President Donald Trump is planning Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) operations in some of the nation’s largest cities, including Chicago, which an unnamed Trump administration official told Rolling Stone "is next, if they go too far." But the mayor of Chicago -- one of the cities on Trump's list -- insists he isn't having it.
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“Whatever is necessary...We should all be committed to doing just that,” Johnson said during a City Hall news conference Tuesday (June 17). “Whether it’s in the courts, whether it’s in the streets or with policy, we’re going to continue to defend and stand up for working people.”
Chicago has been on Trump’s radar for a while now with the president describing the city as a “war zone.” Last week the city’s officials confirmed Chicago is one of the places where Trump is sending ICE tactical teams.
Trump and his administration have praised the recent deployment of Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles as a model they intend to replicate in other cities, advancing the president’s anti-immigration and mass deportation agenda.
In a Truth Social post, Trump called on ICE to “expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hard Working American Citizens.”
City officials in Chicago are bracing for tense encounters with law enforcement amid heightened ICE and National Guard activity.
“There will be tactical teams, mini-tanks, other tools they use in which they plan to do raids, as we saw in Los Angeles,” the mayor’s chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, told the media. “With arms, with also chemical agents, we have seen them in full riot gear. We have seen them fully concealed.”
However, Johnson defended the large number of Chicago residents who participated in a recent peaceful protest against what he described as “the authoritarian tactics of the Trump administration.”
Johnson emphasized that Trump’s efforts are not about improving Americans’ safety but rather advancing his mass deportation plans.
“Ripping families apart and disappearing people do not make our cities safer,” Johnson said to Rolling Stone. “These unconstitutional actions incite fear in our immigrant communities and cause more problems than they solve.”
He continued: “Chicagoans know that immigrants are a critical part of the rich social fabric of our city. We will always fight for the rights and dignity of all Chicagoans [and] continue to work with community-based organizations and legal groups to ensure that all Chicagoans know their rights.”
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