Residents of a South Shore apartment building in Chicago were thrown into chaos early Tuesday when federal agents carried out a large-scale immigration raid that left families terrified and homes destroyed.
Witnesses described the scene as violent and deeply traumatic. According to one resident who spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times, “kids were being separated from their parents and yanked out of the building without clothes on.”
Another resident mentioned that agents tried to break down his door in the middle of the night. A third resident, who is a U.S. citizen, said he was zip-tied and held by officers for hours.
From across the street, Ebony Sweets Watson watched the events unfold and said the most painful part was seeing children pulled from their homes in terrifying conditions. “Even if you’re not a mother,” she told the Sun-Times, “seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible. It was heartbreaking to watch.”
During the raid, doors were busted open, belongings tossed around, and units left unlocked after agents stormed through.
Outside, helicopters circled overhead as large groups of law enforcement surrounded the property. Inside, families said they were treated harshly with little explanation. “They just treated us like we were nothing,” resident Pertissue Fissure told ABC7.
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By the time the operation ended, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that 37 people had been detained. A spokesperson told ABC7 that the arrests were part of an “enforcement operation” that targeted individuals believed to be tied to drug trafficking, weapons crimes, and immigration violations.
The sweep comes as President Donald Trump has ordered a sharp increase in federal enforcement actions across Chicago. Over the past month, his administration has deployed more federal agents throughout the city, often making their presence visible in public areas. He has repeatedly threatened to go even further by sending troops into Chicago under the justification of cracking down on crime.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has criticized those threats. He also revealed that the administration was seeking to deploy as many as 100 military troops to the state. He has warned that such an escalation would bring more chaos to these communities who are already in a vulnerable state.
Critics say this week’s raid has added to fears among immigrant families already shaken by earlier incidents, including the fatal shooting of 38-year-old Silverio Villegas Gonzalez during a traffic stop involving immigration agents near Chicago.
Veronica Castro, who represents the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, described the sweeping enforcement as an assault on families. “Hundreds of masked agents knocking down doors and dragging families out in the middle of the night,” she said in a press briefing. “It’s not right.”
The raid has naturally shaken up the ones who witnessed it first hand and also had to watch the horror in silence as they could not do anything about it. It now remains to be seen how far the Trump administration would go in the name of bringing the crime rates down and getting hold of illegal immigrants.
“Witnesses described the scene as violent and deeply traumatic. According to one resident who spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times, “kids were being separated from their parents and yanked out of the building without clothes on.”
This whole article sounds like left wing BS! Quit lying to the American People!