Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks about Operation Midway Blitz at a National Guard aircraft hangar in Gary, Indiana, on Oct. 30.

GARY, IN – The official tasked with directing President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign came to the Chicago area on Oct. 30 to tout the impact of the Operation Midway Blitz immigration crackdown.

At the same time, across the border, the Illinois governor delivered an address asking federal officials to suspend operations through the holiday weekend after their agents deployed tear gas and interrupted a Chicago grammar school’s Halloween festivities.

"We’re absolutely not willing to put on pause any work we do to keep communities safe," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said of Gov. JB Pritzker’s request. "The fact that he’s asking for that is shameful."

Noem’s address to reporters inside an Indiana National Guard aircraft hangar in Gary, Indiana, comes nearly two months into the White House blitz on the Chicago area. The Homeland Security secretary said over 3,000 people had been arrested in connection with the blitz, including in Indiana. She described them as "criminal illegal aliens" and the "worst of the worst" although federal officials have not provided information on the people they have arrested aside from a small number.

The secretary said her agency would provide information on the people arrested. Officials have not yet shared information in response to multiple requests.

In Springfield, Illinois, Pritzker slammed Noem’s description of the people arrested.

"Don’t believe it when they tell you that they’re busting the worst of the worst and gang members," the governor said. "They’re attacking peaceful children in parades and Halloween costumes."

The back-and-forth between the leaders comes as the Supreme Court weighs whether to allow Trump to deploy the National Guard to help enforce the blitz. Government lawyers say federal agents cannot enforce the law without help from the military. Illinois and Chicago Democratic leaders say the move to deploy troops is really a power grab on the part of the Republican White House.

Among the latest in the blitz, a leading voice of anti-immigration enforcement protests in Chicago and Democratic Congressional candidate has been indicted on federal charges; a federal judge in Illinois hauled Trump’s top crackdown enforcer Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino into court to question him about his agents’ use of chemical agents; and Pritzker announced he would be starting a commission to keep track of suspected abuses by federal agents carrying out the blitz.

Other leaders speaking alongside Noem in Gary were Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons.

Protesters could be seen in the area outside the National Guard facility. Immigration authorities use the airport in Gary to conduct deportation flights.

What does the blitz look like in Gary?

In Gary, the front-page story of local daily newspaper the Post-Tribune on Oct. 30 detailed how the home of the family of Arnoldo Carrilllo Jr. was raided by immigration agents a week earlier.

Reached on the phone by USA TODAY, Carrilllo said in the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 23, federal agents busted in the front door and detained everyone in the family: his mother, father, sister and brother. Agents left Carrillo with a black eye and a police dog bit his mother, he said.

His 14-year-old brother remains in custody and his mother is in an immigration facility in Texas, according to Carillo, a local youth pastor. According to court documents, his sister and father were charged with assaulting federal officers. His father is in jail in Indiana, Carrillo said.

"I just want my family back, I want my mom back, I want my dad back, I miss my mom's cooking, her advice, I took it all for granted," Carrillo said. "People who have it made don't know what it is to lose a mom and dad like that, to see them taken away as they're trying to live honestly and humbly."

At the news conference on Oct. 30, Noem denied any U.S. citizens had been detained or arrested in connection with the blitz.

Blitz hits the highways

Officials at the Homeland Secuirty event in Gary spoke while flanked by a pair of tractor-trailer cabs. The event was held in Indiana partly to announce a new immigration enforcement partnership with Indiana police aimed at catching undocumented truck drivers.

Noem said undocumented drivers were linked to fatal crashes: "They can't speak English, they can't read our roadsigns. It presents a danger many times over."

Lyons, the top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, said 223 people had been arrested in connection with the scheme on Indiana roadways, often at trucking weigh stations.

Homeland Security officials said the program was being rolled out in other states, most recently Oklahoma where around 250 immigrant drivers were arrested.

"This is not the first place we’re doing this and it won’t be the last either," said Madison Sheahan, deputy director for the immigration enforcement agency.

Indiana mayor slams 'secret meeting'

Operation Midway Blitz is aimed at cracking down on immigration enforcement in Chicago but the region also includes much of Northwest Indiana, which is connected to the city by commuter train lines and highways.

Bringing the blitz to Northwest Indiana was only a matter of time, Lyons said.

"When we launched Midway Blitz, we were out to rid the sanctuary status of Chicago but we knew the problem existed beyond the city borders," Lyons said. "What happens in one state spills over to another state."

Homeland Security officials say enforcement operations targeted criminals but locals said that wasn’t the case.

"Mom’s not a felon, mom’s in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Hammond, Indiana, Mayor Thomas McDermott using an example of the kinds of locals detained by federal agents. "That’s what’s going on, that’s what they don’t want you to know about. It’s ugly, it’s not the America I remember."

McDermott told USA TODAY he was not involved in the planning of the meeting and said using a venue closed to the public was "shameful" and "cowardice."

"I can walk down my home street with my head held high because my bosses who are my residents are proud of me," said McDermott, noting how residents cheered his efforts to stop federal agents from using city property. "Gov. Braun or Secretary Noem, I bet they’d get a different reception, I bet that’s why they’re holding secret meetings."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Noem, Pritzker trade barbs over Trump’s Midway Blitz and Halloween

Reporting by Michael Loria, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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