Days after announcing a long-promised immigration enforcement operation in Chicago, President Donald Trump’s administration highlighted “the worst of the worst offenders” who had been arrested.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson and other politicians had harbored the 13 men swept up in “Operation Midway Blitz.”
“These criminal illegal aliens flocked to Illinois because sanctuary policies allow them to roam free and terrorize innocent Americans without consequence,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a written statement Wednesday.
But at least two of the men, and apparently a third, were arrested outside of Illinois, according to interviews and court records examined by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Spokespeople for DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t respond to questions about the arrests. It’s unclear whether they’ve reported all of the arrests linked to the ongoing campaign.
The three men were picked up by immigration agents this week at county jails in Indiana and Kentucky, which are among the states encompassed by the ICE Chicago field office.
Indiana is run by Republican Gov. Mike Braun, and both houses of the state government are also controlled by the GOP. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is a Democrat, but the state House and Senate are controlled by Republican majorities, and it isn’t considered a sanctuary state for immigrants without legal status.
Pritzker’s office said the Trump administration “specializes in spinning to distort the truth, so it’s no surprise they are apparently apprehending individuals in Indiana or other states and lying about it being in Illinois.”
“This has never been about fighting crime or reforming immigration,” spokesperson Matt Hill said. “It’s about producing political theater instead of delivering real results for people like lowering grocery or housing costs, expanding healthcare access, or making real investments in public safety.”
A spokesperson for Johnson said the mayor “remains concerned about potential violations of the rights of Chicagoans, particularly the right to due process.”
“The fact that the administration misrepresented the people they arrested raises larger questions about what else they may be hiding related to ‘Midway Blitz,'” the spokesperson said. “Because of the lack of coordination from the Trump administration, the City has no information about the arrestees.”
Who the men are
The men arrested in other states have all been accused or convicted of crimes, records show.
Varinderpal Singh, 24, an Indian national who lived about 30 miles southeast of Indianapolis, was charged last month with raping a customer at a gas station where he worked, according to court records and news reports.
Immigration agents picked up Singh Tuesday at the jail in Bartholomew County, Indiana, according to correctional officer Jeff Tindell. Singh’s attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment. Pascual Lucas-Baltazar 23, was convicted of drunken driving and leaving the scene of a crash in August in his hometown in Kentucky, near the Indiana border.
Lucas-Baltazar, a Guatemalan national, was serving a 30-day sentence at the Henderson County Detention Center in Kentucky. He was transferred into ICE custody Monday, according to court records and jail officials.
Another out-of-state detainee, Francisco Tziquin, 30, was arrested in central Kentucky for leaving the scene of a crash that killed a woman and injured several others earlier this month, according to state police and court records.
Tziquin, who was living in Houston, was picked up by immigration agents Wednesday at the Grayson County Detention Center in Kentucky, according to jail officials.
DHS reported that Francisco Tziquin-Balux, of Guatemala, had been taken into federal custody after being arrested in a hit-and-run crash.
DHS calls “blitz” a success
Although the men were all plucked from out-of-state jails, immigration officials have used their cases to tout the early success of their “blitz” in Chicago.
Before Trump had returned to the Oval Office, his incoming administration was already planning to target immigrants in Chicago.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told a Northwest Side GOP holiday party in December that the city would be ground zero for immigration enforcement. Homan had a message for Johnson then: “If he doesn’t want to help, get the hell out of the way.”
Homan returned in January, less than a week into Trump’s second term, this time with federal agents and TV host Dr. Phil McGraw. The visit provided fodder for headlines — and content for McGraw’s TV network — but it didn’t lead to the mass deportations Trump has promised.
About 1% of roughly 130,000 ICE arrests between February and late July happened in Illinois, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has secured a north suburban naval base to accommodate more than 200 immigration agents and potentially National Guard troops.
And while Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of deploying the guard here, he has recently backed off those threats.
The administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” has seemingly generated more fear than arrests so far.
But Pritzker said he believes more ICE enforcement could still be on the way, telling reporters Wednesday, “They clearly have not gone out full force yet.”
Contributing: Violet Miller