Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) on Monday railed against President Trump’s latest immigration operation in Chicago, stating the administration did not give the governor’s office a heads-up.
“The Governor’s Office has received no formal communication or information from the Trump Administration. Like the public and press, we are learning of their operations through their social media as they attempt to produce a reality television show,” Pritzker spokesperson Matt Hill said in an emailed statement to The Hill’s sister station, NewsNation.
“As Trump has said himself, this is not about seriously fighting crime or reforming immigration – it’s about Trump’s plan to go to war with America’s third-largest city,” the statement continued.
Launched on Monday, Operation Midway Blitz is part of a national effort to curb illegal immigration in sanctuary cities. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal law enforcement agencies have already been deployed in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and just recently Boston.
Over the weekend, Trump previewed the operation on social media, sharing an AI photo of himself saying he loves “the smell of deportations in the morning” and saying Chicago was “about to find out why its called the Department of WAR.”
“Once again, this isn’t about fighting crime. That requires support and coordination — yet we’ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks,” Pritzker wrote on the social media platform X.
Since Trump returned to the White House, Pritzker has become a vocal critic of the president and his policies, escalating his criticism amid National Guard deployment threats.
“If he cared about delivering real solutions for Illinois, then we would have heard from him,” Pritzker’s spokesperson said of Trump.
Pritzker over the weekend shared “Know Your Rights” pamphlets in multiple languages and encouraged people who witnessed arrests to record and share with media outlets.
On Sunday, Trump said he is not “going to war” with Chicago, but instead “going to clean up our cities.”
“We’re going to clean them up, so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war. That’s common sense,” Trump added.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it launched the operation in Chicago in honor of Katie Abraham, who was reportedly killed in a drunk driving incident by a Guatemalan immigrant.