The Donald Trump administration has put two more Democratic cities in the crosshairs of its anti-immigration offensive: Charlotte, North Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana. To do this, the government plans to send Border Patrol agents, who have had their largest deployment in Chicago, Illinois for two months. This was reported by several national media citing anonymous sources from the Department of Homeland Security.
It is expected that the deployment of agents to these two cities will be led by Gregory Bovino, a senior official of the Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP), the agency to which the Patrol belongs, who led the operation in Chicago and earned the president’s favor for the aggressiveness of his methods. Bovino is the “tough guy”, in the words of the Government itself, which has given a face to the violence of the agents to detain migrants and confront citizens who protest against the abuses committed by federal officials and the inhuman conditions in which detainees are held in the centers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE, for its acronym in English).
Plans for the new operations are still being finalized, according to sources, so the start date of operations is unknown, but Bovino is expected to leave Chicago this week.
This does not mean the call has ended Operation Blitz halfwaylaunched in Chicago on September 9 with the aim of stopping undocumented migrants, despite the rejection of much of the city’s population and the governor of Illinois, Democrat JD Pritzker. In light of reports that the Border Patrol will move to other cities, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Tricia McLaughin denied that her job in Chicago will end. “We’re not leaving,” he posted on the social network
The reality, however, is that crime had declined in Chicago before the anti-immigration operation began in September of this year. Compared to the same month in 2024, homicides decreased by 24% in August; shootings, 24%; robberies, 41%, and vehicle thefts, 28%, according to Chicago Police Department data.
“It’s great to hear that the Trump administration recognizes, as we’ve been saying for months, that crime is down significantly in Chicago,” the city’s Democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, said in a statement Tuesday.
Regarding Bovino’s departure, the mayor declared that the city “will not miss him.” “While in Chicago, your officers did the following: made beloved community members disappear, tear-gassed our police officers on two separate occasions, bragged about shooting an American citizen five times, shot protesters, religious leaders and journalists with pepper balls, lied repeatedly in court and to the public, and pepper-sprayed a one-year-old,” he wrote in
CBP actions in Chicago resulted in thousands of arrests and numerous clashes with residents. A federal judge reported the brutality officers used against protesters, captured in images and videos posted on social media, and prohibited them from using “riot control weapons” unless there was “an immediate and serious threat of physical harm” to officers or other people. Then, finding that the officers did not comply with her orders, Illinois District Judge Sara L. Ellis required them to wear body cameras during their operations in Chicago. Ellis, who ruled in a lawsuit brought by the media and protesters, collected Bovino’s statements and even required him to brief him daily on CBP activities in the city, a requirement that an appeals court later struck down.
Another federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of hundreds of people arrested as part of the Trump administration’s immigration offensive in Chicago. Lawyers from the National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union argued in the Northern Illinois District Court that hundreds of migrants arrested in Chicago were detained in violation of a consent decree in place in the state, which limits the circumstances in which immigration agents can make warrantless arrests.
In response, Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the Trump administration to provide information on how many of the 615 migrants represented in the lawsuit are still in the country or have criminal records. Those who do not pose a risk to the public should be released on bail, the judge ruled.
Trump has been dissatisfied with ICE’s performance and the pace of detentions and deportations. The president aims to deport a million people in his first year in office; However, so far the government reports having expelled around 400,000 people. The Republican celebrated CBP and Bovino’s more aggressive methods. The head of the Border Patrol, whose management was limited to the El Centro section of California, was chosen by Trump to lead the deployment of federal agents to Los Angeles early last summer, and then to Chicago.
Trump has launched an offensive against Democratic-run cities by sending federal agents and National Guard troops under the guise of fighting a crime crisis, even as statistics have shown a drop in crime across the country. In addition to Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Memphis received National Guard troops.
The administration failed to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon, where District Judge Karin J. Immergut prohibited their activity. The Government has appealed the decision. A court ruling also blocked the sending of the National Guard to Chicago and the government appealed to the Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled on the issue.
