The Trump administration has launched an immigration crackdown in Chicago after weeks of taunting by the president.

On Monday, the department of homeland security announced it had commenced “Operation Midway Blitz” to arrest illegal migrants in the city en masse.

The department said the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation will focus on detaining those drawn to the city for its government’s supposedly soft-touch approach to immigration.

“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 department wrote on X.

Details of the operation remain scant, but it falls short of deploying the National Guard to the city, which Mr Trump has repeatedly hinted at in recent weeks much to the ire of JB Pritzker, Illinois’ Democratic governor.