President Donald Trump has demanded the imprisonment of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, accusing them of neglecting to safeguard U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers amid escalating protests over intensified immigration enforcement. A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s injunction blocking the full deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois, while Operation Midway Blitz has resulted in over 1,000 arrests of undocumented migrants in the Chicago area, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The administration has federalized 300 Illinois and 400 Texas National Guard troops to secure federal sites in Chicago and beyond, a step decried by state and city leaders as an unconstitutional intrusion and discriminatory tactic, prompting lawsuits from Illinois and Chicago to halt the operations.
Trump said, “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Officers!” He added, “Governor Pritzker also!”
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Bovino said, “I doubt the governor could fill custard in a pie factory if it came down to it, but what he is adept at is placing his citizens, his law enforcement officers, and his state in jeopardy at the hands of criminals.” Bovino added, “It’s plain and simple: he doesn’t care.”
Trump Escalates Feud With Illinois Over Immigration
Cook County Courts Chief Judge Timothy Evans has barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from making courthouse arrests, citing concerns that detention has discouraged court appearances. The order has prohibited civil detention of parties, witnesses, and visitors. Immigrant groups claimed prior arrests have undermined trust in the justice system.
Since July, ICE has arrested at least a dozen people outside Cook County courthouses. Advocacy groups said fear has kept residents from hearings, including one woman detained outside a domestic violence court.
Cook County Public Defender Cruz Rodriguez said, “I have had numerous conversations with clients who are presented with a difficult decision of either missing court and receiving an arrest warrant or coming to court and risk being arrested by ICE.”
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Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch (D) urged statewide limits on federal arrests near public institutions, while Gov. JB Pritzker suggested agents may have violated prior court restrictions. Welch stated, “We won’t sit back and let our democracy be taken from us.” He added, “If we can do something similar statewide, I’d love to get that done, because what’s happening with these ICE agents and courthouses and territories around courthouses is unacceptable.”
Federal immigration agents reportedly detained a 15-year-old U.S. citizen during a Chicago Border Patrol (CBP) operation, prompting criticism from civil rights advocates. Attorneys claimed the teenager was held without charges or legal counsel. The law firm representing him launched a civil investigation into the incident, calling it a troubling abuse of authority.
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The 15-year-old was arrested for assault and later released without charges. DHS said the teen was arrested for allegedly throwing an egg that hit a Border Patrol agent during a chase following a vehicle collision. Officials noted that the teen admitted to the act. Attorneys from Romanucci & Blandin said the teen was held for several hours without family contact before release.
Attorneys claimed the detention may have violated constitutional protections against unlawful seizure and due process. Attorney Antonio M. Romanucci stated, “This is how people disappear in autocracies—grabbed off streets, held in unmarked locations, no calls to family, no stated charges, no due process.”
Chicago Teen’s CBP Arrest Sparks Civil Rights Uproar
A Chicago woman has told Newsweek she was “forcibly removed” from her vehicle by immigration agents. Dayanne Figueroa, a U.S. citizen and paralegal, said her car was struck by an unmarked government vehicle at the 1600 block of West Hubbard Street in Chicago on the morning of Friday, October 10, while she was on her way to get coffee before work.
A Chicago woman has told Newsweek she was “forcibly removed” from her vehicle by federal immigration agents.
Dayanne Figueroa, a U.S. citizen and paralegal, said an unmarked government vehicle struck her car at the 1600 block of West Hubbard Street in Chicago on the morning of October 10, while she was on her way to get coffee before going to work.
“I was in shock and terrified,” Figueroa told Newsweek. “Instead of handling the situation as a routine traffic incident, the masked agents, armed in hands, forcibly removed me from my car without questions and without informing me that I was under arrest.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek that Border Patrol was making a targeted arrest when Figueroa’s vehicle blocked agents and struck an unmarked government vehicle.
Footage obtained by Newsweek appears to show armed federal agents detaining Figueroa, dragging her by the legs to remove her from her vehicle. Some agents brandish guns, and bystanders can be heard shouting, “You hit her,” as the situation unfolds.
Additional video obtained by Figueroa’s family from another witness provides a different angle of the encounter. The bystander who is filming tells federal agents: “You hit her. We all saw it.”
“You guys are f*****g scumbags, f*****g Nazis. They hit her car. You guys hit her, and you f*****g know it,” the bystander is heard saying.
“As agents were departing, the driver, a U.S. citizen, struck an unmarked government vehicle,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek.
“In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers attempted to remove her from the vehicle. She violently resisted, kicking two agents and causing injuries. This agitator was arrested for assault on a federal agent,” McLaughlin added.
Figueroa disputes DHS’s account, denying that she crashed into agents and accusing the immigration enforcers of using excessive force.
“The video evidence is clear: Agents crashed into me. I was not involved in any protest or related activity, and I intend to seek justice for how I was treated. I am confident the facts will speak for themselves,” she said.
Chicago has emerged as a focal point in the national conversation over immigration enforcement as federal authorities step up operations under the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz. The initiative has included increased ICE activity across the city, with arrests and targeted actions in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. Critics say the operations have heightened fear among residents and strained community relations, while federal officials maintain that the measures are necessary to enforce immigration laws and detain individuals with criminal records.
Amid the Trump administration’s hard-line mass deportation push, there have been dozens of reports of U.S. citizens being questioned or detained by immigration authorities, raising concerns over racial profiling, the agencies’ practices and enforcement criteria. Multiple federal agencies—including Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—are being mobilized to carry out coordinated immigration operations as the administration pursues its goal of removing millions of migrants without legal status.
Figueroa described the experience as physically and emotionally distressing, saying the manner in which she was removed from her vehicle left her traumatized and injured. She said she was treated “like cattle.”
The paralegal said she was transported to multiple undisclosed locations and was not allowed to contact her family or legal counsel. She said she was never charged with a crime or informed of a legal reason for her detention.
“These actions constitute serious violations of federal civil rights law and multiple provisions of the United States Constitution,” Figueroa said.
She said she had recently undergone kidney surgery. “I am presently receiving ongoing medical treatment and attending numerous appointments to rehabilitate from recent kidney surgeries and from multiple new injuries directly caused by this assault,” Figueroa said.
Her family is now raising money on GoFundMe for legal and medical fees following the incident.
US Citizen dragged from car by Border Patrol in Chicago
“I was in shock and terrified,” Dayanne Figueroa told Newsweek.
Attorneys with Romanucci & Blandin said a U.S. citizen minor was detained, restrained, and held without family contact for hours during the incident. Romanucci said, “This is how people disappear in autocracies—grabbed off streets, held in unmarked locations, no calls to family, no stated charges, no due process.”
Border Patrol SUV Rammed in Chicago Immigration Arrest
Cory Booker, Ed Markey and others urge Linda McMahon to step in amid violent crackdowns near Chicago schools
A group of Democraticsenators have demanded that the Department of Education stop immigration enforcement activities from taking place close to schools, following several violent crackdowns near school grounds in Chicago.
Although the raids are conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the senators are making an appeal directly to the education secretary, Linda McMahon.
They said aggressive actions were affecting the safety of students.
“Federal agents continue to use unwarranted, excessive levels of force around Chicago, demonstrating an alarming lack of care or regard for the health and wellbeing of children, particularly by conducting unfocused, inflammatory operations within close proximity of school grounds,” the senators wrote, according to NBC News.
“We demand you pressure your colleague, secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, to reinstate restrictions on federal immigration enforcement operations in and around places of education.”
Democratic senators call on education department to stop ICE raids by schools
Cory Booker, Ed Markey and others urge Linda McMahon to step in amid violent crackdowns near Chicago schools
During the fracas at the Coast Guard base, federal agents deployed apparent flash-bang grenades to disperse the crowd and fired a pepper round that struck a clergyman near the chin. The impact caked his face and clothing in orange powder.
The Rev. Jorge Bautista, pastor of the College Heights United Church of Christ in San Mateo, said an agent shot him in the face with the projectile from about 5 feet away.
“I’m in a lot of pain,” Bautista texted the Chronicle from an emergency room in Oakland. “He clearly was aiming for the face.”
Protest of Bay Area immigration crackdown met with apparent stun grenades at Coast Guard base
Larysa Kostak was at a routine court hearing when three masked officers grabbed her, put her in shackles, and dropped her in a crowded holding room at 26 Federal Plaza, New York City’s immigration court.
She was so frightened, she couldn’t remember her husband’s phone number to call for help.
“That moment, my life stopped and split before and after,” the Brooklyn resident of 20 years told PIX11 News.
Kostak was held for seven days in one of the building’s widely-criticized holding rooms, then transferred 1,000 miles away to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. Her story has become all too common as federal agents crawl the hallways of 26 Federal Plaza, constantly and often violently cuffing immigrants who’ve shown up for court, according to advocates who say the Trump administration is acting unlawfully.
Three months later, Kostak is reunited with her son and husband in Sheepshead Bay. But her fight to stay in the U.S. is far from over, as the federal government tries to detain her again, her lawyers said.
“I lost three months of my life. I don’t want to [lose] my life again. I live in constant fear of being re-arrested,” Kostak said. “I don’t want to go back there.”
NYC woman lives in ‘constant fear’ after monthslong ICE detention
NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) — Larysa Kostak was at a routine court hearing when three masked officers grabbed her, put her in shackles, and dropped her in a crowded holding room at 26 Federal Plaza, New …
In case after case, Homeland Security’s Public Affairs Office releases incorrect information about arrests carried out by federal immigration officers.
If you’ve spent any time reading the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) public statements lately, you’ve probably gotten a strong whiff of what Tennessee Williams once called the “powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity.”
Of course, all governments since time immemorial have lied, but it’s been hard not to notice, especially for reporters, the decline in reliable information being released by the federal government, particularly the DHS Office of Public Affairs, which is responsible for distributing public information about the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.
Homeland Security won’t stop lying about who immigration enforcers are arresting
In case after case, Homeland Security’s Public Affairs Office releases incorrect information about arrests carried out by federal immigration officers.
Heather Honey’s statements follow president’s aggressive effort to radically reshape elections before 2026
Trump says FBI and Tulsi Gabbard ‘working on’ elections plan as he repeats bogus claims
It was clear from the outset that Donald Trump’s administration would include high-ranking government officials who either endorsed his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, or refused to publicly admit he lost.
The president continues to hammer a baseless narrative that the election was rigged against him, vowing publicly that it must never “happen again” as he deploys officials to prepare for midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress — and his agenda — at stake.
Before she was tapped as Trump’s “election integrity” official at the Department of Homeland Security, Heather Honey reportedly told a group of right-wing activists in March that the president could declare a “national emergency” to effectively take control of local election administration.
She said the move would follow an “actual investigation” of the 2020 election, if it revealed “manipulation” of the results, according to The New York Times, which had a recording of the call.
“We have some additional powers that don’t exist right now,” she said. “[W]e can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.”
Trump’s ‘election integrity’ chief claimed he could declare voting emergency
Heather Honey’s statements follow president’s aggressive effort to radically reshape elections before 2026
