I speak to him every day. He's a good man … been very unfairly treated by his country, I think. Very unfairly.' 'Have you given him any indication that you may seek to aid them more than you have already?' a reporter asked. 'No.' At this point in the Israel-Iran conflict, the U.S. has offered Israel intelligence and helped shoot Iranian missiles out of the air. Trump has also left the door open for further U.S. military intervention, a development that would make Netanyahu's job that much easier. Trump doesn't seem willing to budge on his support for Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran under the guise of some potential nuclear threat, even as many in his own base oppose it in the name of 'America First.' If anything, this war offers Netanyahu some temporary reprieve from attention on his genocide in Gaza. If Trump believes Netanyahu is being treated unfairly even as he commits genocide in Gaza and provokes all-out war with Iran, all while failing to both eliminate Hamas and free all the Israeli hostages, then Trump is even more blindly committed to the prime minister than initially feared.