By Priscilla Alvarez and Rosa Flores

(CNN) — The Trump administration launched an immigration enforcement blitz nationwide Sunday that included multiple federal agencies and resulted in the arrest of nearly 1,000 people, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The apprehensions are part of an effort to amass a larger enforcement apparatus by pulling in a range of federal agencies that have been granted extended immigration authority under the Trump administration.

ICE agents were joined Sunday by officials from multiple Justice Department agencies as they targeted what they said are public safety and national security threats. The operation is expected to continue this week.

White House ‘border czar’ Tom Homan called Sunday’s enforcement actions in Chicago “a good day” and a “gamechanger” in an interview with CNN.

“President Trump has put all of government on this issue,” he said. ICE was joined Sunday by agencies including the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the US Marshals Service.

“We had all of government law enforcement today to focus on public safety and national security threats in Chicago,” Homan said.

Homan, who was on the ground in Chicago, maintained it was a “criminal operation.” Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove was also in Chicago on Sunday to observe immigration enforcement operations.

Nationwide, 956 people were arrested and “554 detainers (were) lodged” Sunday, ICE said in a post on X, marking the highest total since the agency started reporting them on the platform.

In addition to “enhanced targeted operations” announced by ICE in Chicago, immigration enforcement actions were also reported in the Atlanta area; Puerto Rico; Colorado; Los Angeles; and Austin, Texas.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said the city’s police were not involved with the operation, adding his team was working closely with city officials. He urged residents to “know their constitutional rights.”

Previous administrations, including the Biden administration, have also sought out public safety and national security threats when carrying out immigration enforcement operations.

Homan has argued that guidelines under Biden set up hurdles for officers targeting criminals, while former Biden officials maintained those guidelines established a clear focus.

Interior enforcement is expected to ramp up as administration officials try to execute the president’s deportation pledge. ICE field offices have been told to meet a quota of 75 arrests per day, according to two sources, paving the way to surpassing the number of daily arrests in the past year.

In the last fiscal year, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations conducted 113,431 administrative arrests, according to an agency report, amounting to about 310 arrests a day across all field offices.

Homan, when asked, said he didn’t impose a quota on ICE officers: “My goal is to arrest as many public safety and national security threats as possible and move on to the other priorities.”

“We’re prioritizing criminal aliens,” Homan said. “There’s going to be a point where we have to open the aperture to fugitives.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday he similarly wants violent criminals out of the country, but he expressed concern about how the administration is carrying out operations.

“If that’s who they’re picking up, we’re all for it,” Pritzker said. But, the Democratic governor said, “They’re going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades.”

As part of the Trump administration’s immigration focus, federal law enforcement agencies have been told to prioritize deporting a broad range of criminal suspects under investigation who may be “out of status,” a law enforcement source familiar with the latest operations told CNN.

Investigators, according to the source, have been told to consider deporting a suspect who is in the country unlawfully and under investigation by agencies like the FBI, ATF, and DEA even when an indictment for non-immigratory related criminal offenses investigated by those agencies is not likely in the near term. The source said investigators have been told to consider “just getting them out.”

The new posture is notable because crimes investigated by federal law enforcement agencies can take weeks or even several months to prove and prosecute.

Prior to taking office, the source said, Trump transition officials were querying law enforcement agencies regarding how many of their investigations involved non-US citizens.

The Chicago Police Department said in a statement to CNN it does not document immigration status, and in accordance with its “Welcoming City Ordinance,” “does not share information with federal immigration authorities.”

“We will not intervene or interfere with any other government agencies performing their duties,” the statement reads.

Anxiety and fear in the immigrant community

Chicago grappled with an influx of migrants during the Biden administration following surges along the US southern border and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to transport migrants to Democratic-led cities.

The intensified immigration actions have prompted some Chicago-area migrants to avoid attending school or going to work, according to a local non-profit.

Two elementary-aged sisters living in a Chicago suburb have not gone to school since Trump took office last week, the non-profit told CNN. Their parents, who work cleaning homes and doing gig-type jobs such as landscaping, have not gone to work either, the non-profit told CNN.

The non-profit, which asked CNN not to publish its name nor the names of the migrants because of fear of retaliation, learned about the cooped-up Venezuelan family and started dropping off groceries at their doorstep.

“It’s frightening that this is the tip of the iceberg,” said Sam, one of the volunteers dropping off food.

Sam fears the number of families who are sheltering in place is much larger.

“Children don’t want to go to school. They’re afraid to go to school. They’re hearing from their parents, they’re hearing from other community members,” AnnaMarie Bena, senior vice president of the nonprofit US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, told CNN. “And when it gets to elementary school children not wanting to go to school because they’re afraid, I think that really speaks to a lot about what’s happening in the community.”

Immigrant advocacy groups in Chicago also filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the weekend arguing officials targeted the city for being a sanctuary jurisdiction — a term broadly applied to cities that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions.

The groups claimed the administration’s planned operations targeted the city for its sanctuary status and amount to a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, according to the court filing .

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement it doesn’t comment on pending litigation. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

Enforcement actions nationwide

In the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, ICE agents arrested Walter Valladares, a 53-year-old undocumented immigrant from Honduras, according to family members who spoke with CNN.

Aside from a ticket for driving without a license, for which he paid a fine, Walter Valladares had no criminal record, his brother Edwin Valladares told CNN. He worked in construction and lived in Lilburn alongside his wife and four children, Edwin Valladares said.

In Tucker, another Atlanta suburb, an undocumented man attending church was arrested after ICE agents arrived, pastor Luis Ortiz told CNN. He said he was in the middle of his sermon when he noticed a couple of members of his church escort the man out.

Ortiz said other parishioners told him the agents did not enter the small church, located behind a shopping center, but instead asked for the man by name.

Late Sunday, federal officials said enforcement efforts had also expanded as far as Hawaii, with US drug agents and ICE teams conducting immigration arrests in Honolulu.

Nearly 50 undocumented individuals were taken into custody during a Sunday morning raid targeting drug trafficking and Venezuelan gang members in Colorado, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Drugs, weapons and cash were seized in the raid at what the DEA called a “makeshift night club” in Adams County, on the northeast side of Denver.

“Dozens connected to the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang were there,” the DEA Rocky Mountain Division shared on X.

Of the nearly 50 people taken into custody, the DEA said, “many” have TDA affiliations.

CNN has reached out to the DEA for more information.

CNN’s Gustavo Valdés, Evan Perez, Aaron Pellish, Sarah Dewberry, Alejandra Jaramillo, Gloria Pazmino, Eric Levenson, Zoe Sottile, Jillian Sykes, Josh Campbell and Karina Tsui contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with new reporting.

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