Category Archives: Chicago

US border agent who led immigration crackdown in LA arrives in Chicago

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Gregory Bovino announces arrival as local immigration advocates say they have noticed an uptick in Ice operations

The border patrol agent who spearheaded the immigration crackdown that sparked widespread protests in Los Angeles announced in a social media post Tuesday that he has arrived in Chicago.

“Well, Chicago, we’ve arrived!” Gregory Bovino said in a post on X that included footage of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) vehicles and agents under Chicago street signs and views of downtown. “Operation At Large is here to continue the mission we started in Los Angeles.”

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Trump to send national guard to Memphis and says Chicago is ‘probably next’

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Move is latest push by administration to expand military-led response to urban crime in Democratic-run cities

Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that would send national guard troops into Memphis, in a “replica” of the administration’s expanding military-led response to urban crime in Democratic-run cities.

The move was welcome by Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, who stood behind Trump in the Oval Office as he signed a presidential memo establishing a Memphis Safe Task Force.

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Chicago suburb warns residents that federal agents may be about to arrive

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Evanston urges residents to report sightings of federal agents as Trump has threatened immigration crackdown

A Chicago suburb has warned its residents that federal immigration agents may be present in the coming days as Donald Trump continues to threaten an immigration enforcement crackdown and national guard deployment in the nation’s third largest city.

The city of Evanston issued a statement urging its residents to report sightings of federal agents, after local officials said they were informed over the weekend about the likelihood of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) activity.

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Chicago churches urge calm resistance as Trump threatens intervention

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Residents told to stay connected to family and tell people their whereabouts as city readies for expected crackdown

The Rev Marshall Hatch urged congregants of a prominent Black church on Chicago’s West Side to carry identification, stay connected to family and protest as the city readied for an expected federal intervention.

“You need to start telling people about your whereabouts, so you don’t disappear,” Hatch said during services at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist church. “We’re not going to despair. We’re not going to feel threatened. We’re not going to give up and give in to fascism and authoritarianism.”

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JB Pritzker calls for ‘all to stand up’ to Trump’s immigration crackdown in Chicago

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President is preparing for controversial federal takeover of US city in crusade against immigration ‘sanctuary cities’

Illinois’s governor JB Pritzker has called on “all to stand up” to Donald Trump as the US president prepares to launch a federally led immigration crackdown across Chicago, a plan which has been met with widespread backlash from local leaders and the public.

Pritzker’s comments come as White House officials vow to target Chicago next in its sweeping immigration crackdowns across the country. Recently, the White House requested that a US military base on the outskirts of Chicago assist with immigration operations as the Trump administration plans a broader takeover of Democratic-run “sanctuary cities”.

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Chicago mayor signs executive order directing city to resist Trump’s immigration raids

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Brandon Johnson’s order directs city police not to collaborate with federal agents in immigration enforcement

The mayor of Chicago has signed an executive order outlining how the city will attempt to resist Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Brandon Johnson pushed back on Saturday against what he called the “out-of-control” Trump administration’s plan to deploy large numbers of federal officers into the country’s third-largest city, which could take place within days.

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Nearly 1,000 ‘worker over billionaire’ actions planned for Labor Day in US

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Rallies from Alaska to Hawaii will highlight cuts to wages, unions and social safety nets under Trump policies

Nearly 1,000 “worker over billionaire” protests are being planned in all 50 states starting this weekend as part of a Labor Day week of action organized by labor unions and advocacy groups in opposition to the Trump administration’s policies.

The actions include marches and rallies in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, a Labor Day parade in New York City, rallies in Palmer, Alaska, Freeport, Maine, and a planned protest at the state capitol in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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Illinois governor hits back at Trump in Chicago national guard feud: ‘not in good shape’

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Governor Pritzker says Trump is ‘not in good shape’ as president weighs sending troops into Chicago against local wishes

The Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, has hit back at Donald Trump for commenting on his weight, saying the Republican president is himself “not in good shape” amid escalating tension over the possible deployment of the national guard on the streets of Chicago.

Trump said on Monday that Pritzker “ought to spend more time in the gym”. While successfully campaigning in 2024 for a second presidency that began in January, Trump said that the Illinois governor is “too busy eating” to lead his state.

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Trump ‘manufactured crisis’ to justify plan to send national guard to Chicago, leading Democrat says

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Pentagon official confirms plan as House minority leader Jeffries says president is ‘playing’ with Americans’ lives

Planning is underway to send national guard troops to Chicago, an official at the Pentagon confirmed to ABC News on Sunday.

“We won’t speculate on further operations. The Department is a planning organization and is continuously working with other agency partners on plans to protect federal assets and personnel,” a Department of Defense official said, according to ABC.

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Judge blocks White House from defunding 34 municipalities over ‘sanctuary’ policies

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Cities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities had sued Trump administration over funding freeze

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, significantly expanding a previous order.

The order, issued on Friday by the San Francisco-based US district judge William Orrick, adds Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Albuquerque, to cities that the administration is barred from denying funding.

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National guard arrives in DC as mayors warn of Trump power grab

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The US president deployed troops after taking control of DC police, sparking fears of similar moves elsewhere

Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington DC, has pledged to work “side by side” with the federal government as national guard troops arrive at their headquarters in the capital.

The show of force came after Donald Trump announced that he was sending the national guard into the capital and putting city police under federal control, even though the violent crime rate is at a 30-year low.

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Landlord who stabbed Palestinian American boy to death dies in prison

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Joseph Czuba sentenced to 53 years for murder of Wadee Alfayoumi and wounding of mother in October 2023

A landlord jailed for decades after he attacked a Palestinian American boy and his mother has died.

Three months ago, Joseph Czuba was sentenced to 53 years behind bars for the attack. He was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen.

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Judge dismisses Trump officials’ lawsuit over Chicago sanctuary policies

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Blow to US president as judge rejects claim that sanctuary policies ‘thwart’ federal efforts to enforce immigration laws

A judge in Illinois dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit Friday that sought to disrupt limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police.

The lawsuit, filed in February, alleged that so-called sanctuary laws in the nation’s third-largest city “thwart” federal efforts to enforce immigration laws.

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Donald Trump commutes sentence of former Chicago gang leader

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Larry Hoover, 74, ex-chief of Gangster Disciples in Chicago, had been serving multiple life sentences for over 50 years

Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, a former Chicago gang leader, who had been serving multiple life sentences for more than five decades.

Hoover, 74, is the co-founder of Gangster Disciples, a gang described in court documents as “large and vicious” that sold “great quantities of cocaine, heroin, and other drugs in Chicago”.

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Chicago Sun-Times confirms AI was used to create reading list of books that don’t exist

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Outlet calls story, created by freelancer working with one of the newpaper’s content partner, a ‘learning moment’

Illinois’ prominent Chicago Sun-Times newspaper has confirmed that a summer reading list, which included several recommendations for books that don’t exist, was created using artificial intelligence by a freelancer who worked with one of their content partners.

Social media posts began to circulate on Tuesday criticizing the paper for allegedly using the AI software ChatGPT to generate an article with book recommendations for the upcoming summer season called “Summer reading list for 2025”. As such chatbots are known to make up information, a phenomenon often referred to as “AI hallucination”, the article contains several fake titles attached to real authors.

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Clergy molestation survivors concerned and insulted by election of Pope Leo XIV

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Pope faced questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career after a survivors group filed a complaint

Groups supporting clergy-molestation survivors say they are gravely concerned and insulted by the election of Pope Leo XIV after he overcame questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career to become the Roman Catholic church’s first-ever US-born leader.

Before Robert Prevost’s ascent to the papacy at age 69, he was leading a chapter of the Augustinian religious order in his home town of Chicago when allegations surfaced that a priest and Catholic high school principal under his jurisdiction had molested at least one student as well as kept child-abuse imagery.

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‘Deep dish eucharist’: internet reacts to US pope with jokes and Chicago pride

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Some users wonder whether new pope has had Chicago’s favorite liqueur Malört while others reference The Bear

The internet exploded with humor and Chicago pride on Thursday following the historic announcement that Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old American clergyman from Chicago, has been named the new pope.

Now known as Pope Leo XIV, Prevost has become the first clergyman from the United States to lead the Roman Catholic church, ending the Vatican’s longstanding opposition to the idea of a US pontiff.

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Dr Phil joins Chicago immigration raid as border czar says more arrests coming

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TV personality embeds in one of several raids in US cities in what Tom Homan says are only ‘beginning stages’

The TV personality Dr Phil joined the US border czar, Tom Homan, in a choreographed immigration raid in Chicago, one of several conducted in US cities over the weekend in what Homan claimed was only “the beginning stages” of Donald Trump’s promised threat to deport millions of people from the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said it had made 956 arrests on Sunday, bringing the total since Trump took office to 2,681 arrests – short of the 1,200 to 1,500 daily arrests that Trump has reportedly demanded. The Washington Post reported that Trump’s White House has issued a directive to Ice field offices that they should make 75 arrests daily and that agency managers would be held responsible for missed targets, raising fears of indiscriminate arrest tactics.

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Immigration raids in Chicago begin days after ‘border czar’ claimed officials were ‘reconsidering’

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Ice confirms ‘enhanced targeted operations’ in a city on edge after Trump officials warned of enforcement actions

US federal authorities have begun immigration raids in Chicago, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) statement confirmed on Sunday, just days after incoming “border czar” Tom Homan said officials were “reconsidering” after details leaked into the press.

In a statement, Ice said its agents, along with the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP and the US Marshals Service, had begun conducting “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago “to enforce US immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities”.

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Trump’s first immigration raid to target 300 people in Chicago on Tuesday

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Administration to send 100 to 200 officers to city on day two of new presidency, Wall Street Journal reports

Donald Trump’s incoming presidential administration plans to launch a large immigration raid in Chicago the day after he takes office, according to unnamed officials talking to various media outlets.

Federal immigration officers will target more than 300 people, focusing on those with histories of violent crimes, one official told the Associated Press, marking Trump’s initial attempt toward fulfilling his campaign promise of large-scale deportations.

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