U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made an unannounced visit to the Chicago area Tuesday morning, leaving as quickly as she arrived, in the midst of a new federal crackdown on immigration enforcement in the city. The Department of Homeland Security has branded the campaign “Operation Midway Blitz,” a coordinated set of raids and arrests that DHS says are aimed at “criminal illegal aliens.” Officials in Washington have pointed the finger at Chicago and Illinois’ sanctuary policies, which bar local and state police from helping federal agents with immigration enforcement. In their telling, those rules have turned the city into a safe haven.

Noem Is Focusing on Crime Committed By Undocumented Immigrants

To underscore her point that she’s helping save Chicago, DHS has tied the operation to the case of Katie Abraham, a Chicago woman killed earlier this year in a drunk driving crash in Urbana. The man accused of hitting her was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. The department has repeatedly said that the mission is being carried out in Abraham’s honor.

DHS on the DL

Noem herself kept a low profile on the ground. She posted video on social media of immigration arrests carried out at night, later confirmed to be from an ICE raid in Elgin, a suburb about 40 miles northwest of Chicago. She did not meet with local press, and she was gone before midmorning. The secretary’s trip came just days after an ICE operation in Franklin Park ended with an officer seriously injured and the suspect, an undocumented driver, fatally shot. The videos Noem shared were not from that deadly encounter, which had been captured on surveillance footage from nearby businesses. But the imagery served as a clear signal: DHS is moving forward aggressively, despite the questions swirling around tactics and accountability.

Chicago Isn’t Happy

Chicago officials, including Mayor Brandon Johnson, have called for fuller investigations into the Franklin Park shooting. ICE has said there is no body camera footage of the incident. The absence of clear documentation has left room for criticism from city leaders who have long opposed expansive federal enforcement in immigrant neighborhoods.

This Is Just The Beginning

Meanwhile, federal planning appears to be accelerating. Greg Bovino, a longtime Border Patrol official from Texas who was reassigned to Los Angeles earlier this summer, has now been sent to Chicago to oversee the broadened operations. President Trump has also expanded the administration’s broader enforcement posture, signing an order to send National Guard troops into Memphis as part of what he’s calling the “Memphis Safe Task Force,” which is similar to efforts in Washington, D.C., and suggests a strategy of targeting urban centers with highly visible shows of federal force.