Trump’s immigration sweep in Chicago mostly nabbed the innocent
A newly filed Justice Department document reveals that nearly every immigrant arrested in Chicago during a recent sweep had no criminal record. This contradicts the Trump administration narrative that the raids targeted only “the worst of the worst.” Out of 614 arrests under “Operation Midway Blitz,” 598 involved individuals with clean records. They targeted innocent people.
The government’s own documents contradict the Trump administration’s narrative that its ongoing raids are targeting and arresting violent criminals who are in the country illegally or are what the agency routinely calls “the worst of the worst.” It also may violate a 2022 federal consent decree that put strong conditions on making arrests without warrants or probable cause. Most of these arrests are likely to have violated these conditions, according to lawyers representing the migrants in the consent decree.
“You look at this list and it is very clear they just did a broad sweep of anybody and not a targeted sweep of people who were here unlawfully and that they knew were likely to flee or were criminals as they lead you to believe,” said Michelle Garcia, deputy legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, one of the groups representing undocumented migrants in the consent decree.
The filing, submitted as part of a federal court case, has sparked outrage among civil rights groups, who say the raids violated a consent decree requiring probable cause for detention. DHS claimed the operation was about public safety, yet its own numbers suggest it swept up hardworking residents and families, while only a handful had serious charges. It looks like the only criminals they caught were by mistake.