ICE says 81% arrested in Operation Midway Blitz had no convictions, falsely asserts no citizens arrested

About 81% of those arrested in Chicago’s “Operation Midway Blitz” had no criminal convictions, despite federal immigration officials repeatedly claiming that the aggressive operation was intended to target “the worst of the worst.”

That’s according to answers given to Sen. Dick Durbin and the Illinois congressional delegation on April 13 — information given nearly seven months after their request for details at the height of Operation Midway Blitz back in September. It comes as Todd Lyons, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on Thursday tendered his resignation, effective May 31.

It marks the first concrete number of arrests that federal officials had previously declined to provide.

“The focus of Operation Midway Blitz was on arresting the worst criminal aliens and protecting the peace and dignity of Illinois’ communities,” Lyons wrote in the April 13 letter. “As a result of the efforts of the brave men and women of ICE, Illinois is safer than it was prior to Operation Midway Blitz.”

Despite that assertion, Lyons wrote that between Sept. 5 through Feb. 17, ICE conducted 4,570 “administrative arrests” in Illinois and said none of those arrests were U.S. citizens. Of those arrests, one person was identified as a DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipient.

Asked how many people of those who were arrested had no criminal convictions, unrelated to immigration status, Lyons wrote that approximately 3,739 had no criminal convictions and instead had pending criminal charges or were “immigration violators.” Nine of those arrests were subject to expedited removal.

Federal agents targeted the Chicago area during Operation Midway Blitz between mid-September through mid-October. On Sept. 12, Silverio Villegas González, a father and cook originally from Mexico, was fatally shot at “close range” as he allegedly tried to flee a traffic stop. Operation Midway Blitz slowed in mid-November.

In the letter, Lyons claims that no U.S. citizens were arrested by federal immigration officers during Operation Midway Blitz — despite documented reports of citizens being arrested. According to ProPublica, at least 170 citizens were detained in the first nine months of the operation across the country, and as of mid-October, about two dozen U.S. citizens had been held for more than a day without being able to contact anyone. Durbin’s staff has also documented the reported detention of at least 40 citizens in Illinois between late August and early November 2025.

The letter also says that DHS used several other federal agencies to help with immigration enforcement, including personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the State Department's Diplomatic Service. Even employees from the Internal Revenue Service “exercised their properly-delegated immigration authority and/or assisted ICE officers and special agents with immigration operations and actions,” Lyons wrote.

DHS did not track how many officers from other agencies worked with ICE, the letter says. Within DHS, 209 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers worked with their ICE counterparts, and the Transportation Security Administration provided ICE about 100 federal air marshals on a rotating basis. Within DHS, TSA has a reimbursable agreement with ICE flight support up to $80 million.

Regarding use-of-force policies, Lyons wrote that DHS employees follow directives in their employee handbook — and wrote that “DHS does not have oversight of and does not direct how their federal law enforcement partners perform their duties.”

“All ICE officers are taught ICE’s Use of Force Continuum, which includes de-escalation training," Lyons wrote. "Furthermore, ICE officers are taught how to apply the reasonableness standard when using force. ICE officers may use only the amount of force which is objectively reasonable to gain control of a subject and the use of any level of force must discontinue immediately when the subject no longer presents a threat.”

Asked about social media influencers who tagged along to some of the most aggressive targeted operations, Lyons said those influencers were given prior approval and signed a waiver agreeing to abide by all ICE guidelines to participate in a ride-along. They declined to provide a list of which influencers were granted the access.

U.S. Rep Delia Ramirez, D-Illinois, railed against the letter, telling the Sun-Times in a statement that "every fascist in the administration responsible for the terror of Midway Blitz must be held accountable.

"Today, we have the data to prove what our communities knew all along: DHS is the biggest threat to our collective safety, and funding it only fuels our own destruction and human suffering," Ramirez said.