{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-to-his-republican-colleagues-what-if-operation-midway-blitz-comes-to-your-state-or-hometown", "Durbin To His Republican Colleagues: What If \u2018Operation Midway Blitz\u2019 Comes To Your State Or Hometown?", "2025-12-02", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "IL", "Richard J. Durbin", "D000563", "www.durbin.senate.gov", "durbin", "https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin again denounced President Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d and called on his Republican colleagues to stand up against the President\u2019s cruel mass deportation scheme\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today spoke out on the Trump Administration\u2019s so-called \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d which has been used as a mechanism by the President to sow fear in Illinois communities as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have been tasked with carrying out the Trump Administration\u2019s cruel mass deportation scheme.\n\nRather than going after the \u201cworst of the worst\u201d as the President promised, DHS, ICE, and CBP agents have gone after U.S. citizens and immigrants who are legally in the United States, racially profiling people on the street and detaining them. During \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d federal agents have used extreme tactics, including ripping a U.S. citizen from her car after federal agents hit her vehicle, causing her to experience internal bleeding; detaining a green card holder while he was walking in Chicago and then releasing him without contacting his family, resulting in him going missing for two weeks; deploying pepper spray and disrupting a children\u2019s Halloween parade in the Old Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago; pulling a teacher, who had work authorization in the U.S., from her school in front of students and parents; and deploying pepper spray into the car of a U.S. citizen, causing him and his one-year-old daughter to be hospitalized.\n\n\u201cFor more than three months, Chicago has endured President Trump\u2019s \u2018Operation Midway Blitz.\u2019 It is a cruel campaign. It has swept up innocent citizens, legal residents, and immigrants who pose absolutely no threat to public safety. Remember why the President wanted to send troops and more resources and the Department of Homeland Security into the city of Chicago? Because he was going after the \u2018worst of the worst.\u2019 He [said he] was going after terrorists, murderers, rapists, the criminally insane who somehow got into this country, and he [said he] was going to make it safer by going after them\u2026The Trump Administration justified their actions by saying that they were going after the \u2018worst of the worst,\u2019 but what happened was just the opposite,\u201d Durbin began.\n\nDespite claims from the Trump Administration that DHS is only targeting \u201cthe worst of the worst,\u201d data has showed that less than three percent of the more than 600 individuals arrested during \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d have any criminal record that DHS determined threatens public safety. Further, the tactics deployed by federal agents have been challenged in court, resulting in a federal judge issuing a preliminary injunction restricting agents\u2019 use of chemical agents against protesters. While the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily paused that injunction while it considers the government\u2019s appeal, the Court noted that the injunction was founded on \u201cvoluminous and robust factual findings\u201d about federal agents\u2019 use of force.\n\n\u201cIn a hearing challenging the treatment of press and protestors by federal immigration agents, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said that their \u2018use of force shocks the conscience\u2019 and \u2018this conduct shows no sign of stopping.\u2019 In contrast to this Judge\u2019s observation, Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino boasted in his deposition, almost mockingly, that \u2018all uses of force have been more than exemplary,\u2019\u201d Durbin said. \u201cTo rein in the lawlessness, Judge Ellis issued a preliminary injunction restricting agents\u2019 use of chemical agents against protesters.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd though some courts have acted as a critical guard against the President\u2019s lawlessness, those rulings don\u2019t change the fact that the Trump Administration\u2019s militarized raids are dangerous political theater meant to spread fear and advance an anti-immigrant agenda,\u201d Durbin continued.\n\nDurbin concluded his remarks by calling on his Republican colleagues to stand up against the Trump Administration\u2019s cruel campaign against immigrants.\n\n\u201cAfter wreaking havoc in Illinois and now Charlotte, reports indicate that the city of New Orleans is Greg Bovino\u2019s next target. So, I ask my Republican colleagues: what if this \u2018Midway Blitz\u2019 comes to your state, your hometown? What is stopping the President from sowing fear there and conducting lawless raids in your cities? It\u2019s up to all of us to denounce this kind of conduct,\u201d Durbin concluded his speech.\n\nIn response to the Trump Administration\u2019s surge in federal law enforcement in Chicago and continuous threats to deploy the military in the area, Durbin has taken a number of steps to push back on these unlawful actions carried out by DHS and Secretary Noem under the direction of President Trump. Durbin\u2019s actions to push back on the Trump Administration\u2019s so-called \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d can be found here.\n\nVideo of Durbin\u2019s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.\n\nAudio of Durbin\u2019s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.\n\nFootage of Durbin\u2019s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-to-his-republican-colleagues-what-if-operation-midway-blitz-comes-to-your-state-or-hometown"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7412169836461544, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}