Trump Administration Says It Has Begun Immigration Crackdown in Chicago

The Trump administration said on Monday that it had begun a crackdown on illegal immigration in Chicago, though local officials and advocates for immigrants around the city said they had seen only a handful of arrests so far.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a news release announcing the operation, which it called Operation Midway Blitz, and said it would target undocumented immigrants who had criminal records.

“No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Local officials and advocates for immigrants said that residents seemed to be bracing for arrests, but that few had been witnessed as of Monday morning. At least three people were arrested on the Southwest Side of Chicago on Sunday, according to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which closely tracks immigration enforcement activity.

To some degree, local officials said, the actions so far in Chicago looked like typical ICE arrests on a given day. In Illinois, ICE has made at least 1,400 immigration arrests since Mr. Trump took office, a much lower rate per capita than in other immigrant-heavy states like New York. More than a thousand of those arrests have been in the Chicago area.

Jeylú B. Gutiérrez, a City Council member, said on Monday that three people in her ward had been detained, including a street vendor who sold flowers. Another person was arrested as he waited for a bus, she said.

Ms. Gutiérrez, after driving her children to school on Monday morning, said that the neighborhood had less traffic than usual, suggesting that people were staying home from work and school out of fear.

“They’re targeting hardworking people in the community,” she said. “At this point, everybody is a target.”

Over the weekend, the White House posted an image on social media depicting Mr. Trump with helicopters, billowing flames and the Chicago skyline. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” the post read.

Hundreds of Department of Homeland Security officials were expected to stage the operation from a naval base outside Chicago.

Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, said that his administration was ready to fight Mr. Trump in court if the president expanded the operations beyond immigration and ordered National Guard troops to enter the city. Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to send troops to Chicago, saying that policing in the city needs federal help.

Legal experts have questioned whether Mr. Trump, who has also sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington, would have the authority to send National Guard troops to Chicago over the governor’s objections.