US ramps up immigration crackdown

(UPDATE) TOP Trump administration officials, including "border czar" Tom Homan and the acting deputy attorney general, visited Chicago on Sunday to witness the start of ramped-up immigration enforcement in the nation's third-largest city as federal agencies touted arrests around the country. Few details of the operation were immediately made public, including the number of arrests. But the sheer number of federal agencies involved showed President Donald Trump's willingness to use federal law enforcement beyond the Department of Homeland Security to carry out his long-promised mass deportations. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said he observed immigration agents from the DHS along with agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He didn't offer details on the operation, which came days after DHS expanded immigration authority to agencies in the Department of Justice, including the DEA and ATF. "We will support everyone at the federal, state, and local levels who joins this critical mission to take back our communities," Bove said in a statement. "We will use all available tools to address obstruction and other unlawful impediments to our efforts to protect the homeland. Most importantly, we will not rest until the work is done." "Dr. Phil" McGraw, a daytime television psychologist, interviewed Homan and livestreamed the Chicago raids on his multiplatform TV network MERIT TV, and several other reporters were also invited to Sunday's operation. The Associated Press plans to observe operations this week. The DEA's Chicago office posted pictures on X showing Bove and Homan with agents from ATF and Customs and Border Protection. Since Trump took office, similar immigration enforcement operations have been publicized around the country, which US Immigration and Customs Enforcement says are ongoing. Social media posts from other DEA offices noted additional weekend operations in at least California, Georgia and Colorado. The DEA posted pictures Sunday on social media of a raid at a location in the Denver area, where roughly 50 people were taken into custody. Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge for the DEA Rocky Mountain field division, said the Colorado operation targeted drug trafficking by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. He said about 100 agents and officers, including from the DEA, ICE, ATF and Homeland Security Investigations, carried out a federal search warrant for drug trafficking around 5 a.m. Sunday at a location where Tren de Aragua members were having a party. ICE detained nearly 50 people and transported them on a bus to one of its processing centers in nearby Aurora, Pullen said. As of Sunday afternoon, about 40 people remained in ICE custody, he said. "They ran all of the information while they were on scene, and they determined, ICE determined, that they were here illegally or they had some other violation in the immigration system, and they detained and arrested them," Pullen said. A "handful" of US citizens were also at the site, Pullen added. Agents seized drugs, including cocaine, multiple handguns and cash, Pullen said, adding that the investigation started under the Biden administration and is continuing under the Trump administration. The DEA and ICE have been cooperating for decades and there was nothing new about the two agencies coordinating, he said. A Trump executive order paves the way for criminal organizations such as Tren de Aragua to be named "foreign terrorist organizations." Armed members of the Venezuelan gang were caught on video entering an Aurora apartment complex unit last summer in footage that drew Trump's attention during the presidential campaign. ICE spokesman Jeff Carter said the agency "began conducting enhanced targeted operations" Sunday in Chicago but declined other details. Spokesmen for the FBI, ATF and the DEA confirmed their involvement but didn't give other information. Chicago residents, especially in immigrant circles, have already been on edge for months in anticipation of large-scale arrests touted by the Trump administration. The atmosphere has been especially tense the past week as top Trump officials vowed to start immigration enforcement operations in Chicago the day after Trump's inauguration before walking back those statements. Last week, Bove issued a memo ordering federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who they believe are interfering with the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration, in an apparent warning to the dozens of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions across America.