Trump Administration To Start ‘Large-Scale’ Deportations on Tuesday in Chicago
“We’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois. And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him.”

Sources told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that the Trump administration is scheduled to begin its long-promised mass deportation program on Tuesday morning in Chicago. The sources expect the immigration raid to take approximately one week and said the job will require “between 100 and 200 officers” to carry out.
Sources said the Trump transition team selected Chicago as the starting point due to its status as a sanctuary city with a high number of targets, as well as President-elect Donald Trump’s ongoing feud with the city’s far-left mayor, Brandon Johnson.
The administration’s incoming border czar Tom Homan has often said they will pursue illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds before expanding their operations.
During a December visit to the Windy City, Homan stated, “We’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois. And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him.”
Illinois’ Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker responded to Homan’s threat through the media, saying, “I’m going to make sure to follow the law. I’m concerned that the Trump administration and his lackeys aren’t going to follow the law.”
Frankly, I wouldn’t put anything past Gov. Pritzker or the mayors of most large sanctuary cities. They have stopped enforcing U.S. immigration laws and, in many cases, they’ve put the welfare of illegals ahead of U.S. citizens.
🚨Today, WSJ reports large-scale deportations will begin in Chicago on January 21.
On December 9, Tom Homan warned that deportations would “begin right here in Chicago, Illinois."
Seems that Homan is a man of his word.
“If your mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside.… pic.twitter.com/7IhMKNipJS
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) January 18, 2025
Ahead of the expected deportations, many organizations in sanctuary cities are working with immigrants to inform them of their rights, provide legal assistance, and educate them on how to respond if approached by ICE agents.
The Wall Street Journal argues that the mass deportations might serve as a “shock” to the economy that could cause labor shortages in some industries, “particularly in the food, construction and service industries.”
To the extent that’s true, the inconveniences caused by any temporary labor shortages pale in comparison to the economic shock of the Biden administration’s reckless open-border policy. According to a December report from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), this policy cost taxpayers more than $150 billion in 2023 alone—approximately 2% of the entire U.S. budget.
For perspective, Newsweek reported that in 2023, the U.S. government spent $151 billion on income security programs for military veterans and their families. That figure is also roughly equivalent to the estimated cost of rebuilding Los Angeles after the wildfires.
In 2023 alone, illegal immigration cost taxpayers $150.7 billion. To put this in context with other costs (adjusted for inflation):
-World War I: $334 billion
-Apollo Space Program: $257 billion
-Manhattan Project: $30 billion
-Panama Canal: $15.2 billion
-Hoover Dam: $1…— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) December 3, 2024
Although no one knows the exact number of illegal immigrants who have entered the U.S. since Biden took office, it’s safe to say it’s at least 10 million. Unlike the wave of immigrants who arrived on our shores in the 1900s, ready to work hard, assimilate into American culture, and build a better life, many of these individuals are impoverished, relying on the U.S. to provide them with food, shelter, and medical care.
Voter concern over Biden’s open-border policy has grown steadily over the past four years, as U.S. citizens began experiencing the tangible effects of illegal immigration. These include rises in crime, overcrowding in cities, schools, and hospitals, and increased strain on state and local government budgets. Furthermore, many were frustrated by illegal immigrants seemingly leapfrogging over those trying to enter the country legally.
As a result, illegal immigration emerged as a top issue. In the run-up to the election, polls consistently showed that a majority of voters supported the mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Voters also made it clear which party they held responsible.
Since Trump’s victory in November, there have been scattered reports of migrants choosing to self-deport ahead of the anticipated crackdown. While it’s impossible to quantify this trend, self-deportation offers certain advantages. Those who are forcibly deported are typically barred from reentering the U.S. for 10 years, although the period may vary.
Anyway, it’s encouraging that Trump will start working on this campaign promise on Day One.
We’ll be watching closely.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Although no one knows the exact number of illegal immigrants who have entered the U.S. since Biden took office, it’s safe to say it’s at least 10 million
Are you nuts? That was the number 30 years ago
Even Rubio knows this
https://x.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/1880352520884896085
More came in than we can possibly handle. We need a concerted effort to deport as many as we can as fast as we can for as long as we can.
“We’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois.”
The magic of Festivus – delivering miracles all year long,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ftZgi1xI-s
Going after the employers of illegal aliens and cutting off Federal grant/contracts to NGO to provide assistance for illegal aliens will be effective. When businesses and individuals employing illegal aliens have their assets seized under civil asset forfeiture and are.facing prison terms things will change.
Absolutely this would be the most effective and efficient means of enforcing immigration law. Moreover, it should be a federal crime to promote, assist, or facilitate illegal immigration, or to harbor or hide an illegal immigrant, or to impede in any way the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
I am an Employer.
I am required to see identification of every new employee.
I make certain to e-verify…
I am told I have to do this and I do.
Am I the only one that does?
Unless I went totally underground and worked for cash…
I can’t see how an Employer COULD hire an illegal without taking an incredible risk. One I am not prepared to take.
Construction, hospitality, restaurants not quite so diligent. Then there’s processing plants and big AG. Lots of fake documents and stolen SSN out there as well.
E.verify isn’t mandatory nationwide, it remains largely a voluntary program. Some States require it, some States only require it for those with State contracts. Make it mandatory nationwide and lots will change. As will workplace ‘raids’ on business in certain industries which seem to have higher noncompliance.
E-verify isn’t mandatory. Worse, if someone with a Hispanic surname presents you documents that appear to your inexpert eyes to be genuine, you are not allowed to investigate them further, or you could be gone after for discrimination. After all, why are you investigating this person’s papers, and looking for an excuse not to hire him, when you are legally entitled to accept the papers at face value and hire him? That must be motivated by racism. So you get in trouble for looking too hard. Then you get raided and you were suddenly supposed to just “know” that the papers were faked.
The biggest lie about “undocumented immigrant” is that they are documented. Many of them have more documents than genuine US citizens and legal immigrants, because they often have multiple sets. If you don’t like one set they can show you another.
Elizabeth is writing that the # of illegal aliens entering the Nation DURING the Biden Admin is likely 10 Million. She isn’t claiming the TOTAL # of illegal aliens is 10 million. Best guesses for the total # of illegal aliens averages around 30 million (+/-).
“Best guesses for the total…”
It’s really a shame when there are so many all we can do is guess at the number. It’s like guessing how many stars in the universe.
WRONG, we know 15-20 million have crossed
No, we don’t know that, though it’s possible. No one was counting them.
No we don’t. Even Tom Homan has stated the number of illegal aliens entering the US during Biden’s term was probably an additional 10 million on top of the 20 million that were here at the end of Trump’s 1st.term.
No, that’s not true
Do you mean it’s not true that 10 million +/- came into the US illegally under Biden or not true that there were tens of millions of illegal aliens in the US when Trump left office?
Hell let’s say it’s 20% higher and the number isn’t 10 million but rather 12 million additional illegal aliens. The point is we had lots before Biden and now we have many more.
We won’t really know the exact # until we finish deporting them, every last flipping one of them. Prosecution of employers and do gooder types who want to shield them and/or.exploit them will greatly increase pressure on these illegal aliens to depart. No whining and crying about it when the likely bad PR/propaganda images show up.
I think you’re right, I’m basing my number on number of encounters at the border and estimated gotaways. But even 10 million is pretty shocking.
There is also the issue of how many children are being produced by illegals over the past 30-40 years.
That shouldn’t be an issue, because those children are American.
I was referring to just the number who have come in the past four years.
You would be wrong, that doesn’t include the getaways or the north border
Citation please?
Thank you. Hard to know the number even to the nearest million, isn’t it? That’s part of the problem.
I think that the argument was over total number of illegals in the country vs how many Biden let in. That ditzy chick was trying to say there were only 10-15 Million illegals in the US and Rubio, rightly, wouldn’t let her get away with it pointing out that Biden let that many in during the last 4 years and the number was closer to 20-30 Million but no one really knows.
For decades 13 million were reported as the total, then two universities collaborated to get a currant count, reporting about $30 million, since that time there have been upwards of 2o million more.
This is an invasion, theft of resources which should go to citizens. And now we have to pay more to get rid of them.
Those associated with this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.
Why tell them where you’ll be?
Not smart
The goal will be accomplished when ‘Press one for English’ is relegated to the dust bin of history.
There are plenty of US citizens and legal aliens whose primary language is Spanish. Including the millions on Puerto Rico, where Spanish is the dominant language, and whose people are US citizens by birth.
Stop the BS and learn English, this is an English speaking country
You want to speak Spanish, go back to your home country
Puerto Rico is America, and it is not an English speaking country. Puerto Ricans, speaking Spanish, are just as American as you. And they are in their home country.
The USA has no official language.
The language of America is English
Period, all other languages are secondary including spanish
Sorry your unamerican mind can’t handle it
That is just not true. The USA has no official language. In most of the USA English is the predominant language, but there are parts of the USA where Spanish is, particularly Puerto Rico, which for almost all purposes is part of the USA. That is just a fact that you have to account for in your position.
This is no different from how, until WW1, there were areas of the USA where the predominant language was German. These German-speakers were just as American as anyone else, but they spoke little English.
I think one of the requirements for naturalized US citizenship is a rudimentary understanding of English. If it’s not a requirement for green carders, it should be. And PR is an exception. It should not be the rule for the contiguous 48 states.
It’s a requirement for naturalization, if you’re under a certain age. People over that age are exempt. I’m not sure what the age is.
But PR is not an exception. Puerto Ricans are not being naturalized. They are US citizens by right of birth, so they’re no different from the millions of German-speaking Americans who lived here for centuries, until the racism during WW1 forced them to start speaking English.
Good for him.
At the very least, we don’t need to import criminals to commit the crimes that legal residents won’t do. Going thru legal channels to come here means we have at least a chance at filtering out folks with a criminal past. And if you’re here illegally and commit a serious crime, you have no right to stay here. Any official body, be it state, count, or city level, that refuses to hand over in-custody felons to ICE should lose all federal funds and the officials responsible should be charged.
No e of them have a right to stay here
They are all criminals, they are criminals by coming here illegally
What is there not to understand
And I’m not saying otherwise.
But we need to triage the disaster that is Biden immigration policy.
First things first.
“Sources said the Trump transition team selected Chicago as the starting point due to its status as a sanctuary city with a high number of targets, as well as President-elect Donald Trump’s ongoing feud with the city’s far-left mayor, Brandon Johnson.”
If I were Trump, I would have started by cleaning up the red states first, and let the sanctuaries stew in their own juices until they begged for my assistance,
But the lure of a target-rich environment may be too strong — coupled with Trump’s instinct to publicly humiliate his loudest opponents, with which I sympathize.
I don’t recall what gripe he has with Johnson, but it sure would be worth sweating JB Pritzker until he starts being mistaken for Macauley Culkin..
There’s a legal (and practical) issue called “attractive nuisance”.
Commonly, it’s something like a private swimming pool with no fence, the pool owner should make some reasonable effort to prevent unaccompanied minors risking their lives trespassing to swim alone.
Like a fence.
A “Sanctuary City” is an attractive nuisance, incentivizing illegal immigration
Initial raids and deportations from someplace like Chicago would also make a large visible display, pour encourager les autres.
That’s exactly right, and he knows it, so he won’t do that.
And I’m sure he will. He’s not stupid.
Good. So watch them to make sure they keep the law. If you see any violations, of course you’re more than welcome to report them to the relevant authorities; I doubt you will, though. The federal forces won’t need to break any laws, because the law is on their side.
In all the decades that sanctuary cities have been in operation, there is no history at all of any official there breaking the law. Their policy has been clear and consistent: They don’t interfere with federal law enforcement, but they don’t lift a finger to help. Exactly as the free states did to the slave catchers, with the Supreme Court’s approval.
“In all the decades that sanctuary cities have been in operation, there is no history at all of any official there breaking the law.”
Untrue right off the top of my head,
Yes true. Did you think I was unaware of that case? But it proves my point. The criminal in that case was not an official of a sanctuary state/city. She was a state judge in Massachusetts, which is not a sanctuary state. Therefore her crime had nothing at all to do with such states/cities.
If officials of sanctuary cities/states had a tendency to do such things, why can you not find any cases of it happening, in the 40 years that they’ve been operating?
There is an advantage to starting in a “sanctuary” city. Since you can’t just go pick them up at the local jail, you have to pursue them out on the streets. That’s plenty of opportunity to pick up some “bonus” illegals who might have been overlooked otherwise.
You can go pick them up at the local jail, if you have warrants for them. The locals can’t interfere.
Except you can’t “just pick them up at the jail”. Unless you’re prepared to arrest at the point of a gun the armed police who are not allowing you access. And both judges and police depts have been known to play shell games with arrestees to keep them out of the hands of ice officers with warrants – and no consequences ensue.
If you have a warrant they have to allow you access, just as any property owner must.
And no, there are absolutely no instances whatsoever of officials of sanctuary cities/states doing anything like that. None at all.
There have been cases of officials in non-sanctuary jurisdictions who have committed crimes like that entirely of their own initiative, but none in sanctuary jurisdictions.
Officials of such jurisdictions are under clear instructions: When ICE come they must not break the law by interfering with their lawful business, but they must not do them any favors.
If they want to enter premises that they’re not legally entitled to enter without a warrant, they must present a valid warrant, just like anyone else. If they have one, they must be allowed in just as anyone else would have to.
Haha…hahaha…hahahahahhahahahaha
Even the lesbian smirker over in Mass is getting on board. Virtue signaling is great until someone shows up with the cajones to hold you accountable.
Be prepared to have things cost more when these hard working folks are ‘sent back to where they came from” . MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN.
1
Ok then your argument is prices will rise due to increased labor costs which means rising wages for US Citizens. That’s an acceptable outcome …unless of course you are some limousine liberal who likes the power/control they hold over their illegal alien employees giving you the ability to shaft them with low wages and call ICE if they complain.
Well, being a typical phony conservative, you complained about inflation for four years ,even though that inflation had really nothing to do with what Biden did. Now’ the moron’ is going to enact policies that will cause prices to go up. ( this plus tariffs),and -presto- you changed your mind . LOL. You wear that red hat well.
Just like debt there is ‘good inflation’ and ‘bad’ inflation. Wages increasing is on balance a good thing for workers. Can’t consume anything if the jobs which might fund that consumption are taken by illegal aliens.
When our central bank simply increases the money supply and/or govt keeps spending $ they don’t have (debt financing) it creates economic bubbles and mal investment. Importing tens of millions to the US greatly distorts the labor market. No coincidence that the Immigration act of ’65 along with killing the last remnant of the gold standard in ’73 align near perfectly with the decline in wages for middle/low income earners and a vast shift in wealth towards the top 1/5 of wage earners.
I am not any kind of ‘conservative’. I am a center/right populist with strong libertarian leanings. Chemotherapy causes problems in order to fix problems. Surgery does the same, the patient is rendered unconscious while strangers cut him open, adding/removing pieces/parts, lost of blood and gore involved but if successful it fixes the problem. Same.for tariffs moving manufacturing plants + jobs back to the USA where the workers with these new jobs (and the many around them) can afford to consume.
The checks you trolls get won’t be going up, though.
They’re doomed to DrEI up.
NOTHING to do with what Biden did? Really?
The “inflation reduction act” reduced inflation like a :”motherhood and apple pie act” which legalizes grinding up mothers to add protean to apple pies protects mothers and Apple pies.
It didn’t.
Spending money we don’t have is the very definition of causing inflation, it was a shmorgesborg of graft and payouts to Dem supporters. Like another “infrastructure” bill that produces near zero infrastructure.
Add to that Biden’s “achievement” of taking us from net energy independence with cheap energy to our current return to importing more and energy costs rising, and it’s no wonder that there’s inflation, the cost of energy is a factor in the cost of everything.
That would be ok with me. Latinos were always considered “white”. Before the race baiters took hold of America
Uh huh. In the time frame from the first Biden immigration wave, a trip to the grocery store went from $150 being a full shopping cart to a bag carried in one hand.
Just for fun — what will happen to the price of housing if 20 million people suddenly emigrated out of the United States?
Much lower inflation, more reasonable housing and rent.
Don’t think for a minute that Chicago — or any other Democrat stronghold — is upset over this. All the huffing and puffing is a show to keep their bored millionaire wine mom donor base happy.
We will call it repatriation, not deportation.
Depends who you talk to. I’ve also heard it called “swimming lessons.”
Jesus, Homan himself said they were going into Chicago, now he says it was a leak and they will have to pause
Always “pausing”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/border-czar-tom-homan-says-raids-sanctuary-cities/
I bet there is a list of targets, just hit another city.
Maybe he just learned how to play the misdirection game, like Israel did to Iran after WE leaked it.