CHICAGO – The Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz on Monday, an effort to crack down on undocumented immigrants in Chicago and Illinois.
The operation was launched in honor of Katie Abraham, who was killed this year in a hit-and-run car crash with a Guatemalan man who was in the country illegally.
“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” a tweet from the department read.
The tweet included a 4-minute video featuring the parents of Abraham talking about their daughter’s death and criticizing the U.S. immigration system.
“President Trump and Secretary Noem stand with the victims of illegal alien crime while Governor Pritzker stands with criminal illegal aliens,” the tweet read.
The backstory:
Abraham, 20, was visiting friends at the University of Illinois in January when the car she and four of her friends were traveling in was suddenly hit.
“They were at a stoplight and there was someone who was driving drunk who hit them from behind at full force. And following the accident, he fled on foot,” said Katie’s father, Joe Abraham.
Katie died at the scene, and her friend, Chloe Polzin, 21, of Deerfield, died the following day.
U.S. Marshals arrested Julio Cucul Bol, a Guatemalan national using an alias, on a bus in Texas headed for the Mexican border just days after the crash.
Chicago’s sanctuary city status
Big picture view:
Over the course of the Trump administration’s immigration surges, Chicago officials repeatedly reaffirmed the city’s so-called sanctuary policies that have been place for four decades.
Chicago’s policies bar local law enforcement from asking about or detaining someone for their immigration status or from supporting ICE, including by securing perimeters for raids, transporting detainees or sharing information about undocumented immigrants.
Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order last week declaring city police would not collaborate with federal immigration agents. It also requires Chicago officers to wear uniforms and not wear masks to “clearly distinguish them from federal agents.”
“We will not have our police officers who are working hard every single day to drive down crime deputized to do traffic stops and checkpoints for the president,” Johnson said before signing the order.
