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GARY, Ind. — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that the immigration enforcement operation responsible for more than 200 arrests in Indiana is just the beginning, with similar crackdowns planned in other parts of the country.

Noem appeared alongside federal and state officials Thursday at a press conference in Gary, Indiana to announce that a partnership between multiple federal agencies and Indiana officials has yielded over 200 arrests of people without legal status who have commercial driver’s licenses. 

"If you are here driving on our streets illegally and our highways, you are endangering our citizens and your days are numbered," Noem said.

The partnership, part of the federal government’s Operation Midway Blitz, includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Gov. Mike Braun and Indiana State Police as part of ICE's with local law enforcement. Since September, ISP have arrested 223 people, 146 of whom were drivers. Noem said 46 of the drivers were behind the wheel of semis and 82 were driving box trucks, buses and moving vans. 

Noem was joined by Braun, Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons, ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan, and Indiana State Police Superintendent Anthony Scott at the press conference at a National Guard facility next to the Gary/Chicago International Airport.

Noem pointed to border policies from the Biden administration and chastised Democrat-led states for issuing CDLs to people who are undocumented whom she said have caused crashes. She cited a recent incident in which semitrailer driver Borko Stankovic, 41, originally from Serbia, , Indiana resident Jeffrey Eberly's vehicle last month, as well as a , a 25-year-old from India. Singh was arrested after an 18-wheeler he was a passenger in made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike, causing a crash that killed three people. Harjinder Singh, his brother, faces three counts of vehicular homicide. She added that the CDL in this case had been issued in California.

Noem said the drivers do not speak English, cannot read road signs and aren't able to communicate with law enforcement which presents a "danger many times over." 

"Every single time one of these individuals gets behind the wheel of a truck, they are in front of a deadly weapon that can kill other Americans as well," Noem said.

Noem addressed ICE's Operation Midway Blitz that has taken over the Chicagoland area in the last few months, resulting in approximately 3,000 arrests. Despite numerous reports of U.S. citizens being detained by ICE officers and a request from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to lighten up on enforcements during Halloween, Noem said ICE is focused on "the worst of the worst" and has no plans to end their operation. 

During ICE's targeted operations, agents have arrested "several" other individuals with criminal histories including convictions for assault, drug dealing, theft, burglary, child abuse, prostitution and operating while intoxicated. The federal government will provide reimbursements to state and local law enforcement for their participation in joint operations with ICE, Noem said. Sheahan said 14 law enforcement agencies in Indiana have 287(g) partnerships with ICE.

Known as the "Crossroads of America," semi drivers frequently travel through the state, which Braun said increases the importance of enforcement. ICE is working with state police to add additional state troopers to the commercial vehicle division to continue their enforcement. 

"We're going to work with ICE to keep our communities and our highways safe," Braun said. "Even though other places are making them the opposite."

Scott said ISP's actions are not exclusively about immigration status, but rather about public safety. 

"An 80,000 pound truck in untrained hands is a dangerous thing," Scott said. "It's important to note we are enforcing existing federal and state trucking laws at weigh stations across our state. For us, this is not new."

Lyons said when ICE started Operation Midway Blitz, they were out to "rid the sanctuary status of Chicago." He blamed local leadership for failing to target the "problem" inside Chicago city limits and beyond. 

"This operation is a real world example of how sanctuary policies negatively impact the whole country," Lyons said. "What happens in one state, like the issuance of CDLs to illegal aliens, spills over to other states."

When asked by a reporter why many arrestees without criminal records are being detained, Noem said the operations are indeed targeting those who do have criminal records, but emphasized that anyone who is undocumented is committing a criminal act. 

"Remember, when you come into our country illegally, you are breaking the law," she said. 

Without any indications that officials plan to cease the operation soon, Northwest Indiana residents could see additional ICE activity in their communities in the coming weeks. 

'I can't stay silent'

News of the press conference prompted anti-ICE activists to stage a protest at the nearby Gary/Chicago International Airport.

Several dozen people from Northwest Indiana and the Chicagoland area gathered in the airport’s parking lot, while more spread out along the side of Airport Road.

Rafael Manzo, Jr. a freshman at Purdue University Northwest and the lead organizer of More Action for Students, helped organize the event in collaboration with Indivisible Chicago and Just Transition Northwest Indiana.

“The big purpose of this protest is to let Kristi Noem and ICE know that they're not welcome in Northwest Indiana,” he told The Times. “Our message is that the community of North West Indiana together, the majority of us, do not believe in separating families, violating our human rights, and the abuse of a lot of Hispanic people who are here legally, or are our citizens.”

While the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has been directed at those living in the country illegally, some Americans have also been targets. In a report published earlier this month, the investigative outlet Propublica identified more than 170 instances from 2025 in which citizens were detained by immigration agents during raids or protests.

Barbara Cunningham, a Whiting, Indiana native who now lives in Munster, Indiana, likened the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants to the actions of the fascist regimes that the United States fought during the Second World War.

“My dad fought in World War II against these atrocities that are happening here on our own land,” she told The Times. “They're spitting on my father's grave is what they're doing. I can't stay silent.”

Cunningham said she wants Noem and her colleagues to “stop and think what you're doing to people, what you're doing to families, what you're doing to neighborhoods.”

“You know, children are being zip-tied. What is that? Who does that?” she said.

Christopher Ellis, who lives in Chicago, took aim at the now-common practice of ICE agents covering their faces in public.

“The only reason that they're hiding their face is because they know it's illegal,” he said. “And it's not okay.”

Northwest Indiana responds to heightened ICE activity

Earlier this month, city officials in Hammond and East Chicago, two communities in Northwest Indiana, put out statements confirming reports of ICE activity at local businesses, streets and even city property.

In Hammond, Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. was quick to admonish ICE agents who had been using the Hammond Police Department’s Parking lot as a staging area on Oct. 9. City officials informed the ICE agents they were not authorized to stage operations on city property, according to the mayor. The agents reportedly complied and relocated their operation elsewhere in the city, he said. The Hammond Common Council , which is not enforceable by law in the same way a local ordinance is, prohibiting ICE from using city property without permission. 

"Let me be clear: Hammond does not have any agreements or partnerships with ICE that authorize them to use our city’s facilities or property for their operations," McDermott said in a prepared statement. "It is deeply concerning that federal agents would enter and use Hammond’s property without permission — especially when the Federal Courthouse is located just one block west of our police headquarters.”

That same day, videos went viral on social media depicting what the City of East Chicago later confirmed to have been ICE agents arresting a man in the lobby of La Rancherita Bakery in East Chicago. Later, more videos appeared to show ICE agents working in the East Chicago Police Department’s parking lot.

"The East Chicago Police Department was not involved in the incident that occurred this morning at La Rancherita Bakery," chief Jose Rivera said in an email to The Times the day the arrest occurred.

According to an Oct. 9 joint statement from Rivera and East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland, the East Chicago Mayor's Office received confirmation of the presence of federal immigration agents staging in publicly accessible portions of the department's parking lot at 2301 E. Columbus Dr., in East Chicago the same day as the activity at the bakery and in Hammond. Videos circulating social media showed masked officers who appeared to be making an arrest.

On Oct. 10, North Township, Indiana Trustee Adrian A. Santos said suspected federal immigration agents temporarily set up Oak Hill Cemetery at 6445 Hohman Ave., in Hammond.

The officers "staged" in the back portion of the cemetery but were gone by noon, Santos said. It was unclear from the township's statement whether the officers were asked to leave or left on their own.

Officials across East Chicago, Hammond and North Township all said they did not receive prior notification that federal agents would be in the area.

The increased ICE activity in Northwest Indiana over the last few weeks has sparked outrage from local leaders and the community at large. On Oct. 11, a crowd of more than 200 people, including several East Chicago Common Council members, lined the sidewalk outside East Chicago City Hall to voice their opposition in a protest of ICE’s presence in their communities.