The Claim

Conducted sustained interior enforcement operations in so-called ‘sanctuary’ cities, removing thousands of criminal illegal aliens from our streets.

The Claim, Unpacked

What is literally being asserted?

Three components: (1) The administration conducted “sustained” interior enforcement operations, (2) these operations specifically targeted “sanctuary” cities, and (3) the operations removed “thousands of criminal illegal aliens.”

What is being implied but not asserted?

That sanctuary city policies were shielding dangerous criminals. That the operations were necessary because these cities refused to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. That the people removed were predominantly dangerous criminals. That the operations made these communities safer. That “thousands” represents a large number of dangerous individuals.

What is conspicuously absent?

Any data on what percentage of those arrested actually had criminal records. In Operation Metro Surge (Minneapolis), only 5% of arrestees had records of violent crimes. In Operation Midway Blitz (Chicago), more than 60% of arrests involved people with no criminal charge or conviction. In Operation Patriot 2.0 (Boston), 57% of the 1,400 arrested had no criminal convictions or pending charges. Any acknowledgment that the operations’ own data contradicts the “criminal illegal aliens” framing. Any mention that the administration rescinded the sensitive locations policy, enabling arrests at schools, churches, hospitals, and courthouses. Any discussion of the community safety consequences — crime reporting by immigrants declined dramatically, with domestic violence and sexual assault cases going unreported. Any mention that a federal judge found the “overwhelming majority” of cases ICE brought during Operation Metro Surge involved people lawfully present in the United States. Any acknowledgment that ICE violated at least 96 court orders in Minnesota during January 2026 alone. Any mention that two U.S. citizens were shot by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge. Any recognition that this claim substantially overlaps with Items #3, #4, #42, and #44 — the same enforcement actions described from different angles.

Evidence Assessment

Established Facts

The administration did conduct multiple named interior enforcement operations in sanctuary cities throughout 2025-2026. Major operations included: Operation Metro Surge (Minneapolis-St. Paul, December 2025-February 2026, approximately 4,000 arrests); Operation Midway Blitz (Chicago, September-October 2025, approximately 1,600 arrests); Operation Patriot 1.0 and 2.0 (Boston/Massachusetts, mid-2025, approximately 2,860 arrests); and Operation Tidal Wave (Florida, April 2025, over 1,100 arrests). Additional unnamed operations occurred in Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, and other cities. DHS branded these operations with names designed for media impact — “Charlotte’s Web,” “Catahoula Crunch,” “Swamp Sweep.” The operations were real; their scale was significant; they did target cities with sanctuary policies. [^045-a1]

The criminal record data from these operations contradicts the “criminal illegal aliens” framing. In Operation Metro Surge, only 103 out of 2,000 arrestees — approximately 5% — had records of violent crimes. In Operation Midway Blitz, more than 60% of arrests did not involve a criminal charge or conviction. In Northern California, 48% of those arrested in September 2025 had no criminal background, and only 39% had any criminal conviction. In San Diego, 58% of nearly 5,000 arrestees through mid-October 2025 had no criminal histories. In Operation Patriot 2.0, only 600 of 1,400 arrested (43%) had criminal records or charges — meaning 57% did not. Nationally, ICE’s own data shows that 73.6% of detainees had no criminal conviction as of February 2026 (TRAC). These figures are consistent with the patterns documented in Items #3 and #4: the “criminal alien” label describes a small minority of those actually targeted. [^045-a2]

The administration rescinded the sensitive locations policy on January 20, 2025, enabling enforcement at schools, churches, hospitals, and courthouses. The rescinded policy, in place since 2011 under the Obama administration and expanded under Biden, had limited ICE enforcement near schools, hospitals, churches, courthouses, and other sensitive locations. Under the new policy, ICE agents use “agent discretion” with no categorical protections for any location. Documented enforcement actions occurred at downtown courtrooms in San Diego, Home Depot parking lots in Encinitas, National City, and San Marcos, near public schools, and at green card appointment locations. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting v. DHS prohibiting enforcement at approximately 1,400 specified places of worship across 36 states. [^045-a3]

A federal judge found the “overwhelming majority” of cases ICE brought during Operation Metro Surge involved people lawfully present in the United States. On February 3, 2026, U.S. District Judge Jerry W. Blackwell stated that “hundreds” of people brought before him for immigration proceedings had the legal right to live in the United States. Blackwell stated: “in some instances, it is the continued detention of a person the Constitution does not permit the government to hold and who should have been left alone, that is, not arrested in the first place.” Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz separately found that ICE violated at least 96 court orders in Minnesota since January 1, 2026. [^045-a4]

Two U.S. citizens were shot by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge. Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, was shot by ICE officer Jonathan Ross on January 7, 2026. DHS claimed she was “attempting to run over the agent with her car”; New York Times video analysis showed the “vehicle appears to be turning away” from the officer. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and ICU nurse, was shot by CBP agents on January 24, 2026 (approximately 10 gunshots). DHS claimed he was “brandishing” a gun and attempting to “massacre law enforcement”; video showed him holding a cell phone with his other hand empty. [^045-a5]

Strong Inferences

ICE arrest patterns in sanctuary cities show higher rates of non-criminal arrests because sanctuary policies force community-based enforcement. CNN analysis of internal ICE data found that 70% of arrests in blue states took place in the community, compared to 59% of arrests in red states taking place in prisons and jails. In Massachusetts, 94% of immigrants arrested by ICE were apprehended in the community, and 78% had no criminal record. The Prison Policy Initiative documented that in states with strong ICE limitations (Illinois, New York, Oregon), only 10-16% of arrests came from jails — meaning 84-90% occurred in the community through roving patrols, worksite raids, courthouse arrests, and neighborhood sweeps. This structural dynamic means sanctuary city operations inherently sweep up more non-criminals than operations in cooperative jurisdictions, because ICE cannot access jail populations and must instead conduct community-based enforcement where collateral arrests of non-targets are common. [^045-a6]

The operations produced a measurable chilling effect on crime reporting by immigrant communities, likely making communities less safe. Research on the Secure Communities program found that it reduced Hispanic crime reporting to police by 30% and increased Hispanic victimization by 16%, resulting in an estimated 1.3 million additional crimes against Hispanic victims within two years. In 2025, the ACLU and NIWAP found that 22% of police officers reported immigrants were less willing to make police reports, and more than 50% of police said domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking were harder to investigate. The Marshall Project documented ICE referral calls to Houston police increasing over 1,000%, a Houston officer warning a domestic abuse victim against filing a report in person due to ICE involvement, and 70% of Cook County attorneys reporting clients feared attending court proceedings. In Utah, at least three women killed by intimate partners in summer 2025 reportedly declined police assistance citing deportation concerns. [^045-a7]

This claim is a padding entry that repackages enforcement actions already counted in Items #3, #4, #42, and #44. Item #3 claims “650,000 arrests, detentions, and deportations” nationally. Item #4 claims “400,000 criminal aliens deported.” Item #42 claims the administration “targeted sanctuary jurisdictions” by cutting grant funding. Item #44 claims the administration “filed multiple lawsuits against states and cities obstructing federal immigration law.” Item #45 reframes a subset of the enforcement actions counted in Items #3 and #4 as a separate “win” by adding the “sanctuary city” modifier. The arrests in Operations Metro Surge, Midway Blitz, Patriot, and Tidal Wave are already included in the national arrest and deportation totals claimed in Items #3 and #4. The sanctuary city targeting is already claimed in Item #42 (funding cuts) and Item #44 (lawsuits). Listing the sanctuary city enforcement operations as a separate entry extracts a fifth “win” from the same pool of enforcement activities. [^045-a8]

Informed Speculation

The naming of enforcement operations — “Metro Surge,” “Midway Blitz,” “Patriot,” “Tidal Wave,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Catahoula Crunch,” “Swamp Sweep” — is a media strategy, not an operational one. Each named operation generates its own news cycle, its own press releases, its own arrest milestone announcements. DHS published multiple press releases for each operation, each highlighting specific “worst of the worst” cases. The Boston Globe documented this naming pattern explicitly: “Charlotte’s Web, Midway Blitz: DHS operations get catchy names.” By fragmenting what is functionally a single nationwide interior enforcement campaign into dozens of individually branded operations, the administration creates the impression of dozens of separate achievements from one continuous activity.

The targeting of sanctuary cities specifically — rather than, say, cities with the highest concentrations of people with criminal records and removal orders — reveals a political logic beyond public safety. Sanctuary cities are overwhelmingly in blue states and led by Democratic mayors. The operations serve dual purposes: removing immigrants and punishing political opponents. This is visible in the sequencing: Operations Metro Surge, Midway Blitz, and Patriot targeted Minneapolis, Chicago, and Boston — all Democratic strongholds — while cooperative jurisdictions in red states (where ICE has full jail access and could more efficiently locate and arrest criminal aliens) received lower-profile enforcement. Tom Homan explicitly framed the operations as consequences of sanctuary policies, stating that the enforcement surge would continue until sanctuary cities “comply.”

The DHS claim of “10,000 criminal illegal aliens” arrested in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge (Secretary Noem’s January 19, 2026 statement) should be evaluated against Judge Blackwell’s finding that the “overwhelming majority” of cases involved people lawfully present in the United States. Either DHS’s arrest numbers are dramatically inflated, or the “criminal illegal alien” classification is being applied to people who are neither criminal nor illegal — or both.

Structural Analysis

Cui bono from the framing: The sanctuary city operations serve three constituencies simultaneously: (1) the political base, which sees the operations as punishment for Democratic cities’ defiance; (2) the enforcement apparatus, which receives expanded budgets and authority; and (3) the narrative machine, which generates a continuous stream of “wins” from what is functionally one ongoing enforcement campaign. The losers are invisible in the framing: immigrant families disrupted, domestic violence victims silenced, communities policed by fear, U.S. citizens shot by federal agents, and people lawfully present arrested and detained.

Stated vs. revealed preferences: The stated preference is removing “criminal illegal aliens” from sanctuary cities. The revealed preference is maximizing arrests in politically hostile jurisdictions regardless of criminal status. The data shows 50-78% of those arrested in sanctuary city operations had no criminal record. If the goal were genuinely to remove dangerous criminals, ICE would prioritize jail-to-ICE transfers (which target confirmed criminals) over community sweeps (which catch whoever happens to be present). Instead, sanctuary city operations rely overwhelmingly on community-based arrests — the method most likely to sweep up non-criminals.

The padding lens: Item #45 is the fifth entry in this list drawing from the same pool of interior enforcement actions. Items #3 (650,000 arrests/detentions/deportations), #4 (400,000 criminal aliens), #42 (sanctuary city funding cuts), #44 (lawsuits against sanctuary cities), and #45 (sanctuary city enforcement operations) all describe different facets of the same enforcement apparatus. A reader encountering all five would reasonably assume they represent five separate achievements. They do not. They are five descriptions of one campaign.

Follow the money: The sanctuary city operations are expensive. Operation Metro Surge deployed 2,000 additional agents to Minneapolis-St. Paul for approximately ten weeks. At federal law enforcement per diem rates plus travel, lodging, and operational costs, the operation likely cost tens of millions of dollars. The Brennan Center documented that ICE detention costs $152 per person per day. Detaining the approximately 4,000 people arrested during Metro Surge at this rate costs roughly $608,000 per day. Case management alternatives — the Alternatives to Detention program — cost $4 per day and achieve 99% compliance rates.

Context the Framing Omits

Sanctuary policies exist because research shows they improve public safety. A 2017 study in the Journal of Law and Economics found that sanctuary cities have lower crime rates than comparable non-sanctuary cities. The American Immigration Council documented that sanctuary policies are associated with higher median household income, lower poverty rates, and lower unemployment. The reason is precisely the chilling effect documented above: when immigrants fear deportation from any contact with government, they stop reporting crimes, stop cooperating as witnesses, and stop interacting with public institutions. Sanctuary policies were designed to maintain the trust between immigrant communities and local police that is essential to effective policing.

Operation Metro Surge ended with no evidence of improved public safety. White House border czar Tom Homan announced the end of the operation in February 2026. Despite deploying 2,000+ agents and making approximately 4,000 arrests over ten weeks, no data was presented showing any reduction in crime in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Judge Blackwell found the “overwhelming majority” of those arrested were lawfully present. Two U.S. citizens were shot by federal agents. ICE violated at least 96 court orders. Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul filed a federal lawsuit against DHS.

The “criminal illegal aliens” framing recycles the same distortion documented in Items #3 and #4. As established in Item #3, less than 14% of ICE arrests in the first year involved people with violent criminal records, less than 2% involved gang membership, and 73.6% of detainees had no criminal conviction. The same patterns appear in every sanctuary city operation where independent data is available: the majority of those arrested are not criminals. The “criminal illegal alien” label is applied retroactively to the entire operation based on the small minority of arrestees who do have records — the same technique analyzed extensively in Items #3 and #4.

Prior administrations conducted interior enforcement without the political theater. Obama’s “Priority Enforcement Program” (PEP) and Bush’s “287(g) program” both conducted interior enforcement, including in jurisdictions with limited cooperation. Neither administration named individual city operations with media-friendly brands, deployed thousands of surge agents to Democratic cities, or used enforcement as explicit punishment for political opposition. The current approach adds a punitive, politically targeted dimension to what was previously a routine enforcement activity.

Verdict

Factual core: Partially true. The administration did conduct sustained interior enforcement operations in sanctuary cities. Operations Metro Surge, Midway Blitz, Patriot, Tidal Wave, and others were real, and they did result in thousands of arrests. But the characterization of those arrested as “criminal illegal aliens” is contradicted by the operations’ own data: 50-78% of those arrested in sanctuary city operations had no criminal record, a federal judge found the “overwhelming majority” of Minneapolis cases involved people lawfully present, and only 5% of Metro Surge arrestees had violent crime records.

Framing as “win”: Misleading on multiple levels. First, the “criminal illegal aliens” label misrepresents the composition of enforcement — the majority of those arrested were not criminals. Second, this claim is a padding entry: the same enforcement actions are already counted in Items #3 (national arrests), #4 (criminal alien deportations), #42 (sanctuary city funding cuts), and #44 (sanctuary city lawsuits). Third, the framing omits the documented consequences: a chilling effect on crime reporting (30% decline in Hispanic reporting, domestic violence victims going silent), two U.S. citizens shot by federal agents, at least 96 court order violations, and no evidence of improved public safety.

What a reader should understand: The administration did conduct enforcement operations in sanctuary cities — that is not in dispute. But the “criminal illegal aliens” label describes a minority of those actually arrested. In every operation where independent data exists, 50-78% of arrestees had no criminal record. A federal judge found the “overwhelming majority” of Minneapolis cases involved people lawfully present. The operations produced documented harm: domestic violence victims stopped reporting abuse, crime reporting by immigrants declined 30%, and two U.S. citizens were shot by federal agents. The claim is also a padding entry — the fifth item in this list describing the same pool of enforcement actions from a different angle. The sanctuary city operations represent the most politically visible component of a broader enforcement campaign, designed to generate media coverage and punish political opposition as much as to remove criminals from communities.

Cross-References

• Item #3: “650,000 arrests, detentions, and deportations” — the sanctuary city arrests in Item #45 are a subset of the national total claimed in Item #3; the same criminal record data applies
• Item #4: “400,000 criminal aliens deported” — the “criminal illegal aliens” removed in sanctuary cities are a subset of Item #4; the same “charged with or convicted” inflation applies
• Item #42: “Targeted sanctuary jurisdictions by cutting grant funding” — the funding-cut track of the sanctuary city strategy; Item #45 is the enforcement-operation track of the same strategy
• Item #44: “Filed multiple lawsuits against states and cities obstructing federal immigration law” — the litigation track of the sanctuary city strategy; together with Items #42 and #45, three entries from one coordinated campaign

Sources

ACLU and National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project. “Freezing Out Justice: How Immigration Arrests at Courthouses Are Undermining the Justice System.” 2018/Updated 2025. https://www.aclu.org/freezing-out-justice

Britannica. “2025-26 Minnesota ICE Deployment.” Updated 2026. https://www.britannica.com/event/2025-26-Minnesota-ICE-Deployment

Bring Me the News. “Judge: ‘Overwhelming majority’ of cases brought to him by ICE were for people lawfully in Minnesota.” February 3, 2026. https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/judge-says-most-cases-brought-to-him-by-ice-were-for-people-lawfully-in-minnesota

CBS News. “Minneapolis becomes ground zero in Trump’s immigration crackdown.” January 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minneapolis-trump-immigration-ice-border-patrol-arrests-protests-shootings/

CBS News. “Feds say more than 1,500 arrested in ‘Operation Midway Blitz,’ but data reveals some arrests from outside Illinois.” October 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/operation-midway-blitz-arrests-ice-crackdown-chicago-data-other-states/

CBS News. “Less Than 14% of Those Arrested by ICE in Trump’s First Year Had Violent Criminal Records.” January 18, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-arrests-violent-criminal-records-trump-first-year/

CNN. “ICE follows starkly different playbooks in how it’s arresting immigrants in red and blue states, data shows.” August 5, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/05/us/immigration-arrests-community-ice-invs

DHS. “ICE Arrests Worst of the Worst Criminal Illegal Aliens During Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.” December 4, 2025. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/12/04/ice-arrests-worst-worst-criminal-illegal-aliens-during-operation-metro-surge

DHS. “ICE Continues to Remove the Worst of the Worst from Minneapolis Streets as DHS Law Enforcement Marks 3,000 Arrests During Operation Metro Surge.” January 19, 2026. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/01/19/ice-continues-remove-worst-worst-minneapolis-streets-dhs-law-enforcement-marks-3000

DHS. “Operation Patriot Results in Numerous Arrests of Criminal Illegal Aliens with Detainers that Were Ignored Due to Sanctuary Policies.” June 6, 2025. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/06/06/operation-patriot-results-numerous-arrests-criminal-illegal-aliens-detainers-were

DHS. “Secretary Noem Travels to Chicago as Operation Midway Blitz Reaches More Than 1,000 Illegal Aliens Arrested.” October 3, 2025. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/03/secretary-noem-travels-chicago-operation-midway-blitz-reaches-more-1000-illegal

EconFact. “Can Heightened Immigration Enforcement Increase Crime?” https://econofact.org/can-heightened-immigration-enforcement-increase-crime

inewsource. “San Diego ICE have arrested thousands in 2025.” December 2, 2025. https://inewsource.org/2025/12/02/san-diego-ice-arrests-criminal-histories/

Marshall Project. “How ICE Is Making It Harder for Immigrants to Escape Domestic Violence.” November 22, 2025. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/11/22/women-police-ice-domestic-violence

Marshall Project. “ICE Data Reveals What Happened to 1,600 People Arrested During Chicago’s Blitz.” December 18, 2025. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/18/ice-chicago-immigration-blitz-data

Mission Local. “48% of people ICE arrested in Northern California have no criminal record.” December 2025. https://missionlocal.org/2025/12/sf-ice-arrests-criminal-history/

NILC. “Factsheet: Trump’s Rescission of Protected Areas Policies Undermines Safety for All.” 2025. https://www.nilc.org/resources/factsheet-trumps-rescission-of-protected-areas-policies-undermines-safety-for-all/

Prison Policy Initiative. “New ICE arrest data show the power of state and local governments to curtail mass deportations.” December 11, 2025. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/12/11/ice-jails-update/

TRAC (Syracuse University). “Immigration Detention Quick Facts.” Data through February 7, 2026. https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/

WBEZ Chicago. “ICE made unlawful arrests during Operation Midway Blitz, new court filing says.” September 28, 2025. https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/09/28/ice-made-unlawful-arrests-during-operation-midway-blitz-new-court-filing-says