One Year After Operation Midway Blitz: Chicago Retrospective Puts Final Tally at 3,841 Detained, 2,732 Deported

Marking the one-year anniversary of Operation Midway Blitz's September 8, 2025 launch, the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ published a joint retrospective on September 8, 2026 drawing on Deportation Data Project public-records analysis. The 68-day campaign (Sept 8–Nov 14, 2025) resulted in 3,841 people detained and 2,732 deported or self-deported; 1,254 of those detained (46%) agreed to self-deport rather than fight removal, up sharply from a 14% rate in the nine months prior. Only 15% of detainees had a prior criminal conviction, down from 35% before the operation began. Chicago itself accounted for 1,419 arrests, with suburban Broadview — home to the ICE processing facility used as a staging site — second at 227; detainees ranged in age from 2 to 76 (median 38) and represented 92 nationalities, led by Mexico (1,814), Venezuela (560), and Guatemala (274). The retrospective also revisited unresolved fallout: the September 12, 2025 fatal ICE shooting of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez during a traffic stop in Franklin Park, the October 4, 2025 Border Patrol shooting of Marimar Martinez in Brighton Park, a September 30, 2025 raid that left a South Shore apartment building's residents homeless, and the May 21, 2026 dismissal of charges against the 'Broadview Six' protest defendants after courts found apparent prosecutorial misconduct before grand juries.