Durbin To His Republican Colleagues: What If ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ Comes To Your State Or Hometown?
In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin again denounced President Trump’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” and called on his Republican colleagues to stand up against the President’s cruel mass deportation scheme
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today spoke out on the Trump Administration’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz,” 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’s cruel mass deportation scheme.
Rather than going after the “worst of the worst” 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 “Operation Midway Blitz,” 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’s 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.
“For more than three months, Chicago has endured President Trump’s ‘Operation Midway Blitz.’ 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 ‘worst of the worst.’ 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…The Trump Administration justified their actions by saying that they were going after the ‘worst of the worst,’ but what happened was just the opposite,” Durbin began.
Despite claims from the Trump Administration that DHS is only targeting “the worst of the worst,” data has showed that less than three percent of the more than 600 individuals arrested during “Operation Midway Blitz” 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’ use of chemical agents against protesters. While the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily paused that injunction while it considers the government’s appeal, the Court noted that the injunction was founded on “voluminous and robust factual findings” about federal agents’ use of force.
“In a hearing challenging the treatment of press and protestors by federal immigration agents, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said that their ‘use of force shocks the conscience’ and ‘this conduct shows no sign of stopping.’ In contrast to this Judge’s observation, Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino boasted in his deposition, almost mockingly, that ‘all uses of force have been more than exemplary,’” Durbin said. “To rein in the lawlessness, Judge Ellis issued a preliminary injunction restricting agents’ use of chemical agents against protesters.”
“And though some courts have acted as a critical guard against the President’s lawlessness, those rulings don’t change the fact that the Trump Administration’s militarized raids are dangerous political theater meant to spread fear and advance an anti-immigrant agenda,” Durbin continued.
Durbin concluded his remarks by calling on his Republican colleagues to stand up against the Trump Administration’s cruel campaign against immigrants.
“After wreaking havoc in Illinois and now Charlotte, reports indicate that the city of New Orleans is Greg Bovino’s next target. So, I ask my Republican colleagues: what if this ‘Midway Blitz’ comes to your state, your hometown? What is stopping the President from sowing fear there and conducting lawless raids in your cities? It’s up to all of us to denounce this kind of conduct,” Durbin concluded his speech.
In response to the Trump Administration’s 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’s actions to push back on the Trump Administration’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” can be found here.
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.
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