Chicago Is the Frontline in the Battle for American Freedom

Operation Midway Blitz, a name that conjures Chicago Bears football, is the Trump Administration’s cynical branding of what can only be described as escalating government violence by ICE and other federal agents in Chicago. One man is already dead. Many others have been injured. Homes have been ransacked; American citizens detained. Every good person should condemn this unprovoked and cruel attack on an American city. And every American should cheer on the people of Chicago who are now the front line in the battle for American freedom.

Federal troops, in an excessive show of force now routinely show up for photo ops at our tourist attractions, and for battle in our neighborhoods. They come with armored vehicles, boats, drones, Black Hawk and conventional helicopters, tactical body armor, pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, snipers and overwatch teams, flashbang grenades, as well as conventional sidearms and rifles. They come prepared for war.

On the night of September 29 to 30, using military helicopters, and tactical gear, ICE and FBI agents stormed an apartment building in the South Shore Neighborhood. According to the Chicago Sun Times:

Armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down their doors overnight, pulling men, women and children from their apartments, some of them naked, residents and witnesses said. Agents approached or entered nearly every apartment in the five-story building, and U.S. citizens were among those detained for hours.

Today, ICE handcuffed a Chicago alderman and forcibly removed her from a hospital where she went to check on a man who was injured during an ICE action. Because Chicagoans are paying attention, the interaction was caught on video. According to Block Club Chicago,

A video of the Friday afternoon incident shows Fuentes at the hospital, asking federal agents if they had a signed warrant and telling the agents a man — who they had detained — has constitutional rights. Fuentes is not seen touching the agents, one of whom tells her he will arrest her if she does not leave.

Fuentes again asks the agents if they have a warrant, and an agent grabs Fuentes, spins her around and handcuffs her hands.

Last week, ICE agents tear gassed a neighborhood street. A couple was walking their two-year-old home from school when they were overcome by the gas.

Meanwhile we have increasing evidence that ICE is trying to create photo ops to support two lies — that Chicago has been subdued, and that beleaguered law enforcement are fighting off an insurrection. (For the latter, to see the real thing, Google Jan 6th.)

Last week, ICE agents “patrolled” the swankiest part of the Chicago River. For those unfamiliar with geography, the Chicago River is not the Rio Grande. No immigrant has to cross it to get into America. Maybe a Russian Oligarch on the run has a yacht that might cruise the part of the river. Most immigrants do not. The river is not on route map of migrants or dangerous gangs. On St. Patrick’s Day, we dye it green. It flows in front of Trump Tower. It is a great spot for photos.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem showed to look fashionably tough for folks on X, and to complain that the bad people of Chicago (well, of neighboring Broadview) wouldn’t let her use the bathroom.

Even the conservative Chicago Tribune reports:

Federal agents confronted hundreds of protesters for the fourth week straight outside the Broadview U.S. Immigration and Customs processing center today, an exchange that at times had the look of a publicity stunt as masked men in military fatigues hung from the sides of an armored truck and waved to a jeering crowd as the media and local police officers looked on.

This massive deployment of government force is emphatically not about immigration, not about gangs, not about violent crime. It is entirely about intimidation. In 2024, the last year of the Biden Administration, ICE deported 271,484 people. That’s more than a quarter-million deportations. All without a federal military invasion of American cities. All without the social media crowd-bating.

The ugly truth is that Donald Trump’s go-to as our president is coercion. He promised to destroy higher education unless universities gave up their independence. Many did. He promised to withhold needed approvals from media companies unless they put government censors in their newsrooms. CBS folded. He strong-armed US Steel and Intel, two major American companies to give him equity in their businesses.

Now he wants to coerce a major American city to change its character and bow down. He sent in his troops armed as our soldiers were for urban warfare in Fallujah. They are breaking into apartment buildings; they are tear-gassing neighborhood streets. One person is dead. Others have been hospitalized.

Americans love our freedom. And Chicago is the most American city. We will not bow down. We will not be broken. Out fight is America’s fight. Our resistance is peaceful, but it is not weak. We will not stop until Donald Trump gets his masked battle-armed thugs off our streets.

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