Border Patrol agents have carried out more arrests in the Chicago area than their counterparts at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, illustrating the expanded role they are playing far away from U.S. borders under the Trump administration, internal federal government data obtained by CBS News indicates.
This week, arrests by Customs and Border Protection in the Chicago-area “Midway Blitz” operation surpassed those recorded by ICE, the agency that is, on paper, responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws in the interior of the country.
Since Operation Midway Blitz began on Sept. 16, agents at CBP have recorded roughly 1,500 arrests in the Chicago region, compared to over 1,400 arrests carried out by ICE officers, according to the internal Department of Homeland Security figures. In mid-October, ICE’s arrest tally in the Chicago operation was higher, totaling around 1,000, compared to roughly 800 arrests recorded by CBP at the time.
The government figures underscore the unprecedented way the second Trump administration has used Border Patrol agents, whose work has been historically limited to intercepting the illicit movement of people and drugs along the borders with Canada and Mexico, as well as some coastal sectors.
As part of its nationwide mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration has dispatched teams of green-uniformed Border Patrol agents across the country, instructing them to arrest suspected unauthorized immigrants in major Democratic-led cities.
That effort has been spearheaded by Gregory Bovino, an outspoken Border Patrol sector chief who has personally led arrest operations, first in Los Angeles and Sacramento over the summer, and most recently in Chicago. He has gained infamy among critics who denounce his agents’ tactics as heavy-handed and indiscriminate, as well as support among those who view him as an effective, no-nonsense enforcer of President Trump’s aggressive clampdown on illegal immigration.
Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images 
Over the summer, sweeping “roving patrols” by Border Patrol agents in the Los Angeles area targeted day laborers at Home Depot parking lots and worksites like car washes, triggering widespread local backlash, including accusations of racial profiling that federal officials have strongly denied.
Nearly identical scenes have played out in the Chicago area in recent weeks, where the Border Patrol teams led by Bovino have conducted similarly aggressive operations, prompting protests and confrontations with local residents and activists. Videos posted on social media have depicted cases of Border Patrol agents chasing individuals in densely populated areas or being confronted by angry residents. Bovino has joined agents on some of those Chicago-area operations, as well as outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, where protesters have gathered for weeks.
On Tuesday, Bovino was summoned before a federal judge in Chicago who has ordered his agents to limit their use of force against protesters and to generally give them two warnings before deploying chemical agents. The judge told Bovino to ensure his agents comply with the order, citing several cases of them deploying tear gas, including one incident she said affected children getting ready for a Halloween parade.
Federal officials have said they’ve deployed tear gas in volatile situations and to protect agents. In an interview with CBS News earlier this month, Bovino said, “the use of force that I’ve seen has been exemplary — the least amount of force necessary to accomplish the mission.”
Border Patrol’s actions have caused tensions inside DHS, where some ICE leaders feel their counterparts’ operations have become too aggressive and controversial, undermining public support for Mr. Trump’s mass deportation pledge, two U.S. officials told CBS News, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal matters.
Though anyone found to be in the U.S. illegally is eligible to be arrested under the Trump administration, routine ICE operations are typically targeted in nature, informed by previous intelligence gathering and surveillance and aimed at arresting people in the country unlawfully who also have criminal records. ICE officials have privately argued the focus should be on arresting those with criminal records, not undertaking more indiscriminate and visible sweeps in locations like Home Depot parking lots, sources familiar with the internal deliberations told CBS News.
But in a sign that top Trump administration officials think Border Patrol’s aggressive style can help boost deportation levels, CBS News reported earlier this week that officials made plans to reassign roughly half of ICE’s 25 field office directors and, in many cases, replace them with CBP officials.
DHS, which oversees both ICE and CBP, said in a statement to CBS News Wednesday the department “is one team and we have one fight, to secure the homeland.”
“DHS has arrested more than 3,000 illegal aliens, including rapists, murderers, and gang members, as part of DHS’s Operation Midway Blitz,” the department added.
The vast majority of CBP personnel deployed to Chicago are Border Patrol agents, though some officers from its Office of Field Operations branch are also there. As federal immigration officers, Border Patrol agents, like ICE officers, have the authority to stop people they suspect are in the U.S. illegally anywhere in the country, though they have heightened search and seizure powers near border areas.
Matt Hudak, who started at the Border Patrol in the late 1990s until retiring as deputy chief in 2023, said the way the Trump administration has deployed Border Patrol agents to U.S. cities is “unique,” though he emphasized their nationwide immigration authorities.
Hudak said the administration is increasingly turning to Border Patrol for interior immigration enforcement because the agency has roughly 20,000 agents — significantly more than ICE’s team of fewer than 6,000 deportation officers. Border Patrol is also no longer facing a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, where government figures show illegal crossings have plummeted to a 55-year low after soaring to record highs under the Biden administration.
But Hudak said Border Patrol agents can also operate in a “faster-paced” and more “forward-leaning” way compared to ICE officers, whose approach to arrests is “methodical” and slower. That distinction, he said, could give them an edge in an administration heavily invested in increasing the number of immigration arrests and deportations.
“It’s just like a baseball game, right?” Hudak said. “If you’re not getting the scoring, the game’s not going the way you want, you look at another head coach, or you change pitchers during the game to get that different result.”
