Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Los Angeles, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, stands in a conference room before an interview with The Associated Press in Los Angeles, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Protester Sherry yells at federal agents while standing face to face with them as the agents cleared a path for their vehicles to enter and exit the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune via AP)
Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Los Angeles, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
By Christine Fernando And Sophia Tareen The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) 鈥 The Border Patrol agent who has broken norms leading an immigration crackdown in Los Angeles said Tuesday that he had reached Chicago, potentially signaling a new, more aggressive phase to an enforcement surge announced last week in the nation鈥檚 third-largest city.
鈥淲ell, Chicago, we鈥檝e arrived!鈥 said in a post on X that included footage of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles and agents under city street signs and views of downtown. 鈥淥peration At Large is here to continue the mission we started in Los Angeles.鈥
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also stopped in Chicago, saying Department of Homeland Security officers made multiple arrests Tuesday morning.
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President Donald Trump has promised for weeks that Chicago would see a surge in immigration enforcement and National Guard troops over the repeated objections of and . Immigration advocates and Illinois lawmakers said there has been an in immigration enforcement agents in recent days as Trump targets .
However, Trump has on sending a military deployment to Chicago. After saying he would focus , Trump again said Tuesday that Chicago would see a deployment soon.
Neither the focus nor size of the Border Patrol operation that Bovino referenced in his message Tuesday was immediately clear. Officials did not answers questions about the scope of immigration enforcement in Chicago. Neither did a spokesman for a military base outside Chicago that has agreed to provide to federal agents.
Increased enforcement in recent days has among Chicago鈥檚 immigrant communities, leading to the cancellation and delay of some celebrations for Mexican Independence Day, which was Tuesday. Tensions have been especially high since an ICE officer a man who was allegedly evading arrest last week.
Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, criticized Bovino’s tactics, calling them violent and discriminatory.
鈥淭hey are grabbing people who have brown skin or who speak with an accent or who speak another language and not people who are guilty of or are accused of perpetrating a crime,鈥 Pritzker said Tuesday.
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Pritzker, a frequent Trump critic, accused the administration of sending federal agents to agitate and inflame tensions as a justification to send the National Guard to the city.
In Los Angeles, Bovino鈥檚 self-described 鈥渢urn and burn鈥 operation led to thousands of arrests. Agents smashed car windows, blew open a door to a house and patrolled on horseback. The operation in California began June 6 without any hints before it was launched.
Noem said DHS would not back down.
鈥淥ur work is only beginning,鈥 she said on X.
Ahead of Bovino’s arrival, DHS offered few details about operations in Chicago, aside from noting less than two dozen arrests since ICE began an enforcement operation earlier this month. Immigration activists have said the number of arrests is much higher, with more than 15 alone in one suburb alone on Monday. Officials with ICE did not return messages Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois, a Democratic member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, said late Monday that arrests began Sept. 6, two days earlier than the ICE program touted as 鈥淥peration Midway Blitz鈥 was publicly announced, and has taken 250 people into custody in the Chicago area.
Underwood said she requested more information from ICE and was briefed, including details that the program would include the entire state of Illinois and Lake County, Indiana, which is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
鈥淓veryone deserves to feel safe in their community. Like all Illinoisans, I鈥檝e been concerned and alarmed by reporting about ICE鈥檚 conduct and operations in our state under Donald Trump,鈥 Underwood said in a statement.
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Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
