By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announces a new operation in Chicago, President Donald Trump says he is not going to war with the city.

DHS announced Monday it was launching Operation Midway Blitz in honor of Katie Abraham, who was killed last January in a crash involving noncitizen migrant and Guatemalan national Julio Cucul-Bol in Illinois.

“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the DHS press release stated.

Along with the announcement, DHS posted names and photos of eleven noncitizen migrants with criminal charges or convictions who were released in Illinois and remain at large.

Trump signaled over the weekend that Chicago remained in his sights for potential federal deployments.

Trump posted a meme of himself on X on Saturday and wrote that “Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker responded with a post saying, “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city.”

Pritzker also referred to Trump as a scared man.

“Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator,” Pritzker posted.

At Joint Base Andrews in Maryland Sunday, a reporter asked Trump if he was ready to go to war with Chicago.

“We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities. We’re going to clean them up so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war. That’s common sense,” Trump responded.

On Monday, Trump took aim at cashless bail policies that started in Illinois when he delivered remarks to the White House Religious Liberty Commission at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

“Cashless bail started a wave in our country where a killer kills somebody and is out on the street by the afternoon, in many cases going out and killing again,” Trump said.

Trump called out Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“You try and reason with people like in Chicago with the governor and the mayor, you try and reason with them and it’s like you’re talking to a wall. I assume it’s just a political ideology. They’re not stupid people, must be an ideology that’s just buried in their head and you can’t do a damn thing about it,” Trump said.

The passage of a SAFE-Act provision in 2023 made Illinois the first state to ban cash bail. The state’s Republicans have repeatedly called for the measure to be repealed or adjusted.