DHS brass blasts Chicago mayor for blaming ICE chief as crime rises after ‘safest summer’ claim

By Fox News · Fox News

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson drew sharp criticism from the Department of Homeland Security after suggesting that a federal immigration operation under Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino disrupted what he said had been the city’s safest summer in decades. Johnson has been touting recent analysis that 2025 was Chicago’s safest summer in 60 years in terms of violent crime , as the city’s NPR affiliate found a total of 123 murders occurred between June and August last year. The University of Chicago’s Crime Lab found that violent crime declined across the country, including in the city throughout 2025, but it still had elevated figures versus other major cities globally. Johnson said last week that those figures were true before DHS kicked off "Operation Midway Blitz" around the first week of September. SANCTUARY POLITICIANS' RHETORIC LED TO 1,150% SURGE IN VIOLENCE AGAINST ICE AGENTS: DHS Johnson said that once ICE and the Border Patrol showed up, crime increased again. "Chicago had the safest summer since 1965 before Bovino stepped foot in our city," Johnson said. "Where ICE was most active, crime went up." When asked for a response, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Johnson is continuing to "demonize our law enforcement, who are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them." TRUMP SAYS CHICAGO CRIME HAS FALLEN DRAMATICALLY DESPITE 'EXTRAORDINARY RESISTANCE' FROM LOCAL DEMOCRATS "The danger and violence our law enforcement has faced in sanctuary cities like Chicago, compared to jurisdictions like Florida, is night and day," she said, after video surfaced of a woman being promptly detained and arrested after allegedly interfering in a Jacksonville immigration enforcement operation. "He should turn down the rhetoric and work with DHS to prevent more innocent American deaths at the hands of gang members, murderers, drug traffickers, and rapists who have no right to be in this country," McLaughlin said, noting that DHS arrested more than 4,500 illegal…