Operation Midway Blitz

The weapons and gear of the government's immigration enforcement apparatus wasn't the only thing being speed-run to militarization in 2025; we got catchy names that evoked images of warfare for what would become de facto occupations of US cities. In Chicago, it was "Operation Midway Blitz."

The justification was Katie Abraham, a young woman killed in a hit-and-run that prosecutors blamed on a Guatemalan man living in the country as an undocumented immigrant. The Department of Homeland Security announced the operation on September 8, 2025, saying it would target what it called the "worst of the worst", framing it as a reckoning with Illinois sanctuary policy. Hundreds of federal agents moved into the Chicago metropolitan area, staging out of Naval Station Great Lakes. The weeks of violent clashes between federal agents and Chicago-area residents would set the tone for the government's next operation in Minneapolis.