Federal agents stormed a South Shore apartment building earlier this week, arresting 37 people in one of the largest federal immigration raids in Chicago since the Trump administration launched what it’s calling “Operation Midway Blitz” last month.
The Department of Homeland Security said the operation targeted suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang as well as people accused of drug and weapons crimes and immigration violations. But officials have provided little evidence about who was taken into custody, or how many of the arrests were actually linked to gang activity.
Residents of 7500 S. South Shore Drive described a chaotic scene beginning around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, when dozens of armed agents in military-style uniforms swept through the five-story building.
“Rodrick Johnson, 67, is one of many residents who were detained by federal agents during the South Shore raid. A U.S. citizen, he said agents broke through his door and dragged him out in zip ties. Johnson said he was left tied up outside the building for nearly three hours before agents finally let him go,” according to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Sun-Times also reported that video from near 75th Street and South Shore Drive showed federal vehicles lined up outside the building, with agents in both Border Patrol and FBI gear.
One eyewitness, Eboni Watson, said the raid had left her neighbors “terrified.”
“The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught,” she told WLS Chicago, a local ABC affiliate. She described children being detained, saying federal agents “had them zip tied to each other.”
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One resident, Pertissue Fisher, described ICE agents putting a gun in her face and demanding to know her name and date of birth.
“They just treated us like we were nothing,” she said.
Community advocates also criticized the raid as unnecessarily violent.
“Hundreds of masked agents knocking down doors and dragging families out in the middle of the night. Holding babies that were unclothed. That’s not right,” Veronica Castro of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights told CBS News. “Folks that were just trying to live their lives in this community. Does that look like safety to you? No!”
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The South Shore operation came just weeks after a high-profile raid in suburban Elgin, where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined and posted a video of herself in tactical gear while agents made arrests. Two American citizens were detained during that raid. Local reporting has found little evidence of Tren de Aragua violence in Chicago.
Trump has repeatedly framed the raids as an effort to “help the people of Chicago.” At the same time, he warned on social media last month that the city was “about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” with a reference to the film “Apocalypse Now.”
