Trump crackdowns roil some cities

Christopher Cann, Michael Loria, Jack Armstrong, Suzette Hackney and Terry Collins

USA TODAY NETWORK

In Chicago, federal agents rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters onto an apartment building. In Portland, Oregon, masked officers clashed with protesters wearing inflatable animal costumes. In the nation’s capital, police set up checkpoints and troops patrolled the streets.

Since early June, President Donald Trump has surged federal resources into a growing number of Democratic-led cities as part of a widening crackdown on illegal immigration and violent crime.

The deployments have sparked intense backlash and a dizzying number of legal battles, and they have upended daily life in communities flooded with federal agents and National Guard troops.

The Trump administration says the added resources are needed to service the president’s mass deportation campaign and clamp down on violence in liberal cities. Critics, including state and local officials, say the deployments are an illegal show of force and a power grab.

Across the country, federal operations have taken different forms, shaped by levels of cooperation between federal and local officials, protests over heightened immigration enforcement and the scale of the operations themselves.

In several cities, immigration raids touched off a wave of demonstrations, prompting Trump to call up National Guard troops. In others, federal agents worked closely with local police to target crime more broadly, setting up roving patrols and checkpoints. One major commonality: The cities all experienced a surge in immigration enforcement.

Reporters across the USA TODAY Network spoke with experts, residents, officials and local advocates to capture the impact of federal intervention in U.S. cities, including Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Memphis, Tennessee; Portland; and Chicago – a short list that seems likely to grow as the president eyes deployments to other cities.

Many residents and local officials said the cities didn’t need intervention, especially a deployment of troops. Some living in crime-stricken areas said while they generally support the idea of more law enforcement in their communities, they want the operations to target violent crimes – not immigration violations.

Experts, meanwhile, said targeted police work is the most effective way to lower crime and worry that the federal government’s flood-the-zone tactics, both in immigration enforcement and general crimefighting, could erode public trust in police.

'Aggressive enforcement needs to be reserved for the most aggressive criminals,' said Thomas Abt, director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction. He added that broad, heavy-handed policing has 'limited benefits and a lot of collateral consequences.'

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson hailed the president’s efforts and said local leaders across the country should take inspiration and 'clean up their city.'

'Making America Safe Again – especially crime-ridden cities – was a key campaign promise from the President that the American people elected him to fulfill,' Jackson said in a statement.

Chicago: Intensifying raids, widespread protests

The nation’s third-largest city has become the latest flash point in the battle between local officials and the Trump administration over the president’s deportation campaign and federal deployments.

In September, Trump launched Operation Midway Blitz, an initiative he said was needed to catch 'the worst of the worst' criminal immigrants. Research has shown that, on average, immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. Further, immigration violations, such as living in the country without proper documentation, are civil, not criminal, under U.S. law.

Expanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids triggered protests in downtown Chicago and the city’s surrounding suburbs. As tensions boiled, clashes broke out, and federal agents used pepper balls and tear gas, hitting journalists, a pastor and officers with the Chicago Police Department, according to reports and a lawsuit.

The president called for the arrests of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for 'failing to protect' ICE agents.

Residents and local advocates have accused ICE of employing reckless and brutal tactics during the blitz. Some incidents that have raised alarm: Immigration agents fatally shot a Mexican immigrant accused of resisting arrest; a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a U.S. citizen on the city’s South Side; and, reportedly, a school had to hold recess indoors after federal authorities deployed a chemical agent nearby.

The most controversial raid came on Sept.30, when federal agents descended from Black Hawk helicopters and ransacked a South Side apartment building in an aggressive search of apartments inhabited by Venezuelan migrants.

Two of 37 people arrested were 'confirmed' gang members, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Dozens of U.S. citizens were pulled from their beds and temporarily zip-tied during the operation, which Pritzker wants investigated by state agencies.

DHS officials say aggressive tactics are necessary to catch criminals, and accused protesters of attacking agents and 'rioting.' Over 1,500 immigrants have been arrested in connection with the blitz, the agency said. USA TODAY has not been able to verify the number of detentions or the criminal backgrounds of those in custody.

Chicagoans said the federal intervention has made their neighborhoods virtually unrecognizable.

'We went from being this community that walks our kids to school or goes out to parks. Now the streets are empty,' said Corina Pedraza, a longtime South Side resident.

Local Alderwoman Julia Ramirez said people 'can’t live their lives the way they did before.'

'Agents have created a war zone in our community,' she said.

Portland: Tensions flare at ICE facility

'War ravaged,' 'burning to the ground' and 'hell' are words Trump has used to describe the liberal stronghold of Portland, Oregon, in recent weeks – characterizations vehemently disputed by local residents and officials.

The back-and-forth comes as the president seeks to deploy troops to the city over the objections of local and state officials. A federal judge in Oregon initially blocked the deployments, but an appeals court on Oct.20 ruled in Trump’s favor, lifting one of the orders preventing the president from calling up 200 Oregon National Guard members to Portland.

Trump officials say soldiers are necessary to protect federal personnel and an ICE facility in South Portland, where demonstrators have protested on a nightly basis.

Outside the facility earlier in October, USA TODAY reporters saw demonstrators peacefully protesting. There were people in puffy animal costumes dancing on the sidewalk and waving signs as motorists drove by, honking in support. Other forms of resistance have had a distinctly Portland vibe, such as an 'emergency' naked bike ride in mid-October.

City residents said Trump’s characterization of Portland as a city 'under siege' is false and misleading.

'It offends me so deeply that we have a president that is willing and able to spread such misinformation without hitting the streets and coming out here,' said Tiana Stewart, 37, a bartender. 'But he knows that the people who are watching are going to buy into it. It’s ludicrous to me.'

Portland is not without its problems. Camps occupied by homeless people are visible in parts of the city, and drug use, especially the surge of fentanyl, is a serious concern that prompted officials to declare a 90-day state of emergency in 2024. But residents said they don’t think the president’s crackdown is meant to address those issues.

'Obviously, this is all a scam,' said Curtis Best, 70, a retired molecular biologist. 'I really believe it’s a way to militarize police and make problems in these cities. … I think he just wants revenge on us. I think he just doesn’t like Democrat cities, Democrat states, or its people.'

Memphis: City flooded with feds. Is it helping?

Unlike other cities where Trump deployed National Guard troops, Memphis sits in a state led by a Republican governor who has welcomed the president’s wishes to mobilize military forces.

In September, Trump created a crime-fighting task force involving over a dozen federal agencies and the state’s National Guard – a move he said was requested by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

A week after troops were seen patrolling downtown Memphis on Oct.10, a group of Democratic officials filed a lawsuit against Lee, claiming the deployment violated the state constitution. A judge has since denied the plaintiffs’ request to pause the deployment.

In 2024, Memphis had the highest rate of murder and other violent crimes of any large American city, according to a USA TODAY analysis of FBI data from 30 cities with more than 500,000 residents.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, said he’s working to steer the task force to focus on violent offenders rather than immigration enforcement.

'The busier we can keep them with (the Memphis Police Department), the less time they will have to focus on immigration,' he said at a town hall on Oct.20.

Officials have given conflicting portrayals of the task force’s work so far.

The White House has said the task force has yielded 1,300 arrests related to outstanding warrants, drugs and firearms. But a county mayor and local advocates say a large portion of the arrests were for immigration offenses, not violent crime.

Mauricio Calvo, president and CEO of advocacy organization Latino Memphis, said some people have shut themselves in their homes because of the heightened immigration enforcement and concerns over racial profiling.

'People don’t want to send the kids to school, people don’t want to work,' he said. 'We’re in crisis mode.'

Washington, DC: Mixed feelings on crackdown

Trump declared a 'crime emergency' in the nation’s capital on Aug.11, using its status as a federal district to take control of the city’s police department and send in thousands of federal agents and National Guard troops.

For weeks, federal agents and local police set up checkpoints across the city, spurring protests. Immigration raids expanded, instilling fear as officers arrested workers and delivery drivers. Several of the city’s small campsites occupied by homeless people were broken down, leading some of the homeless people to enter shelters temporarily.

Meanwhile, National Guard troops patrolled monuments and Metro stations, some with assault rifles. They removed graffiti, picked up trash and shoveled mulch. An internal budget viewed by USA TODAY estimated the National Guard deployment could cost taxpayers more than $200million.

After 30 days, the federal takeover of the police department ended, and Trump declared the operation a success, touting a drop in reported crimes and anecdotes of people 'going out to dinner where they didn’t go out for years.'

The data, though, was murky. While local police data shows a short-term dip in some reported crimes after the crackdown began – especially incidents involving firearms – crime had already been trending downward in recent years. Experts who viewed the data said it’s too soon to know if the crackdown had any significant or long-term impact on violent crime.

Across the city, residents were conflicted about the federal operation.

For 20 years, Charles Wilson has lived in Anacostia, a neighborhood with one of the highest rates of murder and violent crime in Washington. He said while he has not seen a surge of federal agents in his neighborhood, he’s noticed fewer people loitering and he doesn’t hear as many 'random gunshots.'

'There’s definitely been a shift, and things feel a little calmer and a little safer,' he said.

But Wilson also said the assertive immigration enforcement in Washington, some of which has gone viral online, 'doesn’t sit well' with him or his neighbors.

'It seems un-American and mean-spirited,' he said.

Los Angeles: Raids, protests, state of emergency

Los Angeles has remained one of the central targets of Trump’s sweeping illegal immigration campaign and was the first American city where he deployed National Guard troops in his second term in office.

Following ICE raids at a Home Depot and a clothing manufacturer in June, thousands of people took to the streets to protest. While demonstrations were contained to a few downtown blocks, they erupted into violence, with clashes breaking out between protesters and police, as well as reports of looting and property damage.

Trump ordered 4,000 California National Guard troops and at least 500 Marines to protect federal personnel and property in the city. The move was challenged in court, and a California judge said the deployment was illegal but did not order the remaining soldiers to leave. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in September that the deployment had already cost taxpayers nearly $120million.

ICE agents kept up their high pace of arrests, and in October, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency. Local officials said the federal agency 'created a climate of fear, leading to widespread disruption in daily life and adverse impacts to our regional economy.'

Ongoing immigration raids and operations across Los Angeles County – which is home to over 3million people born outside the United States – have led to a decline in workplace attendance and strained critical services such as schools, hospitals and places of worship, according to the Board of Supervisors.

Lupe Lopez, 69, whose family owns nine Arteaga’s Food Center supermarkets, said she’s seen a big drop in foot traffic at her family’s shop in a Hispanic neighborhood in San Jose, California. The reason: Young people are buying in bulk because their parents are afraid of being outside where they might be picked up by immigration agents.