Media outlets have reported Donald Trump’s plan to focus on Chicago as a launching pad to begin his promised efforts to round up and deport illegal aliens. While city officials have been plotting ways to hamper that effort, many Windy City voters and citizens are rising up to support the move.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the incoming Trump administration is “planning a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago” set to launch sometime during the third week of January after Trump’s inauguration.
“The raid is expected to begin on Tuesday morning, a day after Trump is inaugurated, and will last all week, the people said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation,” the WSJ reported.
The Associated Press added that Trump officials have a list of more than 300 violent criminal illegals that they intend to round up and prepare for deportation back to their native countries.
Indeed, incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan has given Chicago and Mayor Brandon Johnson a stark warning, saying, “We’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois. And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him.”
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Meanwhile, the city council is lining up to work against efforts by the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to begin rounding up criminal illegals to begin shipping them back to where they belong. Just last week an amendment to weaken the city’s policy preventing the Chicago Police Department from working with the feds was defeated by a large margin.
More than three quarters of the city’s 50 aldermen voted against an amendment introduced by alderman Raymond Lopez and alderwoman Silvana Tabares to allow the CPD to work with ICE to identify and deport illegal aliens convicted of various violent crimes.
Mayor Brandon Johnson celebrated the vote to maintain the city’s sanctuary city policies, and said, “Our job is to make sure that people are protected and safe. That is the top priority of any government, and that’s what we’re going to do.” He added that efforts to roll back protections for criminals “was just stoking the flames of fear.”
“The people of Chicago can rest assured that the full force of government will do everything in its power to protect the residents of this city,” the self-professed “progressive” mayor insisted.
Despite Johnson’s claims that Chicagoans are happy that he is making sure they are “safe,” many of his own constituents have been railing against his generous and expensive support for criminal illegals.
Chicago city hall meetings have become raucous events as citizens have routinely filled the gallery sections to protest Johnson’s continuing efforts redirect budget money and city resources away from black communities and to the tens of thousands of illegal aliens that have flooded the city at his repeated invitation.
In November, voters surged into city hall to protest Johnson’s plan to sharply raise taxes so that he could spend the money on illegals.
NEW: Pissed off Chicago residents slam Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) to his face, celebrate President Trump's victory: pic.twitter.com/huzBIjF5vR
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 15, 2024
Johnson ended up losing his bid for higher taxes in that round of budget negotiations. But the protests over his policies have come in waves. In a later city hall meeting, Johnson even cleared the room to prevent the citizen protesters from being heard as he continued to push more spending on illegal migrants.
Several weeks before all this, Chicagoans were even heard urging incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan to arrest Mayor Johnson for his efforts to hamper deportation of criminal illegals.
Similar incidents have been cropping up since 2023 as citizens have risen up to mount protests over Johnson’s fealty to illegals over his own citizens.
The protests and conflict have taken a toll on Johnson’s approval ratings and he now ranks as one of the nation’s least popular big city mayors. A Change Research poll from November, for instance, found that 75 percent of Chicago voters disapprove of Johnson’s work as mayor. And another poll taken that same month by Urban City Action and M3 Strategies, found that 60 percent view Johnson unfavorably and his favorable rating was a lowly 28 percent.
Johnson now ranks as the most unpopular mayor in modern Chicago history, National Review reported in October.
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