The incoming Trump administration plans to increase efforts to arrest unauthorized immigrants in major U.S. cities starting next week after President-elect Donald Trump takes office. These efforts will focus on “sanctuary” cities, which limit cooperation with federal immigration officials, such as the Chicago area, where there are large immigrant populations.
Tom Homan, the incoming “border czar,” confirmed that there would be a large-scale operation across the country, including in Chicago, targeting unauthorized immigrants.
Trump has promised to crack down on illegal immigration immediately after being sworn in, aiming to lead the largest deportation effort in U.S. history.
One of the first steps will be undoing Biden-era rules that limited who ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) could arrest. Under those rules, ICE focused on serious criminals, recent border-crossers, and national security threats, while long-term undocumented immigrants with no criminal records were largely protected from deportation.
Homan also plans to restart large immigration raids at worksites that employ undocumented workers, a practice that was stopped under the Biden administration.
Although Homan has said that the priority will be to arrest immigrants with criminal records, he emphasized that anyone in the U.S. illegally could be arrested. This means that even if someone has no criminal history, they could be detained during operations and charged in what are called “collateral arrests.”
