The mood in the city is tense.
Texas National Guard troops arrived in Chicago.
The deployment was the latest turn in the Trump administration’s efforts to more aggressively marshal boots on the ground to abet its mass deportation efforts in some American cities.
The situation on the ground in Chicago before the arrival of the National Guard was already tense. The mission, which President Donald Trump has named “Operation Midway Blitz,” had US Customs and Border Protection officials hanging around high-visibility areas of Chicago and suburban neighborhoods, conducting at least one military-style raid on an apartment building.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has been vocal in his opposition to Trump’s moves. In response, the president called for the governor and the mayor of Chicago to be jailed on Truth Social.
Dan Petrella of the Chicago Tribune spoke with Today, Explained host Noel King to break down what has happened in the last month in the city, and how the intense federal attention has affected Chicago’s residents. Below is an excerpt of their conversation that has been edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Chicago is a big city, but there have been some high-profile instances of violence in the streets in the last couple of days. What is the mood there like?
Things are very tense. There’s reports all over the city and the suburbs of confrontations with agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We see videos posted all over social media and hear from sources of folks having encounters with them on the streets. And there’s a lot of worry about what might happen to escalate the situation if military troops are sent out under ostensible purposes of protecting these federal agents who’ve been operating at ramped-up level here in the city and surrounding area for the last month or so.
Have you seen what President Trump is saying about the mayor and the governor?
I did, and yes, he is saying that they should be sent to jail, which is not entirely surprising. I mean, I guess we shouldn’t excuse that kind of language coming from the president, but it is not unusual from what we’ve heard from this president.
All right, let’s go back to where this all starts, and it begins with President Trump and something called “Operation Midway Blitz.” What is this?
This is a title that they have given to this sort of stepped-up immigration enforcement activity that they began toward the beginning of September.
