Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched an independent initiative on Thursday to document the alleged abuse of power by federal immigration officers in response to the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in the Windy City.
The new initiative, dubbed the “ICE Accountability Project,” aims to hold officers working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection accountable during the Chicago immigration operation. In pursuit of that goal, the project’s website will keep a centralized, public archive to collect incidents involving allegedly reckless actions conducted by federal officers.
Lightfoot said information about such incidents is scattered, making it more difficult for the public to keep track.
“We aim to preserve evidence, to facilitate transparency and accountability,” she said at a press conference Thursday morning. “We also intend to unmask those agents who have been alleged to have committed crimes or to have engaged in other unlawful conduct.”
The announcement comes one day after an ICE-involved shooting left one woman dead in Minneapolis. Lightfoot started the press conference by invoking the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot in her vehicle by an ICE officer after she struck him with her SUV.
The former mayor revealed the initiative will only target officers conducting potentially unlawful actions, not those who are fulfilling their oaths.
“Our project is focused instead on those federal immigration agents who cross the line, who have violated residents’ rights, and believe that they are above the law,” she said. “Those agents who have allegedly committed homicide, shootings, use excessive force, and indiscriminate use of chemical agents, or projectiles like pepper balls, and other actions against peaceful protesters.”
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In September 2025, ICE launched Operation Midway Blitz to begin detaining illegal immigrants in Chicago en masse. The operation has resulted in more than 4,500 arrests, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Lightfoot left office in May 2023. She was succeeded by Mayor Brandon Johnson, who remains opposed to the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration agenda.