Capital Officials Clash with Regional Leader Over Immigration Enforcement Impact

A major industrial city’s mayor has drawn sharp criticism from federal security officials after allegedly suggesting that immigration enforcement operations disrupted what he claimed had been the municipality’s safest period in decades.

The mayor of the country’s third-largest city has reportedly been citing recent analysis indicating that 2025 marked the region’s safest summer in 60 years in terms of violent crime, with local media reporting a total of 123 murders occurring between June and August.

According to a prominent university crime research center, violent crime declined across the nation throughout 2025, though the city still maintains elevated figures compared to other major urban centers globally.

The local leader alleged last week that these positive figures were accurate before federal authorities launched what sources describe as “Operation Midway Blitz” around the first week of September.

“The city had the safest summer since 1965 before [the federal commander] stepped foot in our city,” the mayor reportedly stated. “Where [immigration enforcement] was most active, crime went up.”

When asked for comment, a senior security ministry official said the mayor continues to “demonize law enforcement personnel, who are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them.”

“The danger and violence our law enforcement has faced in sanctuary cities like [this municipality], compared to jurisdictions like [a southern coastal state], is night and day,” the official stated, referencing video footage of a woman being detained after allegedly interfering in an immigration enforcement operation elsewhere.

The federal spokesperson added that the mayor “should turn down the rhetoric and work with [security forces] to prevent more innocent deaths at the hands of gang members, murderers, drug traffickers, and rapists who have no right to be in this country.” Officials noted that more than 4,500 undocumented immigrants with criminal records were arrested during the operation.

The mayor countered that statistics and timing showed his administration “reduced violence in [the city] in spite of [immigration enforcement].”

The local leader pointed to the case of a foreign national who was reportedly shot and killed by agents last year. According to local media accounts, federal authorities determined the individual had allegedly resisted arrest and drove his vehicle toward officers, injuring one.

A regional lawmaker representing the area later called for a federal investigation into the incident.

The exchange reportedly began when the mayor responded on social media to comments from the federal commander, who was disputing assertions from a former presidential advisor.

“In [the city], the trail of misrepresentations by [the security ministry] was so long, an exasperated federal judge declared ‘it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything’ they represent as fact,” the former advisor wrote, citing reports of another shooting incident involving federal agents in a different northern city.

In response, the federal commander stated that “double-digit decreases in violent crime in [the city] speak the truth you’re after.”

“Taking violent illegal aliens off the streets by the thousands seems to bother those who choose illegal aliens over [citizens],” the commander added.

That comment led the mayor to cite the comparative violent crime figures between 1965 and 2025.

“Abolish [immigration enforcement],” the mayor later wrote on social media, reposting his previous comments.

The dispute highlights ongoing tensions between federal authorities and local officials in sanctuary jurisdictions across the nation, as the central government continues its expanded immigration enforcement operations in major urban centers.