In a large show force – perhaps the largest since increased immigration arrests began in Chicago earlier in September – dozens of armed federal agents, including members of the Border Patrol, conducted an immigration operation early Tuesday at an apartment complex in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
During the operation, U.S. citizens said they were temporarily detained.
The FBI’s Chicago Field Office confirmed that its agents served in a supporting role for the Border Patrol agents who conducted the immigration enforcement operation.
NBC 5 Investigates learned at least two U.S. citizens were among those temporarily detained as federal agents surrounded the building near 75th Street and South Shore Avenue, according to video posted on the Citizen App and news footage.
It was not immediately how many people were detained – or subsequently arrested – as officials with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Patrol did not respond to repeated requests for comment from NBC 5 Investigates by late Tuesday afternoon.
Isaiah Johnson, who said he lives in the building, said he was placed in plastic zip-tie handcuffs and detained for nearly two hours.
He said he told agents that he was a U.S. citizen and that an agent took his photo and ran his personal information before he was eventually released.
“Once I went into the hallway, it was a bunch of people in green and they were like ‘lay down, you have to go to the front.’ They made everybody go to front, and they put us in the plastic wristband thingies, and they just took our information,” said Isaiah Johnson, a Chicago native who said he was detained on the sidewalk near the building.
A man who identified himself as being with the property management company told an NBC 5 Investigates reporter they would have no comment – but their workers could be seen cleaning up a back parking lot area Tuesday afternoon.
By Johnson’s estimation – there were more than 100 agents present; the exact number was unclear but news footage showed dozens of agents dressed in camouflage surrounding the building in the pre-dawn hours.
When asked how many people got arrested or were led away, Johnson said: “I don’t know. Most of the Venezuelans. It was a lot of them…”
Johnson said he got along with most of the Venezuelan migrants who lived in the building – and that they had helped him fix his car and dishwasher.
But not everyone agrees.
Tykeshia Clark said her interactions were less positive – alleging that new arrivals caused damage to the building.
When asked for her take on the enhanced immigration operations in Chicago, she said:
“I don’t like how they did it. I am happy as hell that they got them up in the building – but I don’t like how they came and did it,” Clark said, adding that she was detained for nearly an hour by federal agents. “Because us Americans we didn’t have anything to do with them. We didn’t bring the Venezuelans over here. They did.”
Photographs obtained by NBC 5 Investigates – courtesy of the Invisible Institute – showed damage inside the apartment building, though it was not immediately clear what damage may have already existed versus what occurred during this raid.
NBC 5 Investigates has repeatedly asked DHS and ICE for details on this particular raid.
The Trump administration’s purpose in these operations has been – in part – to address crime. The agencies have continued to put out news releases touting the arrests of those undocumented individuals with prior arrests.
While we have seen convictions among recent arrests for serious crimes – including murder – the majority of those in ICE custody – some 70% – do not have criminal convictions, according to data from the website TRAC, which analyzes immigration data.
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