Chicago is Next

Yesterday, Beege wrote about Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s race-baiting outburst about the possibility of a federal crackdown on crime in his city. If you missed that go back and look because in hindsight the reporter’s question seems prescient. Basically, Johnson was asked if it might not be better not to thumb his nose in President Trump’s face as he was considering what city ICE would visit next.

Today there are reports that a crackdown in Chicago appears to be coming, maybe as soon as next week.

The Trump administration is making plans for an immigration crackdown in Chicago that would involve 200 homeland security officials and the use of a naval base outside the city as a staging area, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times.

The request to use a Naval Station in Illinois, drafted in recent days by the Homeland Security Department, suggested that the Trump administration was planning a sustained operation, potentially for the month of September. The request, should it be granted by the Defense Department, would be a notable example of the nation’s military resources being used for civilian law enforcement by an administration that has increasingly blurred the line between them…

“I think Chicago will be our next, and then we’ll help with New York,” Mr. Trump said last week after he deployed hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington and his administration tried to make the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration the emergency police commissioner.

Trump’s intervention in Washington, DC has already been dubbed a success by the city’s mayor. However, the president won’t be able to federalize Chicago police the way he did in Washington. It sounds like the plan here is to focus more narrowly on immigration.

The draft request for use of Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago describes “30 days of operations in the Chicago Metropolitan area.” One U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that the Homeland Security Department had discussed using the base for immigration enforcement with the military…

Former ICE officials said the request indicated a significant operation targeting Chicago.

“This appears to be a large-scale sustained plan. Having a tactical operations center and incident command center indicates the type of preparation you would see in a military setting,” said Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ICE official. “That this is separate from the police department and existing local ICE infrastructure looks like a massive surge operation” building on operations in Los Angeles and Washington.

Trump appears to be going back and forth a bit here. Just a few days ago he said he wouldn’t send in the troops unless Gov. Pritzker asked.

“I’m not a dictator, I just know how to stop crime,” Trump said at a televised cabinet meeting. “But [Pritzker] should be calling me and he should be saying, ‘Could you send over the troops, please? It’s out of control.’”

So is he planning to recreate what he did in Los Angeles or is this going to be more of an ICE operation without help from the National Guard. It’s sounding like the latter but that could change.

Another source familiar with the plan told the Sun-Times about 30 to 40 ICE agents had been practicing riot control tactics at the military installation for months, using flash-bang grenades and marching in phalanxes with shields. The source said the planned operation would likely involve more agents than had been previously running drills, noting that the barracks can house 200 people.

What seems clear at this point is that Chicago is going to see, at a minimum, a major influx of ICE personnel who will be making lots of arrests of criminal illegal aliens in the city. They may be starting as soon as next Tuesday. Mayor Johnson and Gov. Pritzker can complain about that, an no doubt they will, but immigration enforcement remains a federal issue and is not under his control. 

If the National Guard does show up it would likely be similar to their role in Washington, DC, i.e. they would be there to make a visual law enforcement presence in high traffic areas, but would not be arresting anyone.

Here’s a local news report from Chicago about the plan.