Study Says Midway Blitz Erased $1.28 Billion in Cook County Spending, Cutting $107 Million in Taxes
Updated
Updated · WLS-TV · Sep 8
Study Says Midway Blitz Erased $1.28 Billion in Cook County Spending, Cutting $107 Million in Taxes
3 articles · Updated · WLS-TV · Sep 8
Summary
$1.28 billion in foregone restaurant and retail activity and $107 million in lost local tax revenue were tied to Operation Midway Blitz, according to a new study presented at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Researchers said the 10-week immigration enforcement operation — which DHS says led to about 4,500 arrests — triggered lasting declines in spending and mobility among people who believed they were at risk of enforcement.
Three weeks after Donald Trump took office, spending by Latin American-born immigrants in non-Latin American neighborhoods began falling and kept declining even after the operation ended, the study found.
Chicago businesses and service providers said the pullback is still visible: one Belmont-Central shop reported sharply lower customer traffic, while Metropolitan Family Services said it is operating below its required 90% capacity.
DHS defended the crackdown as a crime-reduction effort targeting criminal immigrants, but local business owners and community groups said they do not expect conditions to improve unless enforcement eases.