CHICAGO — Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove visited Chicago on Sunday to witness the start of ramped-up immigration enforcementin the nation’s third-largest city promised by the Trump administration, though few details of the operation were made public.
Bove said he was in Chicago on Sunday morning and observed Department of Homeland Security agents, along with assisting federal agencies — including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. He didn’t say where the operations took place in the city or detail any arrests.
“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.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Jeff Carter said the agency “began conducting enhanced targeted operations” Sunday in Chicago but declined other details, citing an ongoing operation. Spokesmen for the FBI, ATF and the Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed their involvement but didn’t give other information.
Chicago residents, especially in immigrant circles, have already been on edge for months in anticipation of large-scale arrests touted by the Trump administration. The atmosphere has been especially tense the past week as top Trump officials vowed to start immigration enforcement operations in Chicago the day after Trump’s inauguration before walking back those statements.
Immigrant rights groups have tried to prepare with campaigns for immigrants to know their rights in case of an arrest. City officials have done the same, publishing similar information at public bus and train stations.
On Friday, Chicago Public Schools officials mistakenly believed ICE agents had come to a city elementary school and put out statements to that effect before learning the agents were from the Secret Service. Word of immigration agents at a school — which have long been off limits to immigration agents until Trump ended the policy last week — drew swift criticism from community groups and Gov. JB Pritzker.
The Democratic governor, a frequent Trump critic, questioned the aggressive approach of the operations and the chilling effect for others, particularly for law-abiding immigrants who have been in the country for years.
“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,” Pritzker said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Chicago has been one of Trump’s favorite targets. The city has some of the strongest sanctuary protections, which bar cooperation between city police and immigration agents.
On Saturday, several Chicago-based immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit against ICE, seeking an injunction prohibiting certain types of immigration raids in Chicago.
“Immigrant communities who have called Chicago their home for decades are scared,” said Antonio Gutierrez from Organized Communities Against Deportation, one of the plaintiffs. “We refuse to live in fear and will fight any attempts to roll back the work we’ve done to keep families together.”
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Durkin Richer reported from Washington.