Trump talks about deporting 'criminal aliens.' His anti-immigrant agenda doesn't stop there.

Chicago, for good reason, is on high alert to be a target for President Donald Trump's immigration raids.

The Trump administration is clearly setting its ugly promise of mass deportation in motion. On Thursday, an official bragged on social media about using a military-style airplane to deport hundreds of undocumented immigrants who allegedly committed crimes. That same day, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained U.S. citizens and non-citizens in a raid of a seafood distribution business in Newark, New Jersey. One detainee was a U.S. military veteran, according to Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka.

What about others who were detained? Were they violent criminals, or folks with families just doing their jobs? Worries about the latter are why 26th Street in Little Village, typically a busy Mexican American small business hub, has recently been unusually subdued.

By and large, Americans want immigrants who commit violent crimes expelled from the U.S. No argument here. Deporting criminals was a priority under the Biden and Obama administrations, though their deportation operations were conducted without the fanfare Trump wants.

All too often, though, immigration authorities reach deep into communities to detain and deport random people. There simply aren’t enough “criminal aliens” to produce the gaudy deportation numbers that some politicians like to tout. So they go after folks who commit minor infractions, or get swept up in raids.

Schools, churches and traffic stops

And now, schools and churches can be targets after Trump got rid of a long-standing policy that kept agents out of schools and churches. If Trump is willing to allow federal agents to strike terror into children, he should know that 64% of U.S. adults oppose arresting undocumented children at school, and 57% oppose arresting undocumented immigrants at church, according to the newest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey.

In Trump’s first term, a great-grandmother in suburban Berwyn, who had lived in the U.S. for two decades and worked as a janitor, was prioritized for deportation years after she was cited for driving without a license in a routine traffic stop. Immigrant advocacy groups and local lawmakers helped her get a reprieve. It turned out she qualified for a visa to remain in the U.S.

Under President Barack Obama, minor traffic stops landed people in deportation proceedings. His administration wanted local cops to turn over to ICE all undocumented immigrants they stopped or detained, no matter the offense.

Obama's heavy-handed tactics earned him the moniker “deporter in chief.” His tactics, and Trump’s vitriol, led Illinois to enact a law in 2017 that prohibits cops from participating in enforcement on ICE’s behalf, though there are instances when cops can cooperate with ICE — if, for example, federal agents have a criminal warrant.

Trump attacks legal immigration, birthright citizenship

Trump also has hit the brakes hard on legal immigration. His administration quickly — and shamefully — canceled flights for refugees who were already vetted and cleared to come to the U.S.

He got rid of a legal channel for immigration, the CBP One app put in place by the Biden administration, which allowed people to submit information in advance and schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted on its website, “All appointments have been canceled.”

Many migrants who were already issued humanitarian parole, a temporary respite from deportation, are now targets for deportation. One program that gave humanitarian parole to some Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who passed background checks is also gone. It had allowed Americans to legally sponsor people from those countries for up to two years.

Then there's Trump's attack on birthright citizenship. Illinois was one of almost two dozen states to swiftly sue the administration, a move we support, over its plan. A federal district court judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order on Trump’s executive order, adding, “I've been on the bench for four decades, I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is."

The judge called Trump's order "blatantly unconstitutional." We couldn’t have said it better.

What’s next? “Further restrictions on issues like visa issuance will likely follow,” Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said in an email.

Trump has already sent 1,500 troops to the southern border, and could send thousands more, though illegal crossings have declined in recent months.

But targeting immigrants at churches and schools? Sweeping up citizens in raids? Attacking birthright citizenship? Slamming the door on refugees and those who have taken steps toward legal immigration?

Call it what it is: Xenophobia, from a president who wants to destroy what already makes America great.

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