Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has insisted that the Trump administration plans to do more immigration raids in the style of those carried out in Los Angeles.
Noem told moderator Ed O’Keefe on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that the Trump administration would send Immigration and Customs Enforcement resources to cities like Chicago.
“We’ve already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago and throughout Illinois and other states, making sure that we’re upholding our laws, but we do intend to add more resources to those operations,” Noem said.
In June, Trump dispatched ICE agents to conduct raids in Los Angeles at locations like Home Depot, where migrant workers pick up day jobs. That in turn led to protesters clashing with agents. Trump responded by calling in the National Guard without the consent of the state’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and sending Marines into Los Angeles.
Noem defended the administration’s actions.
“I won't speak to the specifics of the operations that are planned in other cities, but I do know that LA wouldn't be standing today if President Trump hadn’t taken action, if left to the devices of the mayor and the governor of that state,” she said.
O’Keefe also asked about other cities that might be next on the agenda, such as Boston, which the Trump administration officials, including border czar Tom Homan, have targeted specifically.
“I'd encourage every single big city, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, whatever they are, if they want to help make their city safer, more prosperous, allow people the opportunity to walk in freedom, like the people of Washington, D.C., are now, and enjoying going out to eat at night and not having to worry if they're going to be a victim of a carjacking or a robbery, they should call us,” she said.
Last month, Trump took the unprecedented step of invoking a never-before-used law to take over Washington D.C.’s police department and ordered the National Guard to patrol the streets in the nation’s capital.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also spoke to O’Keefe on Face the Nation.
“ We have people that have lived, yes, in the state of Illinois, in the city of Chicago, for decades, working here, paying taxes,” he said. “They're law-abiding members of our communities, friends, neighbors, and why are we arresting them? Why are we making them disappear?”
But plenty of cities and Democratic governors have pushed back against the idea of the federal government coming into their states. Pritzker warned the Trump administration last week, “do not come to Chicago,” after Trump hinted at sending the guard into Chicago and Baltimore. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order to protect the city’s residents.
Noem pushed back on Pritzker’s criticism.
“This seems like it's more about Governor Pritzker's ego. Now, rather than actually protecting his people,” she said. “If he has one murder in the city of Chicago, he should be calling President Trump and saying, What are your ideas? What can we do?”
Noem has largely become the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, which he frequently pledged to implement when he ran for re-election in 2024. She has been widely mocked and called “Cosplay Kristi” for dressing in uniform to shoot videos of herself with ICE agents and other officials in the Department of Homeland Security.
But the Trump administration has faced pushback for its deportation efforts, most notably in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the immigrant from El Salvador who lived in Maryland and whom the Trump administration wrongly sent to El Salvador. Abrego Garcia’s case is pending, but the Trump administration has said it wants to send him to Uganda.
