United States Customs and Border Protection now has boats along the Chicago River amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s "Operation Midway Blitz" in the region.
"Operation Midway Blitz" started last month in the Chicago area despite opposition from the local Democratic leaders. The operation has yielded over 500 arrests, including those with serious past convictions and criminal charges.
"Lake and rivers are borders too… wherever the border’s at, that’s where Border Patrol is gonna be," CBP commander Gregory Bovino told Fox News Channel. Chicago is only a few hundred miles from Canada, and the river connects to the Great Lakes, specifically Lake Michigan.
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United States Customs and Border Protection sent boats to the Chicago River amid "Operation Midway Blitz" on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (Chicago Tribune/Getty Images)
"Where streets end, our Marine Unit begins. On the Chicago River, CBP leadership stays vigilant. Our ability to patrol on the water extends the reach of enforcement," USBP Chief Michael Banks posted to X on Thursday.
CBP Air and Marine Operations Executive Assistant Commissioner Jonathan Miller posted to X on Thursday a video from one of the boats, writing that "Operation Midway Blitz here in Chicago is as vital as anywhere else in the country! We will not back down."
Democrats continue to rail against the federal immigration surge in Chicago, including from Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Illinois, who said in a recent post that President Donald Trump "has terrorized immigrant communities" for the past eight months as mass deportations continue nationwide.
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Demonstrators protest outside Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago on Sept. 9, 2025, opposing the deployment of federal agents. (Talia Sprague/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump has wanted to take things a step further and deploy National Guard troops into Chicago in hopes of quelling crime.
However, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker recently told MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" that the policy would "impose his authoritarian rule on big cities across the United States," as he continues to decline cooperation with the federal government on the matter.
Meanwhile, Trump said the next city on the list for National Guard deployment is Memphis, Tennessee.
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U.S. President Donald Trump visits the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility on August 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Washington, D.C., which was the first city where the National Guard strategy was tried, continues to have a strong troop and federal law enforcement presence, which has won some praise from Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser because of the drop in crime despite initial criticism about the policy.
"We're going to clean up our cities. We're going to clean them up so they don't kill five people every weekend," the president said earlier this month. "That's not war. That's common sense."