‘You want to show the world and bear witness’: Sun-Times, WBEZ reporters on last fall’s deportation campaign

The Department of Homeland Security announced the official launch of Operation Midway Blitz — an aggressive campaign aimed at arresting immigrants and deporting them — on Sept. 8, 2025.

Last fall, it seemed like the federal government had declared war on the city of Chicago.

Under the leadership of then-U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, federal agents shot and killed an unarmed man, they rammed into cars, pointed guns into protesters’ faces and slammed observers to the ground. They grabbed day care workers, tamale vendors and U.S. citizens. And they maximized fear in communities across the Chicago area.

The government claimed it was going after criminals. “This operation will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago,” DHS said in a news release.

But a Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ analysis of data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found a majority of those held at the ICE processing facility in west suburban Broadview or in other Chicago locations had no criminal conviction.

Immigration enforcement today is quieter and less visible, but the Trump administration is still detaining hundreds of people per month with no criminal records.

So, how did we get here?

In the special documentary “Bearing Witness to the Blitz,” WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times journalists Chip Mitchell, Ashlee Rezin, Mariah Woelfel and Adriana Cardona-Maguigad reflect on some of the key moments of Operation Midway Blitz and the lingering effects of the sweeping enforcement operation today.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or click the red button up top.