ICE crackdowns in sanctuary cities

AIDAN SHAPIRO
PHOTOGRAPHER
STAFF WRITER

9/22/2025

Since his inauguration in January 2025, President Donald Trump has cracked down on undocumented immigrants in the United States. The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has recently been raiding sanctuary cities like Chicago. 

Sanctuary cities are cities whose local governments are limiting cooperation with operations like ICE. Cities like Boston, Chicago, Denver and Michigan’s own East Lansing have essentially become safe havens for those that are undocumented in the US, regardless of reason. 

Criminal or not, many undocumented US citizens are being detained by ICE for being linked to criminal activity. According to a CNN article from September 8, ICE publicly detained five people in Chicago the weekend prior. 

The increased presence of ICE in Chicago has been dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” and was announced on September 8 by the official ICE website.

“Today, the Department of Homeland Security announced Operation Midway Blitz in honor of Katie Abraham who was killed in a drunk driving hit-and-run car wreck caused by criminal illegal alien Julio Cucul-Bol in Illinois,” the ICE announcement said. 

According to a Chicago Sun-Times article from September 8, Abraham was going into her third year at Ohio University and was visiting friends near the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

The hit-and-run occurred on January 19, with Abraham and one other friend dying from the accident. Abraham’s parents have since publicly advocated Trump and his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which will amp up funding for border security. 

With “Operation Midway Blitz” in full swing, Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino is now in Chicago. Bovino was the one in charge of many of the ICE raids in Los Angeles this Summer. Bovino arrived in Chicago on September 16, according to a Chicago Sun-Times article from the same day. 

Bovino took to social media to announce his arrival, saying “Well Chicago, we’ve arrived!” The X post also contained a video of ICE agents operating throughout Chicago. The video has since been removed due to copyright infringement. 

While ICE continues to arrest undocumented citizens throughout the country, many governors and mayors are speaking up. 

“You think they’re questioning them? Because that’s not what any of us are seeing in any of the bystander videos that have been made. People are being grabbed, and they’re being thrown into vans,” JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois said in an NPR interview. 

Pritzker has declined Trump’s offers to bring the National Guard into Chicago. Without a request from Pritzker, Trump cannot send the National Guard in.

As mentioned above, East Lansing is one of the sanctuary cities in the US. Two years ago, East Lansing announced that it would not allow its police force or other resources to assist in enforcing immigration law, according to a Bridge Michigan article. 

East Lansing is the only city in Michigan left on the Department of Justice’s list of sanctuary cities. According to the same Bridge Michigan article, Trump wanted to cut federal funding from sanctuary cities but was blocked by a San Francisco federal judge.