Other cities, including Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee, have seen federal law enforcement and military move in to quell general crime, not for immigration purposes.

President Donald Trump’s approval on immigration has faded since he took office. CBS News polling conducted in February and again in September revealed that approval has gone from 54% to 45%.

Nevertheless, the Department of Homeland Security has maintained that the public supports what Trump is doing and how he is doing it. 

“President Trump and Secretary Noem are delivering on the American people’s mandate to deport illegal aliens, and the latest polls show that support for the America First agenda has not wavered,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. 

Los Angeles

In June, federal police from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol, and Department of Justice agencies descended on Southern California to accelerate the White House’s deportation operation.

ICE was behind the White House’s goal of 3,000 illegal immigrant arrests per day and looking to ramp up arrests, which is the first step in the deportation process.

The Department of Homeland Security announced in late August that authorities under the supervisor of Border Patrol’s southeastern California chief, Gregory Bovino, police had arrested 5,210 illegal immigrants since June 6. Federal agents and officers targeted people in Home Depot parking lots, raided job sites and farms, and made single arrests for wanted known criminals.

The infusion of police and military was met at times with violence from upset residents.

Washington

In early August, Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, which gave him the authority to put someone else in charge of the department for 30 days. The move, Trump said during a press conference at the White House, was meant to address concerns that the city was not doing enough to deter or respond to crime in the nation’s capital.

Some of the same federal law enforcement officers were directed to Washington, where they assisted local police in going after known criminals and were present at local police checkpoints downtown.

If someone was stopped at the road checkpoints, such as one that was set up on 14th Street Northwest, MPD officers could bring in ICE or Border Patrol standing nearby to confirm a person’s immigration status. The D.C. takeover was intended to address crime overall, not illegal immigration.

Chicago

As the Los Angeles immigration operation slowed, Bovino’s success carrying out thousands of arrests in the West Coast city had made him a natural candidate to oversee operations in the next city where the Trump administration wanted to surge in resources and round up the “worst of the worst.”

By early September, the crime crackdown in Washington was also winding down. National Guard soldiers would stay behind with some federal assistance, but Border Patrol agents and ICE moved on to Chicago.

National Guard from Illinois and Texas were sent to Chicago as part of crime-fighting and immigration efforts by the White House. Trump had vowed to make the “hellhole” city safer, while also setting immigration authorities loose en masse to find illegal immigrants.

Between January and August, Chicago police had refused to turn over more than 1,550 — or 92% of — illegal immigrants in local jails for criminal offenses due to the city’s “sanctuary” policy of not cooperating with ICE, the Washington Examiner reported.

In early September, ICE launched Operative Midway Blitz, where it effectively blitzed the region and arrested more than 800 illegal immigrants by early October.

But tensions in Chicago have flared and remain high. Federal police in face masks and tactical gear have employed aggressive tactics in an effort to safely carry out arrests of criminals, prompting fury from community members and leading to blowback.

One illegal immigrant, Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, was killed by ICE during the operation, and in a different incident, a woman was indicted for attempting to ram an ICE officer in an unmarked vehicle to prevent him from making an arrest.

Chicago and Illinois, governed by Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker, filed lawsuits over the troop deployments. Both said ICE’s detention facility in the suburb of Broadview had frequent protests outside, but was not in need of military security.

U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, April Perry, ruled this week and imposed a temporary restraining order for 14 days that barred the National Guard deployment to Illinois.

Portland

In the Northwest, Trump has tried to send in National Guard from Oregon and California to safeguard another ICE detention facility in downtown Portland.

Trump said it would be a wise move given that the city had descended into a “war zone,” then questioned if the accounts of the city that he had seen on TV were accurate.

Over the past week, protesters have gathered outside the ICE facility, dressed in costumes and standing around, with the occasional brawl breaking out between counterprotesters.

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Protests have mostly stayed peaceful with occasional arrests among pro-Trump and anti-Trump individuals on site. Federal police stationed on the rooftop and ground at the facility have used tear gas and munitions against protesters.

The Trump administration has been sued by California and Oregon for attempting to send in both states’ National Guard and has yet to formally dispatch military into the city.