Nearly all immigrants detained in Trump Chicago raid had no criminal conviction

Source: The Guardian

Wed 19 Nov 2025 06.00 EST
Last modified on Wed 19 Nov 2025 10.46 EST


More than 97% of immigrants detained in the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago had no criminal conviction, according to federal court records.

The data, released on Friday and first reported by the Chicago Tribune, sharply contradicts the Trump administration’s portrayal of the immigration sweeps as an effort to fight crime and, as Trump himself has described it, targeting the “worst of the worst”.

Of the 614 immigrants arrested in the Chicago operation, which began in September, just 16 had significant criminal histories, according to federal data submitted to the court by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as part of a lawsuit. Ten of the detainees were either convicted of or face charges for some form of assault, battery or domestic violence. One had been convicted of enticement of a minor and kidnapping. One was labeled a “foreign criminal”. Two had drunk-driving convictions.

The rest of the migrants arrested in the Chicago deportation operation had neither criminal convictions nor pending charges, according to the data. In a column labeled “Risk to Public Safety,” federal authorities classified three dozen other of the arrested migrants as “high”. The vast majority were labeled as low risks to public safety, though the data described almost all of them as flight risks.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/19/trump-chicago-immigration-raid