CHICAGO -- William McNiff has been a vocal critic of the recent immigration crackdown in Chicago on his TikTok profile. So when he heard about the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, which provides gifts for children and families in need, he wondered if he could do something similar for children of immigrant families affected by Operation Midway Blitz in the city.

In less than a week, McNiff and his friend Taylor Krahl raised over $10,000 on their GoFundMe page to buy gifts and groceries for families in the Chicago area. McNiff helped spread the word about the project on his TikTok account, which has over 41,000 followers.

The gift haul was coined Operation Midway Bliss as a way to reclaim the name from the federal government’s Operation Midway Blitz, which wreaked havoc on the city’s immigrant community.

“When I saw those Angel Trees blowing up (on social media),” said McNiff, who lives in the Gold Coast, “an idea sparked of something I can do for my neighbors here in Chicago, aside from just yapping on TikTok or going to a protest, something that can actually have an impact directly.”

The pair is working with Organización Hijos de Migrantes to distribute a gift and an essential item, such as a coat, to about 170 children from 100 families impacted by immigration enforcement in the Chicago area and Aurora that were selected on a first-come, first-served basis, according to Sheila Jara, the organization’s founder. The gifts and items, which are chosen from an Amazon Wish List based on the families’ interests, are scheduled to be shipped out to children up to age 18 starting soon.

In addition to the gifts, each family will receive about $50 worth of groceries from tortillas to toilet paper delivered right to their doorstep, since many still do not want to leave their homes for fear of being detained, according to Jara.

“The great part about Operation Midway Bliss is that we will have personalized bags of items that we know families will need,” Jara said.

When Krahl, who met McNiff through TikTok last year, heard about his gift-giving plan, she immediately jumped on board. “I went into crazy business owner logistic mode,” said Krahl, who co-runs her own pool business in Naperville and has seen the fallout of immigration enforcement in her community.

She helped come up with the name: Operation Midway Bliss.

Krahl wanted to “take back” the name that “brought so much stress and horror” to immigrant communities and turn it into something joyful for those very same people.

“And kind of like a ‘ha-ha’ to your name,” Krahl said.

The stated goal of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was to target “the worst of the worst.” The two-month operation, which began Sept. 8, led to hundreds of contentious arrests in neighborhoods across the city and suburbs.

Newly released federal data shows that immigration agents detained roughly 1,900 immigrants in the first half of the operation, and that two-thirds of whom had no known criminal convictions or pending charges.

Several high-profile confrontations with agents sparked citywide outrage from residents, who began mobilizing to warn about suspected ICE sightings with whistles around their necks. Others held protests outside the Broadview detention center that drew multiple arrests and at times prompted agents to disperse tear gas.

Conversely, Operation Midway Bliss’ mission is to support children in the Chicago area. “We believe no human is illegal, and every child deserves to feel safe, valued, and loved — especially during the holiday season,” the website states.

Over 800 people signed up to volunteer or donate to Operation Midway Bliss, including Doreen Sayegh, a theater producer at Pemberley Productions in Chicago.

Sayegh had been a part of Whistlemania groups in September, helping to distribute whistle kits to warn immigrants as enforcement ramped up, and found the organized mobilization “kind of amazing.”

When she heard about Operation Midway Bliss on social media, she reached out about making handwritten cards for the families as part of the gift-giving. “They were really excited and thought that would go nicely,” Sayegh said.

Together with about 30 volunteers from Sayegh’s Whistlemania network and the Midway Bliss team, she is aiming to write 500 cards, two or three for each family.

In small get-togethers across the city, she and other volunteers plan to sit down and write “messages of hope or messages of community with neighbors and families that have gone through something so horrific.”

Many cards will be written in English on one side and translated into Spanish on the other, since many of the families receiving gifts only speak Spanish, said Jara and Sayegh.

On Sunday, a group of volunteers gathered at Pink Flores Bakery and Cafe in Pilsen to make handwritten holiday cards. Nearly two dozen cards resembling Christmas trees, Snoopy and golden butterflies were crafted, according to Cassandra Martinez, who helped organize the card writing event.

Martinez, who grew up in Little Village and works at a nonprofit in the area, said immigration enforcement left a “lingering impact” within families. When she came across Operation Midway Bliss, she decided to volunteer.

The Bliss team aims to grow the project’s reach. “We just both had this feeling, I guess it’s more of a hope that it would perform this way,” said Krahl. Operation Midway Bliss’ GoFundMe has raised over $12,500 since it launched Nov. 20, and over $8,000 of that was raised in the first day.

For McNiff, the project is also about letting immigrant families know that Chicagoans have their backs.

“I want them to know and have a little hope that people are still fighting for them, and know that they’re a valuable human being, first and foremost, but they are also valuable to America and the dream of America,” McNiff said.

One night, Krahl and McNiff were texting late about Operation Midway Bliss.

“I was like ‘I think I’m gonna cry tonight,’ and he goes, ‘I think I might cry soon,’” said Krahl, recalling the conversation.

“I said: ‘Are we doing this?’ and he goes: ‘We’re doing this.’”

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