Multiple FBI agents assigned to assist ICE with illegal alien deportations in Chicago last weekend, called in sick with the “Blue Flu,” according to an FBI whistleblower.
On January 22, Acting Attorney General James McHenry ordered the FBI; U.S. Marshal’s Service; Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to assist ICE with deportations.
Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend said Tuesday that multiple agents assigned to assist in the deportation effort in Chicago called in sick to “protest” the mission.
“I’ve been told that agents are calling in sick—”blue flu” style—to protest the directive,” Friend posted on X.
ICE ramped up it’s deportation effort over the weekend, making nearly 1,200 arrests Sunday and nearly 1,000 on Saturday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
President Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan was in Chicago on Sunday, along with US Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, to oversee Immigration enforcements in the city, Fox News’ Matt Finn reported.
A video posted by Finn on X shows Bove saying that the the Department of Homeland Security is running the operation in lockstep with the Department of Justice and urging agents to safely implement Trump policies.
Friend, who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America and an “American Radicals” podcaster, told American Greatness that other field offices have been asking for volunteers to help with the deportation effort, but many agents are afraid of retaliation from their superiors.
“People know if they step forward, then leadership will identify them as MAGA,” he explained.
“The executive management at some field offices aren’t sending out any guidance for the ICE directive. Just ignoring,” he added.
The former G-man said it was important for the Senate to confirm former federal prosecutor Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, “to root this subterfuge out.”
“Everyone is scared of retaliation. Always. But people are coming forward with more for me recently because they think Kash [Patel] is getting in,” Friend told American Greatness.
In September 2022, the special agent/turned whistleblower was stripped of his gun and badge, and escorted out of the FBI field office in Daytona Beach, Florida for refusing to take part in the Bureau’s terroristic SWAT raids at the homes of Jan-6ers.
Friend said at the time he was punished after he complained to his superiors about having to be involved in J6 investigations that were “violating citizens’ Sixth Amendment rights due to overzealous charging by the DOJ and biased jury pools in Washington, DC.”
He said it shouldn’t be hard for the Trump administration to quash the insubordination. “Just suspend clearances like they did to me. SCOTUS says that is legal. Fire every probationary employee,” he told American Greatness.
“I recommend the Trump administration consider an all of the above strategy for handing employees who are unwilling to follow lawful, ethical, and constitutional orders from the chief executive. Suspend security clearances. Terminate probationary employees. End telework. Reassign individuals to work in hardship locations,” Friend advised.
