The Forum Daily | Wednesday, September 17, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**A second federal immigration enforcement operation in the Chicago area has launched, reports Chris Tye of CBS News Chicago [link removed]. 

The earlier mission, “Operation Midway Blitz,” was used to specifically look for "anyone who has been arrested and booked, charged, or convicted, and then released by local law enforcement and is not a lawfully present U.S.,” said U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois). 

This second initiative, "Operation At Large,"is expected to look more like enforcement efforts in Los Angeles earlier this year, Tye reports: more indiscriminate raids targeting anyone not lawfully present in the U.S. — not just people suspected of a crime. 

Gregory Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol official who had a lead role in the earlier Los Angeles raids, arrived in Chicago this week, report Tom Polansek and Ted Hesson of Reuters [link removed]. Critics say Bovino has employed aggressive tactics often seen as more for show than for practical or logistical reasons, Polansek and Hesson note. 

The latest raids started Monday, amid independence day celebrations for Mexico and other Latin American countries, a team at the Chicago Sun-Times [link removed] reports. “What’s happening here is it’s a cultural attack. It’s an effort to strike fear into the hearts of local communities,” said Elena Gonzales, curator of civic engagement and social justice for the Chicago History Museum. 

A U.S. citizen says he was handcuffed and briefly detained by immigration officers who forcibly entered his home Tuesday morning, report Angie Leventis Lourg, Jeremy Gorner and Stacey Wescott of the Chicago Tribune [link removed].  

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s VP of strategic communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Marcela Aguirre, Masooma Amin, Jillian Clark and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. 

**BACKLASH** — The White House continues to address effects of the Sept. 4 raid at a Georgia Hyundai facility, reports Dylan Butts of CNBC [link removed]. Business leaders have expressed concerns that the raid would hurt efforts to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States. Meanwhile, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and state Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Chris Clark yesterday spoke in favor of visa reforms, reports Doug Reardon of Atlanta News First [link removed].  

**CHILDREN** — Children increasingly have been caught up in immigration enforcement activities, report Marcela Rodrigues and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio of The Boston Globe [link removed]. Gustavo Henrique Reis Oliveira, 16, recently was arrested by immigration officers after school. Oliveira’s parents, who are also unauthorized, are now expected to show up at immigration offices. 

For more stories on personal impacts: 

* The father of three U.S. Marines is now under threat of deportation after three decades living in the country. (Miriam Jordan, The New York Times [link removed]) 

* Local faith leaders in the Dayton, Ohio, area are speaking out about families in their communities being affected by recent immigration enforcement. (Aimee Hancock, Dayton Daily News [link removed]) 

* In Chelsea, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, high school student enrollment is down as the immigrant community fears enforcement. (Simón Rios, WBUR [link removed]) 

**DISRUPTING PATIENT CARE** — Immigration and Customs Enforcement's presence in California hospitals is disrupting patient care, reports Coral Murphy Marcos of The Guardian [link removed]. Medical staff fear a chilling effect on patients seeking care across the country. “I’ve worked with police officers for years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Dianne Sposito, an emergency room nurse at UCLA. 

**CITIZENSHIP DAY** — Immigrants in Colorado are finding community while preparing for their citizenship exam, reports Anna Alejo of CBS News Colorado [link removed]. In addition to studying American history, government and English, they are providing one another mental and emotional support. Separately, Zuhail Corro-Vazquez, Welcoming Network Project Manager at the Philadelphia Office of Immigrant Affairs, shares her journey to citizenship in a blog post for the City of Philadelphia [link removed]. And for a throwback, read our colleague Andrea Castaneda-Lauver's Houston Chronicle [link removed] op-ed following her citizenship ceremony last fall.  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

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