A woman says her father was arrested by ICE in Waukegan over the weekend as federal agencies were spotted in Lake County amid “enhanced targeted operations” in the Chicago area.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that they began conducting “enhanced target operations” in Chicago on Sunday.
ICE said the operations are to enforce United States immigration law and “preserve public safety.”
ICE also said the operations aim to keep “potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.”
The agency reported 956 arrests and 554 detainers lodged in a single day on Sunday but did not say where in the U.S. the arrests were made.
Video released by ICE showed agents knocking on doors in the Chicago area and arresting people.
ICE said they are being assisted by other federal partners, including the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Waukegan resident Yelitza Marquina told ABC7 Chicago that ICE arrested her 44-year-old father at his home in Waukegan early Sunday morning.
“For them to just take him like that,” Marquina said. “They opened the door because they thought, maybe, one of us was in trouble, or something happened to us. Never did he think they were ICE.”
“I’m already heartbroken, myself, and I can’t really imagine little kids whose families are breaking apart because of this,” she said.
Video and photos posted on social media by residents over the weekend showed federal agencies in Lake County, including in Waukegan and Mundelein.
Tom Homan, the “border czar” for President Donald Trump, was in Chicago over the weekend to oversee the operations.
Homan recently told ABC News that every undocumented immigrant should worry they could be arrested at any time, even if they have no criminal record.
“There’s consequences [for] entering the country illegally. If we don’t show there’s consequences, you’re never going to fix the border problem,” Homan said.
Officials have said they will first focus on those who pose a threat to public safety and national security.
“We can all agree we that must remove dangerous individuals who are here illegally. But the actions being taken by the Trump admin go beyond those goals,” U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said Sunday.
Durbin said he and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) “stand” with the immigrant community and their offices are ready to “help those improperly caught up in these raids.”