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For Immediate Release
October, 27 2025, 01:28pm EDT
Contact:
Edward Erikson | Press@FreeSpeechForPeople.org
“Lawless Federal Raids Demand Accountability”: Free Speech For People Calls on Illinois Officials to Investigate Trump Administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz”
New Filing Urges Attorney General, State’s Attorney, and Chicago Police Superintendent to Launch Criminal Investigations into Federal Agents for Unlawful Assaults, Detentions, and Political Retaliation Against Illinois Residents
CHICAGO
Free Speech For People, a national nonpartisan legal advocacy organization, today filed a formal request urging Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, and Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to open criminal investigations into the unlawful actions of federal agents operating in Illinois under the Trump administration’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz.”
The filing details an escalating pattern of criminal activity by federal agents conducted across Cook County in September and October 2025, including unlawful detentions, violent assaults, destruction of property, kidnappings, and racially motivated targeting of communities of color. Free Speech For People’s letter alleges that these acts were part of a coordinated criminal conspiracy directed by President Donald Trump and senior administration officials, intended not to enforce federal law but to punish and terrorize immigrants and political opponents.
“These are not law-enforcement operations; they are acts of political violence,” said Courtney Hostetler, Legal Director for Free Speech For People. “President Trump and his agents are using the power of the federal government to kidnap residents, terrorize communities, and attack people for exercising their First Amendment rights. State officials have both the power and the duty to act.”
Announced by the Department of Homeland Security on September 8, 2025, “Operation Midway Blitz” was purportedly aimed at apprehending gang-affiliated noncitizens. Yet public evidence, including Trump’s own remarks, shows that the operation’s true intent was to “brutalize, terrorize, and intimidate” residents of Chicago and its surrounding communities.
In the weeks following the operation’s launch, federal agents engaged in a series of violent and unlawful actions, including:
- Killing Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, an unarmed driver, without cause;
- Raiding homes without warrants or probable cause;
- Rappelling from helicopters and deploying military vehicles in residential neighborhoods;
- Separating families and detaining children without due process;
- Assaulting clergy and elected officials, including the shooting of Pastor David Black and the detention of Alderwoman Jessie Fuentes; and
- Targeting and arresting protesters, journalists, and community leaders engaged in constitutionally protected activities.
At the Broadview detention facility, originally intended for short-term immigration processing, federal agents have unlawfully detained individuals for days in inhumane conditions, denied them access to counsel, and responded to peaceful protests with escalating violence.
The letter outlines numerous violations of Illinois criminal law, including murder, assault, aggravated battery, criminal trespass, burglary, and intimidation, as well as potential hate crimes and civil rights violations. It further contends that Supremacy Clause immunity does not protect federal agents who act outside lawful authority or engage in conduct they know to be unlawful.
“Federal agents do not have a license to commit crimes,” said Ben Clements, Chairman and Senior Legal Advisor at Free Speech For People. “The Constitution does not give the president or his subordinates permission to terrorize citizens or weaponize law enforcement against political opponents. Illinois law applies equally to everyone, including the president.”
Free Speech For People emphasizes that while federal prosecutors have been compromised by the administration’s own misconduct, state and local authorities retain independent jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes committed within their borders.
“When federal officials become the perpetrators of violence and illegality, it falls to the states to defend the rule of law,” said Ben Horton, Counsel at Free Speech For People. “Illinois must not wait for and, with this lawless administration, cannot rely on Washington to police itself.”
To read Free Speech For People’s letter to the Illinois Attorney General, Cook County State’s Attorney, and Chicago Police Superintendent, click here.
To read Free Speech For People’s cover letter to the Illinois Governor, click here.
To read Free Speech For People’s cover letter to the Chicago Mayor, click here.
Free Speech For People is a national non-partisan non-profit organization founded on the day of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC that works to defend our democracy and our Constitution.
LATEST NEWS
'This Is a Dangerous, Dangerous Moment': AOC Warns Trump, Noem Laying Groundwork for Insurrection Act
"Mayor Frey is executing on the municipal laws passed by duly elected officials, by the people of Minneapolis," said Ocasio-Cortez. "That is what it means to live in a democracy."
Jan 25, 2026
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that President Donald Trump has "considered" invoking the Insurrection Act a day after Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that Border Patrol agents' killing of Alex Pretti had plunged the US into a "dangerous, dangerous moment" in which the White House appeared to be "laying the groundwork" to use the law to deploy the US military for domestic law enforcement.
Noem and other top White House officials, said Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), have been suggesting that leaders like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—both Democrats who have demanded federal agents leave the city and state—are "breaking the law" by following local ordinances that protect immigrants and citizens from immigration enforcement.
Noem has claimed that the two leaders are "'inciting,' that their resistance and difference from this administration, that their political difference in policy from this administration—she is equating disagreement with incitement," the congresswoman told CNN Saturday.
AOC: "In directing this around Mayor Wray and Gov. Walz, claiming they are 'inciting,' Noem is equating disagreement with incitement ... she is laying the groundwork for the Insurrection Act ... they are taking issue with the people of Minnesota who have duly elected their own… pic.twitter.com/u4y6qLsHLa
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 24, 2026
She suggested the narrative appears aimed at convincing Americans that actions taken by local and state leaders could result in Trump invoking the Insurrection Act and sending the US military into cities, if he doesn't agree with the leaders' policies.
Like Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have in recent days, Noem on Saturday accused the mayor and governor of "encouraging" violence against "our citizens and our law enforcement officers."
"The Minnesota governor and the Minneapolis mayor need to take a long, hard look in the mirror," Noem said. "They need to evaluate their rhetoric, their conversations, and their encouragement of such violence."
She added that Walz "encouraged residents and citizens and violent rioters to resist."
Over a week ago, Leavitt also accused Walz of "inciting the harassment" of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and said the governor should "pick up the phone and say that he will cooperate with the president and federal government in making Minnesota safer."
Leavitt held up a photo of people she claimed were undocumented immigrants who had come into the country under the Biden administration and committed violent crimes, but analyses by the libertarian Cato Institute has shown nearly three-quarters of people booked into ICE detention in recent months had no criminal convictions.
The press secretary also accused Democratic governors and mayors of holding state and local law enforcement "hostage" with ordinances barring them from cooperating with ICE.
On CNN, Ocasio-Cortez said that while framing their attacks as though they are targeting Frey and Walz, Noem and Leavitt have actually been "taking issue with the people of Minneapolis and the people of Minnesota, who have duly elected their own elected officials to enact their will. They may not like it, but that is what the people of Minnesota and the people of Minneapolis want. They want people's civil liberties and civil rights protected."
"Mayor Frey is executing on the municipal laws passed by duly elected officials, by the people of Minneapolis," said Ocasio-Cortez. "That is what it means to live in a democracy, and that is precisely what they are trying to threaten and undermine in this moment."
On Fox News Sunday, Noem said that the question of whether to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to deploy the US military to American cities for domestic law enforcement purposes, is "up to the president" before repeating claims that Pretti was to blame for his own death.
The killing was caught on video by witnesses who saw him holding a cellphone as he tried to help a woman who'd been pushed to the ground by an agent, being pepper-sprayed, and then being thrown to the ground and surrounded by several officers, at least one of whom shot him 10 times after another agent had taken his legal firearm away.
Noem claimed, as she and other Trump officials did immediately after Pretti was killed, that he was "confronting" the officers and "impeding" their operations—assertions that are directly contradicted by videos of the incident.
AOC on Noem's lies: "They are asking you to give up your belief in your own senses and instead hand over your belief to anything they say ... look at it for yourself and what you will see is an innocent man being executed in the street." pic.twitter.com/kbUhJau3ZK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 24, 2026
Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN that following the fatal shooting, the administration has been "asking the American people to not believe their eyes, to not believe their ears, and to not believe what they are seeing right before them... They are asking you to instead hand over your belief to anything they say."
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Bondi Demands Walz Turn Over Minnesota Voter Rolls to 'Restore Rule of Law' to State
"This is blackmail. This is the way organized crime works."
Jan 25, 2026
As Minnesota residents and people across the US were reeling from the killing of protester Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents on Saturday—the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in the city in less than three weeks—US Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Governor Tim Walz, telling him it is in his power to "restore the rule of law" in his state.
One suggestion the attorney general gave amounted to a "shakedown," said US Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and had nothing to do with the Trump administration's persistent claims that immigrants have caused a crisis in Minnesota. Bondi demanded the Democratic governor turn over voter rolls for the state, as she has called on all 50 states and Washington, DC to do, prompting legal challenges from voting rights groups and voters.
Bondi wrote that Walz must allow the Department of Justice (DOJ) to access voter rolls to "confirm that Minnesota's voter registration practices comply with federal law."
"Fulfilling this commonsense request will better guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law," she wrote.
Gallego accused the DOJ of "using fear to get their hands on voter information."
The Trump administration filed a federal lawsuit last September against Minnesota and several other Democrat-governed states to demand personal information for all voters, including driver's license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
Considering President Donald Trump's persistent, debunked claims of so-called "voter fraud" in the 2020 election, including the baseless claim that noncitizens are permitted by Democratic governors to vote in federal elections, advocates have said the DOJ's demands for voter rolls are aimed at further spreading lies and misinformation.
In the letter, Bondi also denounced Minnesota officials for speaking out against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the wake of an ICE agent's fatal shooting of Renee Good earlier this month, saying a "national tragedy" has resulted from the "anti-law enforcement rhetoric."
The "tragedy" the attorney general was referring to wasn't the killings of Good and Pretti, but a rise in "violence against ICE officers and agents" that the Trump administration has cited frequently. She didn't provide examples of violent attacks in the letter.
She also demanded that Walz turn over records on Medicaid and food assistance programs and "repeal sanctuary policies that have led to so much crime and violence in your state"—also providing no evidence of such a rise. According to data from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Minneapolis Police Department, crime has gone down in recent years.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said Bondi's letter suggested that Minnesota can expect more violence from federal immigration officers unless Walz turns over his constituents' sensitive data.
This isn’t leadership. This is blackmail.
The Department of Justice has now told Minnesota officials that they will remove ICE if they hand over their voter rolls - this is not how the law works. pic.twitter.com/V9udMnJgPn
— Arizona Secretary of State (@AZSecretary) January 25, 2026
"They're not entitled to that data," said Fontes. "This is blackmail. This is the way organized crime works. They move into your neighborhood, they start beating everybody up, and then they extort what they want. This is not how America is supposed to work, and I'm embarrassed that the administration is pushing in this direction."
Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, noted that Bondi's demand came days after the DOJ acknowledged that a group aimed at challenging election results reached out to two Department of Government Efficiency Employees who were working at the Social Security Administration and requested they analyze state voter rolls.
"This is not a coincidence," said D'Arrigo. "Authoritarians crave legitimacy, and manipulated election results can provide that."
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'Please Get the Truth Out,' Alex Pretti's Parents Plead as Trump Officials Baselessly Smear Shooting Victim
"Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly thugs," said Michael and Susan Pretti.
Jan 25, 2026
Michael and Susan Pretti urged the press and the public to counter the Trump administration's baseless claims about their son, Alex Pretti, after he was fatally shot by US Border Patrol agents on a street in Minneapolis and immediately—with no evidence—declared a "domestic terrorist" by top White House officials.
Pretti's parents expressed heartbreak as well as anger over their son's killing, which no federal officials contacted the family about, leaving them to learn he had been fatally shot from an Associated Press reporter who reached out to them.
"Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital," said the Pretti family. "Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact."
They emphasized that Pretti acted as a "hero" in his final moments, moving to help a woman who had just been forcefully pushed to the ground by a federal agent.
"His last thought and act was to protect a woman," they said before directly disputing claims by officials including White House Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who have made claims that are contradicted by multiple videos of the shooting.
In addition to labeling Pretti a "domestic terrorist"—a claim likely stemming from a memo signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which claims that acts of domestic terrorism include "impeding" or "doxing" law enforcement officers even though filming federal agents is a constitutional right—officials have claimed he "approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun" and wanted to inflict "maximum damage" on the agents.
Bovino on Saturday refused to answer a direct question about when Pretti approached the officers with a weapon; videos show him holding a phone, not the firearm he was legally permitted to carry in a holster, and approaching the woman who was pushed to the ground. The agents then pushed him to ground and surrounded him before one reached into the fray and took Pretti's gun just before at least one officer fired roughly 10 shots, killing him. Despite the fact that Pretti had just been disarmed and was on the ground, officials have called the shooting "defensive."
"The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," said Michael and Susan Pretti. "Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by [President Donald] Trump's murdering and cowardly thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed."
"Please get the truth out about our son," the Pretti family concluded. "He was a good man."
Pretti had no criminal record. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology, society, and the environment from University of Minnesota in 2011 and worked as a research scientist before going back to school to become a registered nurse.
Pretti's father added in comments to the AP that his son "was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset," and had exercised his First Amendment right to demonstrate against the Trump administration's mass deportation and detention campaign and an ICE agent's killing of Renee Good earlier this month.
“He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street," said his father. "He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
After the fatal shooting, the son of a deceased veteran whom Pretti had cared for at the VA hospital posted a video of him reading a "final salute" for his father.
"My father's final words to me were, 'Continue to fight the good fight," wrote the man. "He would be honored in Alex’s sacrifice, and ashamed of this current administration. In my dad's words I encourage you all to continue to ‘fight the good fight.'"
The AP reported that as of Saturday night, Pretti's family still had not heard from federal officials about their son's killing.
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