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ICE Launches “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago to Ramp Up Mass Deportations

HeadlineSep 09, 2025

The Department of Homeland Security says it has begun “Operation Midway Blitz,” a stepped-up mass deportation campaign spearheaded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Monday’s announcement came just two days after President Trump declared, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” in a social media post evoking the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now” about the Vietnam War. Trump also wrote, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” a reference to one of the most infamous lines in the film: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” We’ll have more on Trump’s threats against Chicago and Los Angeles later in the broadcast, as well as the references to “Apocalypse Now,” with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen.

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