Dem Mayor Orders Flags To Full Staff Post Charlie Kirk Assassination, Firefighters Say No
'Someone will be coming around to raise all station flags to full staff'
ICE agent ‘seriously injured,’ suspect dead in Chicago operation gone wrong
A law enforcement operation involving agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago led to serious injuries for one officer and the fatal shooting of a suspect on Friday morning.
'We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer.'
A Department of Homeland Security press release obtained by Blaze News revealed that an ICE officer was "seriously injured" during a traffic stop. The department described the stop as a targeted operation to arrest Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez.
The suspect was described as "a criminal illegal alien with a history of reckless driving" who entered the U.S. at an unknown date.
Villegas-Gonzalez allegedly "refused to follow law enforcement's commands" and attempted to flee the scene in his vehicle, driving toward ICE officers. One officer was struck and dragged "a significant distance," the DHS stated.
"Fearing for his own life, the officer fired his weapon," the department said.
RELATED: Trump eyes National Guard deployment in Chicago — but is it constitutional?
The FBI was at the scene where the shooting occurred.
The DHS noted that there has been a 1,000% increase in assaults against immigration agents.
"We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer. He followed his training, used appropriate force, and properly enforced the law to protect the public and law enforcement," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "Viral social media videos and activists encouraging illegal aliens to resist law enforcement not only spread misinformation, but also undermine public safety, as well as the safety of our officers and those being apprehended."
Both the agent and the suspect were transported to the hospital for treatment, where the suspect succumbed to his injuries, CBS News reported.
RELATED: ‘Operation Midway Blitz’: Trump administration launches Chicago ICE surge
Meanwhile, leftist protesters gathered outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Friday afternoon. Blaze News' Julio Rosas was on the ground as the activists blocked the driveway to the facility for over four hours, forcing federal agents to come outside to clear the road when federal vehicles come in. Local police are helping keep the protesters off federal property, but that is the extent of their help.
Protesters have been heckling and accosting the agents who come outside the building. When the agents go back inside, the protesters' ire is then turned on Broadview police for "helping the kidnappers."
This is the second time a larger crowd has appeared outside the ICE building. Last Friday, the organizers declared victory because ICE vehicles reportedly turned around after seeing the crowd in the road.
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ICE Launches Operation Midway Blitz Targeting Chicago’s ‘Worst Of The Worst’ Criminal Aliens
DHS says the new effort is in honor of Katie Abraham, who was killed in a hit-and-run car crash earlier this year.‘Operation Midway Blitz’: Trump administration launches Chicago ICE surge
President Donald Trump launched a law enforcement surge in Illinois this week to crack down on illegal immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security explained that “Operation Midway Blitz” was named in honor of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old who was killed in January in a hit-and-run drunk driving accident caused by a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala.
‘That’s not war; that’s common sense.’
“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the DHS wrote in a social media post. “President Trump and Secretary Noem stand with the victims of illegal alien crime while Governor Pritzker stands with criminal illegal aliens.”
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The Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has focused its efforts on clamping down on sanctuary jurisdictions that protect criminal illegal aliens. This new option targets individuals in Illinois, including Chicago, a sanctuary city.
“In an ICE-led operation, we are here to remove these dangerous public safety threats from American communities,” ICE remarked.
Trump slammed Pritzker for stating he does not want help from the federal government to end violent crime in Chicago.
“6 people were murdered in Chicago this weekend, 12 others were shot, and in serious condition. This would mean that over the past number of weeks, approximately 50 people were killed, and hundreds were shot, many expected to die. Governor Pritzker just stated that he doesn’t want Federal Government HELP! WHY???” Trump questioned. “I want to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them. Only the Criminals will be hurt! We can move fast and stop this madness. The City and State have not been able to do the job. People of Illinois should band together and DEMAND PROTECTION. IT IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE!!! ACT NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!”
Trump posted an apparent AI-generated photo on Truth Social showing himself, the Chicago skyline, a fire in the background, and helicopters overhead, with the words “Chipocalypse Now.”
“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning,’” Trump wrote. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
Pritzker pushed back on Trump’s claim that he wants to help the people of Chicago, citing the Truth Social post.
“‘I want to help people, not hurt them,’ says the guy who just threatened an American city with the Department of War,” the governor said.
RELATED: SCOTUS overrules lower court giving ICE a big win
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has also rejected Trump’s offers to help the city.
“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” Johnson said. “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
When a reporter over the weekend asked Trump whether he was seeking to go to war with Chicago, the president corrected the record.
“We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities. We’re going to clean them up so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war; that’s common sense,” Trump declared.
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Pritzker and other libs melt down over Trump's 'Chipocalypse Now' meme, prompting a badly needed reality check
JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, had an ugly meltdown on Saturday about a meme shared by President Donald Trump. When a member of the liberal press took a page out of Pritzker's book and treated the meme as a threat, Trump leaned in with a reality check.
How it started
Days after Pritzker claimed that Trump is "neither wanted here nor needed here," Chicago suffered another bloody Labor Day weekend with at least eight killed and 58 wounded. According to police, America's rattiest city suffered 278 homicides as of Aug. 31.
Trump condemned the violence, warning Pritzker: "Better straighten it out, FAST, or we're coming."
Pritzker and other Democratic officials instead channeled their energies last week into condemning a possible federal intervention rather than meaningfully tackling the underlying issues.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, for instance, kicked things off by signing an executive order "denouncing any attempts to deploy the United States Armed Forces and/or the National Guard and/or militarized civil immigration enforcement in Chicago."
RELATED: This is what Brandon Johnson is blaming for Chicago's violent Labor Day weekend
Pritzker then concern-mongered on MSNBC, telling former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki that Trump's plan is "one that's been repeated over and over again by ... tyrannical dictatorships across history where you try to incite local population into some mayhem by sending in police or other disruptors, and then claim that there's too much mayhem on the ground, and therefore there must be troops that are sent in."
The Democratic governor, who held on tightly to emergency powers through the pandemic and well into 2023, suggested further that the aim of the plan, which has already neutralized most street crime in Washington, D.C., was to "convert a democracy into something other than that."
The meme
At the outset of another weekend marked by numerous fatal shootings in Chicago, Trump shared a meme titled "Chipocalypse Now" that features an AI image of himself as Colonel Bill Kilgore, the fictional commander of the 1st Cavalry Division in "Apocalypse Now," with the Chicago skyline as his backdrop.
Whereas Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall, states in film following an airstrike on potential enemy combatants along a nearby tree line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," Trump's meme is captioned, "I love the smell of deportations in the morning."
Trump added, "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR."
Pritzker characterized Trump's post as a legitimate threat, writing, "The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal."
"Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man," continued Pritzker. "Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator."
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Pritzker subsequently disseminated guidance on how to handle encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for the apparent benefit of illegal aliens in his state, recommended that residents film federal operatives, and advanced the suggestion that the Trump administration's efforts to restore law and order constituted "atrocities."
Mayor Johnson also decided to interpret Trump's humorous post as a threat, noting, "The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution. We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump."
NBC News' Yamiche Alcindor joined Pritzker and Johnson in spinning the president's meme as a declaration of intent, asking Trump whether he was indeed "going to war with Chicago."
"Darling, that's fake news," said Trump.
When Alcindor began to argue the point, the president responded, "Be quiet. Listen. You don't listen. You never listen. That's why you're second rate."
"We're not going to war. We're going to clean up our cities," said Trump. We're going to clean them up so they don't kill five people every weekend. That's not war. That's common sense."
Trump further underscored on Sunday that he is simply keen on making American cities safe and beautiful.
"Chicago is a very dangerous place, and we have a governor who doesn't care about crime," Trump told reporters on Sunday. "We could solve Chicago very quickly."
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Blaze News in a statement, “Eight people were killed and over 50 people were wounded over Labor Day weekend in Chicago, but local Democrat leaders are more upset about a post from the president — that tells you everything you need to know about the Democrats' twisted priorities."
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Trump vows to give Chicago the DC treatment unless Democrat Gov. Pritzker gets his act together: 'We're coming!'
President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that he was federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., and deploying the National Guard there in order to "re-establish law, order, and public safety."
While Democrats and other liberal pundits reflexively denounced Trump's intervention, their critiques were premature. Since Trump took action, violent crime in D.C. reportedly is down 45%, and carjackings are down 87%.
'He is CRAZY!'
Having demonstrated just how quickly order can be restored with will and determination, Trump now is looking to help other crime-ridden cities across the country.
But during a press conference last week, Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker criticized the president's efforts to make cities safer, claiming what Trump is doing "is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American."
"Mr. President, do not come to Chicago," added Pritzker. "You are neither wanted here nor needed here."
But Trump noted in a Saturday evening Truth Social post, "Six people were killed, and 24 people were shot, in Chicago last weekend, and JB Pritzker, the weak and pathetic Governor of Illinois, just said that he doesn't need help in preventing CRIME."
The president added, "He is CRAZY!!! He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!"
RELATED: DC Dems are furious at Mayor Bowser for admitting Trump's troops are lowering crime
Underscoring Trump's concerns, Chicago kicked off the Labor Day weekend with — you guessed it — another spate of shootings.
Police indicated that as of Sunday morning, at least 32 people had been shot in the city — three fatally — WLS-TV reported. Among the victims was a 43-year-old woman who was approached then reportedly riddled with bullets at the hands of five male suspects.
The Windy City is no stranger to bloody weekends — or weekdays, for that matter.
Chicago Police Department statistics indicate that so far this year there have been at least 266 murders, 1,141 reported sexual assaults, 4,003 robberies, 10,774 motor vehicle thefts, 11,488 felony thefts, and 3,971 burglaries.
Chicago — which has secured the top spot on Orkin's list of America's rattiest cities for the last 10 years — has a 5-rating on Neighborhood Scout's crime index in which 100 is safest.
Yet while Pritzker has criticized the idea of Trump deploying the National Guard to assist Chicago, the city's Mayor Brandon Johnson — who has an approval rating of 26% according to a recent poll by the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation and the National Opinion Research Center, both at the University of Chicago — is especially opposed.
RELATED: 'Stop talking and get to work': Trump blasts Democrat Gov. Wes Moore over Maryland crime
Johnson signed an executive order Saturday "denouncing any attempts to deploy the United States Armed Forces and/or the National Guard and/or militarized civil immigration enforcement in Chicago."
In the order, the unpopular mayor demanded that Trump and agents under his authority "stand down from any attempts" to deploy troops in the city and vowed to ensure the Chicago Police Department remains a locally controlled law enforcement agency under mayoral authority.
'Cracking down on crime should not be a partisan issue.'
Additionally, Johnson said federal agents and troops cannot wear masks while performing their duties.
"We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government," said Johnson. "We must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach."
The White House reportedly has written off Johnson's executive order signing as a "publicity stunt."
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"If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement to the Independent. "Cracking down on crime should not be a partisan issue, but Democrats suffering from [Trump Derangement Syndrome] are trying to make it one."
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