As the city of Chicago begins an unexpected crackdown on homeless encampments across the city, officials deny that the effort has anything to do with the upcoming Democratic National Convention (DNC) in late August.

Fox News reports that one such encampment was cleared out by city authorities on July 17th. When the Chicago Tribune spoke to Maura McCauley, managing deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, McCauley told the paper that the operation was “fast-tracked in time for the Democratic National Convention in late August.”

“She said there were worries that security officials with the convention could suddenly ask that the tent city be evacuated,” the paper noted.

But a spokesman for the department later contradicted this claim, insisting that the operation was unrelated to the DNC. Mayor Brandon Johnson (D-Ill.) later issued his own statement insisting that the DNC had no impact on the decision to clean out the camp.

The Tribune further reported that the July 17th operation was part of a broader “encampment initiative” that will seek to ultimately clear out at least “eight tent cities across Chicago.”

The city of Chicago, which has already long struggled with crime, has been facing waves of illegal aliens being sent to the city by Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas), in an effort to expose the hypocrisy of Democrats’ support for “sanctuary cities” and open borders. Governor Abbott has been sending busloads of illegals to Chicago, as well as other heavily Democratic locations, for the last several years.

The DNC is scheduled to take place from August 19th to August 22nd. There have long been threats of protests and riots at this year’s DNC, with anti-Israel agitators in particular vowing to cause violence similar to the ill-fated 1968 DNC, which was plagued by violence as far-left rioters clashed with police outside of the convention.