ICE Agents Rappel from Helicopter in Overnight Chicago Raid on Apartment Building

For months President Donald Trump threatened to escalate immigration enforcement in Chicago, and this week those threats came to bear in a dramatic way.

Overnight on Tuesday, Sept. 30, federal agents from different agencies raided an apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city by population. Armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down doors, pulling men, women and children — some of them allegedly naked — from their apartments, residents and witnesses told the Chicago Sun-Times.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people without legal immigration status, including some with criminal records. The spokesperson claimed the South Shore neighborhood is “a location known to be frequented by Tren de Aragua members and their associates.”

“Due to the size of this operation, DHS law enforcement is continuing to gather more information on those arrested and will provide more information when available,” the spokesperson said. “Federal law enforcement officers will not stand by and allow criminal activity flourish in our American neighborhoods.”

At least one U.S. citizen was among those arrested, whom the DHS spokesperson said had an active narcotics-related warrant out of Chicago. That individual was turned over to Chicago police, the spokesperson said.

Federal agents used flashbang grenades to burst through the building and several drones and helicopters were deployed, neighbors told the Sun-Times.

Ebony Sweets Watson, who lives across the street from where the raid occurred, said she saw what seemed like hundreds of agents outside her front door.

She said she witnessed agents dragging residents, including children — some naked or improperly clothed — out of the building and into U-Haul vans. Children were separated from their mothers, she said.

“It was heartbreaking to watch,” Watson said. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.”

Watson told the Sun-Times she went into the building to help one of the residents and witnessed things strewn about.

“You could see people’s birth certificates, and papers thrown all over,” she said. “Water was leaking into the hallway. It was wicked crazy.”

Four children who are U.S. citizens were taken into custody amid the operation at the apartment complex on Tuesday until they could be placed in the care of guardians or the state, the DHS spokesperson said.

Rodrick Johnson, 67, was among the U.S. residents who were detained by federal agents during the South Shore raid, he told the Sun-Times. He told the outlet agents broke through his door, dragged him out in zip ties and left him tied up outside the building for nearly three hours before he was released.

“I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer,” he told the Sun-Times. “They never brought one.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have condemned the federal response, saying it was not making the city safer and was putting people in danger. Johnson accused Trump of trying to militarize the city. Pritzker accused ICE agents of “acting like jackbooted thugs” without provocation.

“This is not about fighting crime or about public safety,” Pritzker said Monday in response to a slew of federal agents descending upon the city over the past week. “This is about sewing fear and intimidation and division among Americans.”

On Sunday, Sept. 28, armed federal officers in camouflage patrolled tourist-heavy areas of downtown Chicago.

At a news conference this week, Pritzker claimed federal agents were not targeting violent criminals or gang members — as Trump pledged to do when he was campaigning for the presidency — and that 60% of the individuals ICE had taken into custody in Illinois this year have no criminal convictions.