The Trump administration is set to launch a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago next week, marking the first major step in President-elect Donald Trump’s pledged crackdown on illegal immigration, according to sources familiar with the plans.
Border czar Tom Homan warns Chicago officials including the mayor will face arrest and prosecution if they are found to be interfering in the raids.
The raid is expected to begin on Tuesday morning, a day after Trump is inaugurated, and will last all week, the people said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
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Trump ran for president on a bold promise: to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
Wall Street Journal reports: The Trump team intends to target immigrants in the country illegally with criminal backgrounds—many of whose offenses, like driving violations, made them too minor for the Biden administration to pursue. But, the people cautioned, if anyone else in the country illegally is present during an arrest, they will be taken, too.
The transition team had been contemplating cities to target in a day-one operation as a way of making an example of so-called sanctuary cities, which adopt policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
They settled on Chicago both because of the large number of immigrants who could be possible targets and because of the Trump team’s high-profile feud with the city’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Though it isn’t clear how many people the operation will actually target, Trump’s team is planning to work with several right-leaning media outlets to amplify its efforts.
Tom Homan, the administration’s incoming border czar, appeared to preview the operation during a visit to Chicago last month.
“We’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois,” Homan said at a holiday party on Chicago’s North Side. “And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him.”
In response to Homan’s comments at the time, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said “I’m going to make sure to follow the law. I’m concerned that the Trump administration and his lackeys aren’t going to follow the law.”
The Trump transition team and ICE didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Friday, nor did representatives for Pritzker or Johnson.
Large immigrant centers, such as New York, Los Angeles, Denver and Miami, are also in the incoming administration’s sights, and more targeted raids could come.
To help carry them out, the Trump team is weighing a broad mix of changes to give sheriffs more power, with rewards for jurisdictions that cooperate, and financial penalties against those that hold out, people involved in the planning said previously.
Homan, for example, has publicly threatened to throw the mayor of Denver—who has loudly protested Trump’s immigration plans—in jail.