Politics
Katie Abraham Would’ve ‘Hated’ Association to ‘Midway Blitz,’ Mother Tells Accountability Commission
Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino stands with federal immigration enforcement agents during a skirmish with protesters in Little Village neighborhood, Chicago Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (Anthony Vazquez / Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
The name of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old college student who was killed in a drunk driving incident by an undocumented immigrant, has become synonymous with the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement operations in Illinois after they named “Operation Midway Blitz” in her honor.
Her mother says Abraham would have “hated” this.
Denise Lorence on Monday testified that the Trump administration’s use of her daughter’s name in association with months of aggressive immigration raids in Chicago and northern Illinois “added a level of despair I didn’t know could exist.”
“They preyed on vulnerable communities,” Lorence said, “and they preyed on Katie, who had no say in the matter.”
Her testimony came Monday as part of a two-day hearing held by the Illinois Accountability Commission.
Julio Cucul-Bol, whom authorities said entered into the country with false documents, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with Abraham’s death.
While Abraham’s father supported the Trump administration’s use of his daughter’s name, Lorence said she was never asked for permission.
She told the commission Monday that Abraham was “insightful, outgoing, compassionate, caring (and) witty,” but now she is only being remembered for her connection to Midway Blitz.
“This is what Katie is associated with,” she said after the commission played a compilation of federal agents dragging people from cars, tear gassing residents and pointing firearms at those recording them. “This is what my family has been dragged into.”
Gov. JB Pritzker created the Accountability Commission in October, tasking it with creating a “public record of abuses” committed by the president, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino.
A federal judge in Chicago late last year found that the force repeatedly used by immigration agents “shocks the conscience” and showed “no sign of stopping.”
A coalition of elected officials, community organizations and others are seeking a special prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes committed by federal agents during Midway Blitz. But thus far, no agents have been charged in connection with the operation.
The commission has spent the last several months collecting evidence and witness testimony and is set to issue its final report by this week.
Monday’s hearing featured extensive, graphic video showing numerous violent arrests and detentions carried out by federal agents throughout the course of Midway Blitz.
Commission Counsel Ahmed Baset said those tactics weren’t spontaneous, but were instead greenlit by Trump administration officials who issued three specific directives: to militarize Chicago’s streets, immunize law enforcement and suppress dissent.
In one incident in the Old Irving Park neighborhood last October, federal agents deployed tear gas after residents protested their attempts to detain a construction worker as children dressed in costumes walked in a Halloween parade nearby.
Brian Kolp, who lives in that area and was present during the incident, said Monday the agents’ actions that day were “the definition of excessive force.”
“We were all restrained, otherwise, in terms of how we were interacting with them,” he told the commission, “and yet at every opportunity, they dialed up the brutality, the terror and it was clear they were doing it just to inflict pain and terror, and the cruelty was the point.”
