Operation Midway Blitz: A New Experiment in Federal Power
Chicago Project on Security and Threats
Robert A. Pape | March 6, 2026
On September 8, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, as part of the Trump administration’s goal of removing 1 million unauthorized immigrants from the United States in its first year back in office.
As this report shows, Midway Blitz was not merely a large operation; it represented a federal experiment in a new style of immigration enforcement, one that was later extended to other US cities, including Minneapolis. Although previous U.S. presidents had used military assets for immigration support near the border and in agricultural areas, President Trump’s enforcement actions in 2025-26—in their scale, intensity, and tactics in residential areas in Chicago and other US cities—are unprecedented in modern US history.
In Chicago as elsewhere, these unprecedented actions also occurred over the strong objections of local political leaders, including the Governor of Illinois and Mayor of Chicago. These operations detained some 4,000 immigrants, the vast majority of whom had no felony or other criminal records. Hence, these people did not generally fit the phrase “the worst of the worst” often used by federal authorities to characterize the individuals targeted for removal from the country.
As such, Midway Blitz represented a testing ground for a new model of federal power—one that blurs the line between immigration enforcement and political control. The operations in Chicago may have lasted only during the fall of 2025. Their implications are more far reaching.