Trump plans big immigration raid in Chicago: reports

Donald Trump’s incoming U.S. Presidential administration plans to launch a large immigration raid in Chicago. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Donald Trump’s incoming U.S. Presidential administration plans to launch a large immigration raid in Chicago the day after he takes office, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing four people familiar with the planning.

The raid, expected to start on Tuesday (January 21, 2025), will last all week, the Wall Street Journal said, adding the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.

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Mr. Trump’s transition team did no immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

His incoming border czar, Tom Homan, told an event in the city that the administration is “going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois,” the Journal reported.

“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,” he was quoted as saying.

Immigration was at the center of Mr. Trump’s campaign in the lead-up to the November 5 Presidential election.

“Within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Mr. Trump said in January 2024.

Mr. Trump is expected to mobilize agencies across the U.S. government to help him deport record numbers of immigrants, Reuters has reported, building on efforts in his first term to tap all available resources and pressure so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions to cooperate.