Noem suggests Chicago immigration blitz includes 5 other states, claims no U.S. citizens detained

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem traveled to northwest Indiana Thursday and indicated the immigration enforcement campaign that’s rocked the Chicago area actually extends to five other states, none of which have so-called sanctuary protections and two of which are led by Republicans.

Noem made the surprising disclosure during a news conference at Gary-Chicago International Airport alongside other Trump administration officials and leaders from Indiana who sought to highlight a series of recent arrests on roadways in the red state.

Noem said the Midway Blitz deportation campaign “includes Indiana, Chicago, Illinois and that area that the field office is covering.”

When the operation was announced Sept. 8, DHS said it would “target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois,” but the ICE Chicago field office also includes Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky and Kansas.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Noem also said, “There’s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained. We focus on those that are here illegally. And anything that you would hear or report that would be different than that is simply not true.”

Among the examples of citizens being detained, a Gary family was forced out of a home Oct. 23 in an early morning raid by ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service. Agents took into custody the undocumented parents and their three U.S.-born children, who are citizens. Two of the children have since been released.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said Thursday that more than 3,000 people have been arrested during Midway Blitz, but he indicated a smaller number were arrested in Chicago.

“We knew the problem existed beyond the city borders of Chicago,” Lyons said. “ICE protected Chicago when local leadership failed, with our offices arresting 1,800 criminal aliens from Chicago streets. The interstates leading from the city were a key part of this.”

DHS didn’t immediately respond to questions.

The government has only named about 70 people who were arrested under the Chicago-area deportation campaign and described by officials as the “worst of the worst” offenders. That’s only about 2% of the total number of arrests the government has reported as part of the campaign.

According to the National Immigrant Justice Center, more than 800 of recent arrests may violate a consent decree limiting ICE’s ability to make warrantless arrests in Illinois and surrounding states. Examples flagged to a federal judge in Chicago include a father and son pulled over leaving Home Depot, a mother of four arrested driving to the grocery store, and a man stopped while taking his family to church. 



Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings found ICE arrested 22 people without a warrant in the first months of Trump’s second term. Cummings extended the consent decree to February 2026. 

Crackdown on commercial driver’s licenses

During her news conference, Noem said 223 undocumented immigrants were arrested while driving on highways in Indiana near the Illinois border as part of the Chicago deportation campaign. ICE arrested them during Indiana State Police vehicle inspections, officials said.

Noem said the drivers were also associated with “criminal activity,” citing assault as the most serious crime, but she gave no specifics.

“Sanctuary states around the country have been issuing illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses,” she said. “The Trump administration is ending the chaos.”

More than 40 of the drivers had commercial driver’s licenses — and Illinois, California and New York issued most of them — Noem said, again without giving specifics. Noem and Indiana officials, including Republican Gov. Mike Braun, cited several fatal crashes across the country involving undocumented immigrants driving tractor-trailers.

“In recent weeks, we have seen illegal semitruck drivers responsible for significant loss of life across the country,” said Lyons. “This was preventable and that is precisely why we are working to ensure this doesn’t happen in Indiana or Illinois.”

In 2023, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law allowing undocumented immigrants living in Illinois to apply for standard four-year driver’s licenses.

“It will also make our roads safer by ensuring that more motorists can legally drive — having to pass written and behind-the-wheel driving tests and show proof of insurance — like all other licensed Illinois drivers,” Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said in a statement in July 2024 when the law took effect.

But a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said Thursday that undocumented immigrants aren’t allowed to obtain a commercial driver’s license in Illinois.

On Thursday, Noem also refused a request by Pritzker to pause enforcement efforts during this weekend’s Halloween activities.

“No, we’re absolutely not willing to put on pause any work that we will do to keep communities safe. The fact that Gov. Pritzker is asking for that is shameful,” Noem said.

Pritzker slams Noem’s ‘costumes’

Pritzker fired back on X.

“We know Kristi Noem must love Halloween because she always dresses in law enforcement costumes, but what is truly shameful is that she refuses to agree that we shouldn’t tear gas children trick or treating,” he said.

Noem’s appearance in Gary was ridiculed by Lisa Hernandez, chair of the Illinois Democratic Party.

“Kristi Noem came to the Midwest to do Donald Trump’s dirty work and then ran from accountability. She is helping him terrorize families, destroy trust and turn fear into a political weapon, Hernandez said in a statement.

A small group of protesters lined the street outside the Gary airport.

Some held signs that read, “No ICE, Leave Our Neighbors Alone” and “Close ICE Concentration Camps.”