Operation Midway Blitz escalates with Border Patrol return to Chicago

A senior Border Patrol commander who has become the face of the Trump administration's aggressive policies. immigration crackdown returned to Chicago on Tuesday, sparking protests as agents fired pepper balls and detained several people.

The appearance of Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino in Chicago marks the most visible escalation of the situation. Operation Midway Blitz since That prompted a backlash in early fall from immigrant advocates and state leaders who said the Trump administration failed to warn them that a commander or additional agents were being deployed to the area.

Border agents were captured on video Tuesday in the predominantly Mexican-American Little Village neighborhood throwing pepper balls and detaining a man, according to the Associated Press.

Bovino's appearance in Chicago comes a month after he was transferred to law enforcement missions in New Orleans and North Carolina.

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Operation Midway Blitz was launched in September in honor of Katie Abraham, who died in a drunken hit-and-run allegedly caused by Julio Cucul-Bol, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the purpose of the operation was to “target criminal illegal aliens terrorizing Americans in the Illinois safe haven.”

“As we said a month ago, we are not leaving Chicago and operations continue,” he said. Assistant Secretary of DHS Trisha McLaughlin, Associated Press reports.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker told reporters Tuesday that he was not notified that Bovino and other Border Patrol agents were returning to Chicago, adding that he did not know how long the agents would be there.

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Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino walks alongside his agents after they apprehended a man in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on Dec. 16. (Anthony Vasquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

“I'm so proud of the people of Illinois for doing what they do, which is protecting their neighborhoods and protecting their neighbors, doing the right thing,” Pritzker said. “And so I think we're in a much better position.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was aware that Bovino had returned to Chicago.

“We have learned that federal agents are once again indiscriminately targeting individuals—without warrants—and deliberately appearing in public places to intimidate and instill fear, including at the Teamster picket and the Little Village community organization,” Johnson wrote on X, adding that “these tactics are destabilizing, wrong, and should be condemned.”

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Federal immigration agents detain a man in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on December 16. (Anthony Vasquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Last week Pritzker signed the bill aims to protect undocumented immigrants in the state from deportation by creating new safeguards in several places, including courthouses, hospitals, college campuses and other public buildings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.