The Border Patrol commander leading an immigration crackdown in the Chicago area applauded his agents’ use of force and brazen tactics that have prompted resident backlash and lawsuits,

From his use of chemical agents to a helicopter raid on a dilapidated apartment building, Gregory Bovino defended the approach of U.S. Customs and Border Protection as appropriate and necessary for threats faced in the nation’s third-largest city.

“I didn’t have any reason to think it would be this bad, but it’s far worse than I ever thought.”” Bovino told The Associated Press during a wide-ranging interview between meeting with employees over snacks and coffee at a suburban CBP office and sitting for another another deposition in a flurry of litigation over his tactics.

More than 3,200 people have been arrested since “Operation Midway Blitz” began in September as part of the Trump administration’s push to target so-called sanctuary cities. What started as a handful of arrests in Latino and immigrant-heavy neighborhoods and suburbs has rippled across the city of 2.7 million and its many suburbs, dipping into Indiana.

Bovino spoke to AP as agents who’ve spent two months in Chicago _ some of them directly from a Los Angeles crackdown _ were being replaced with fresh teams. He likened officers fanning the region to police working beats, but their mission is to counteract an “invasion” of “criminal illegal aliens,” how Bovino and other Trump administration leaders describe people living in the country without legal permission.

“We’re what I call now sanctuary busters,” he said. “There are no sanctuaries. There will be no sanctuaries.”