CHICAGO — (AP) — The Border Patrol agent who has broken norms leading an immigration crackdown in Los Angeles reached Chicago on Tuesday, potentially signaling a new, more aggressive phase to an enforcement surge announced last week in the nation's third-largest city.
"Well, Chicago, we've arrived!" Gregory Bovino said in an X post that included a stylized video of Customs and Border Protection vehicles driving into the city along with agents walking in slow motion amid picturesque downtown shots. "Operation At Large is here to continue the mission we started in Los Angeles."
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also in Chicago, saying Department of Homeland Security officers made multiple arrests early Tuesday. She posted videos of armed agents in camouflage military-style gear leading people in handcuffs from a residence.
“Our work is only beginning,” she said on X.
For weeks, President Donald Trump has promised — with threats of apocalyptic force — that Chicago would see a surge in immigration enforcement and National Guard troops over the objections of local leaders and residents. Immigrant rights activists and Illinois lawmakers have noted a recent uptick in immigration enforcement agents as Trump targets Democratic strongholds.
However, Trump has seesawed on sending a military deployment to Chicago. After saying he'd focus on other cities, Trump said Tuesday that Chicago would see a deployment soon.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and frequent Trump critic who has objected to any federal intervention, dismissed the Republican president's latest statements about Chicago.
“It's hard to believe anything he says,” Pritzker told reporters.
Officials did not answer questions about the focus or size of immigration enforcement in Chicago. Neither did a spokesman for a military base outside Chicago that has agreed to provide limited logistical support to federal agents.
“Teams have spread across Chicago to go after targets,” Bovino told The Associated Press.
He said Noem observed a 5:30 a.m. raid that resulted in five arrests.
They included one U.S. citizen, Chicago news outlets reported. Joe Botello, 37 said he was briefly detained after telling agents who showed up at his Elgin home early Tuesday he was a U.S. citizen and had identification, according to the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.
Brandon Lee, a spokesman for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the arrests weren't about keeping the community safe.
“Secretary Noem's Elgin photo-op put the cruelty of ICE on full display, forcibly removing people from their home and disrupting daily life for citizens and noncitizens alike,” he said.
Increased enforcement in recent days has renewed fears among Chicago's immigrant communities, leading to the cancellation and delay of some celebrations for Mexican Independence Day, which was Tuesday. Tensions are especially high since an ICE officer fatally shot a man who was allegedly evading arrest last week.
Pritzker, a possible 2028 presidential contender, criticized Bovino's tactics, calling them violent and discriminatory. He accused the administration of sending federal agents to agitate and inflame tensions as a justification for Trump to deploy the military.
“They are grabbing people who have brown skin or who speak with an accent or who speak another language and not people who are guilty of or are accused of perpetrating a crime,” Pritzker said Tuesday.
In Los Angeles, Bovino's self-described "turn and burn" operation led to thousands of arrests. Agents smashed car windows, blew open a door to a house and patrolled MacArthur Park on horseback. The operation in California began June 6 without any hints before it was launched.
On social media, Bovino amped up his Chicago-related content, pointing out favorable media coverage, snapping back at members of Pritzker's staff and using a popular musical refrain from Djo’s “End of Beginning” as background music for his arrival video. The line “and when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it” is often used on social media in odes to the city.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said he has had no direct conversations with federal officials and reaffirmed that Chicago police would not collaborate with immigration agents. As a largely symbolic measure, he signed an executive order aimed at protecting the right to protest.
“In the event that the federal government tramples on the Constitution, our police department has a responsibility to make sure we’re protecting our democracy,” he said.
Johnson and Pritzker have vowed to sue over a federal intervention.
Noem said DHS would not back down.
Ahead of Bovino's arrival, DHS offered few details about immigration enforcement in Chicago, aside from noting roughly two dozen arrests since ICE began an operation earlier this month. Immigration activists have said the number is much higher, with more than 15 alone in one suburb on Monday. Officials with ICE did not return messages Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois, a Democratic member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, said Monday that ICE has taken 250 people into custody since it began its “Operation Midway Blitz” on Sept. 6. Underwood said she was briefed after requesting more information from ICE and that she was told the program would include the entire state of Illinois and Lake County, Indiana, which is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
“Everyone deserves to feel safe in their community. Like all Illinoisans, I’ve been concerned and alarmed by reporting about ICE’s conduct and operations in our state under Donald Trump,” Underwood said in a statement.
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Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
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