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operation midway blitz
Body Camera Footage and Texts Show DHS Lied About Shooting of Marimar Martinez in Chicago
"We live in a strange time right now where we cannot trust our federal government," said Martinez's lawyer.
Feb 12, 2026
Newly released evidence shows that the Department of Homeland Security lied about the shooting of yet another US citizen.
In October, a Border Patrol agent shot Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old school assistant, five times while she was in her vehicle in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago. She had been tailing agents while warning the neighborhood that “la migra” was coming.
Immediately after the shooting, DHS leapt to defend the agent who shot Martinez, Charles Exum. The agency claimed in an incident report that Martinez was blocking agents and had "rammed" them with her car. The agency described her as a "domestic terrorist."
Martinez, who survived the shooting, was charged with assaulting officers and pleaded not guilty.
The government's case was fatally undermined in November when it was revealed during a hearing that Exum had bragged to friends about injuring Martinez over text message: “I fired five rounds, and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys," he said.
Martinez's lawyers also said body camera footage—kept under seal by a federal protective order—showed a different series of events from what the agency had portrayed.
In November, federal prosecutors dropped the case against Martinez without explanation. But even afterwards, federal officials have continued to label her as a terrorist.
"This is before there’s any investigation done," said her attorney Chris Parente, who has argued that the public should be able to view the evidence for itself.
On Wednesday, the US Attorney’s Office in Chicago released body camera footage from two other agents involved in the incident—Adam J. Perkins and Lorenzo Cordero—as well as dozens of Exum's other emails and text messages from the incident's aftermath.
Parente, who presented the evidence in a press conference on Wednesday alongside Martinez and her other lawyers, said that with the release, “People can actually see the real evidence as opposed to the false claims by our government.”
He said the release after several months of keeping the footage buried was a "misguided attempt to take the sting out of just how damaging it is for the government.”
Block Club Chicago, which reviewed the body cam footage, explained that it "counters the incident report’s narrative" that Martinez had been the aggressor. Rather, it shows that she was attempting to drive away and that agents chose to ram her.
It shows Cordero and Perkins with weapons drawn and pointing out the rear passenger window about one minute before the collision and shooting of Martinez.
The phrase “it’s time to get aggressive” and “we’re going to make contact, we’re boxed in,” can be heard by one of the three agents before Exum is seen yanking his steering wheel to the left and hitting Martinez’s car.
After the collision, Exum is seen getting out of the car and firing five shots within two seconds.
The body camera footage verifies claims made by Martinez's attorneys, who said that after drawing their weapons, one of the agents could be heard saying, "Do something, bitch."
It also provides support to attorneys’ claims about text messages sent by agents after the shooting. Exum is seen bragging about the shooting, calling it a “great new scenario to add to our training.” Other agents sent messages praising him: One called him “a legend among agents.” Another said, “Good job, brother, glad you’re unharmed.” A third said, “Beers on me.”
Exum replied with the phrase "Fuck around and find out," which has been an oft-used slogan within the Trump administration to justify killings by law enforcement and the military.
Exum also discussed the "big time" support he was getting from top Trump administration officials. He said "everyone" had been "supportive," including then-Border Patrol Commander at Large Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and even "El Jefe himself," likely referring to President Donald Trump.
Less than four hours after the shooting, Exum received an email from Bovino, who offered to extend his retirement age beyond 57 and praised his "excellent service to Chicago."
On Wednesday, the same day the new evidence was released, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told the Chicago Sun-Times that Exum has now been placed on administrative leave. They did not clarify how long the leave would last or when it began.
Parente said the smearing of Martinez as a terrorist fits a pattern that the Trump administration has since used to justify other shootings by agents.
"We live in a strange time right now where we cannot trust our federal government," he said. “Within an hour of the actual incident, DHS branded [Martinez] a domestic terrorist. The same thing they did to Renee Good. The same thing they did to Mr. [Alex] Pretti,” referring to two other US citizens shot and killed last month by agents in Minneapolis.
Martinez has announced plans to sue the federal government and Exum for "tens of millions of dollars," citing physical injuries to her right leg, right forearm, and chest; reputational damage; and emotional harm.
During a hearing earlier this month on Capitol Hill about the violent use of force by DHS agents, she described the shooting as an attempted "execution."
"I looked down and noticed blood gushing out of my arms and legs, and I realized I'd been shot multiple times," she said. "What happened to me in a matter of seconds on October 4th will unfortunately be with me for a lifetime."
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Prosecutors Abruptly Drop Charges Against Woman Shot by Border Patrol Agent in Chicago
US attorneys offered no justification for their sudden decision to dismiss the case.
Nov 20, 2025
Federal prosecutors on Thursday moved to drop criminal charges against Marimar Martinez, a woman who was shot multiple times by a US Border Patrol agent last month in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood.
As reported by local news station WTTW, prosecutors filed a one-page motion asking the court to dismiss the indictment against both Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, who had been accused of assaulting a federal immigration officer by intentionally ramming their vehicle into the officer's car.
The US attorneys who filed the motion to dismiss offered no further explanation for their decision to drop the case.
In the indictment, prosecutors alleged that Martinez and Ruiz were part of a larger group of people in cars that was trailing immigration officers' vehicles as they conducted operations in Brighton Park.
Prosecutors said that the Border Patrol agent who shot Martinez had been acting in self-defense, and that he had only opened fire after Martinez's car collided with his vehicle.
However, recently uncovered text messages showed the Border Patrol agent apparently bragging about shooting Martinez, as he boasted that he "fired five rounds and she had seven holes" in a message sent to fellow agents.
An attorney representing Martinez claimed last month that he had seen body camera footage that directly undermined the US Department of Homeland Security's claims about how the shooting unfolded.
Gregory Pratt, an investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune, said the dismissal of the case was yet more evidence that the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement operations appear to be backfiring.
"This follows several dropped prosecutions against protesters," he wrote on Bluesky. "To say the immigration raids have been all around mess is an understatement."
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What the Pearl Clutchers of Congress Can Learn From Pritzker’s List
Why are members of Congress, with so few exceptions, so short on ideas for fighting back against Trump's manifold abuses of power?
Nov 18, 2025
On October 23, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker filed an executive order establishing a state commission charged with recording abuses inflicted by federal agents sent to tyrannize the streets of Chicago during President Donald Trump’s tellingly named “Operation Midway Blitz.” The point of the new commission was to give the abused somewhere to go with their bruises, smashed windows, and shattered lives, and to compile evidence that could be brought to bear in checking the abuse, and perhaps even (at some point) punishing it.
It is this last point, not made explicit in the executive order, that I find so encouraging about Pritzker’s executive order. It puts the Trump administration on notice that their days of reckless self-indulgence are numbered and that a case against them is being compiled.
Not only does Pritzker’s List send a message. It gives people something, if only a very little thing, to do. It reminds the abused citizens of Chicago that they, not the camouflaged out-of-state goons patrolling their streets, are in charge, and that they have a personal role to play in taking those streets back.
All of which causes me to wonder: Where are the JB Pritzkers of Washington DC? Why are members of Congress, with so few exceptions, so short on ideas—good at “pearl clutching” in response to the president’s manifold abuses of power (here, for once, Donald Trump isn’t lying), but so clueless about fighting back? Where, for example, is the commission that Senate democrats have set up to compile evidence of criminal abuses of power in Pete Hegseth’s extrajudicial killings off the coasts of Columbia and Venezuela? How have they not gotten around to founding it?
Had someone with a backbone and big ideas taken the lead in DC, they might have come up with a plan that would both hit back at the Republicans for their cruelty and bring some real benefit to those affected by it.
In fact, dozens of such commissions are needed to collect evidence of criminal malfeasance, and to create a public record of the dates, times, and details of the crimes, from those working in the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, and so on. All have been dragooned into abusing rights, flouting the Constitution, and telling Trump’s lies. If nothing else, the very existence of such de facto grand juries, organized by elected officials and helped by the efforts and evidence of affected citizens, will put the Trump administration on notice that a case against it is being compiled.
But Democrats don’t operate this way. They tell us that the midterms are looming, that something good is bound to happen in a year’s time, so “Donate Now”—as if we had that kind of time to waste, and as if there were nothing that they should be doing for us, and with us, right now.
Evidence of the DC Democrats’ well-meaning incompetence was on full display in their recent handling of the government shutdown. To their credit, they did manage to make Donald Trump look mean-spirited (as if that needed emphasizing), but the final cave-in made them look weak and, yet again, satisfied with just getting by, without a plan. The whole initiative ended up imploding because it depended on saner heads prevailing among the Republicans, and that was never going to happen.
With no Pritzker in sight, the dearth of ideas really showed. Had someone with a backbone and big ideas taken the lead in DC, they might have come up with a plan that would both hit back at the Republicans for their cruelty and bring some real benefit to those affected by it. The federal healthcare subsidies were scheduled to expire. Given the Republicans’ determination to see them dead, they were beyond rescue. So why not let Republicans bake that poisoned cake, then force them to eat it!
Here's how it might have worked. Subsidies expire and healthcare costs soar. That’s entirely on them. As a counter move, and to actually help those in need, Democrats could have undertaken to set up funds (via a consortium of state-sponsored and charitable efforts) to help those affected deal with, and cover at least some of, their soaring costs. But, in doing so, they could also make clear up front that this aid is temporary, merely a stop-gap measure, and that the charitable subsidies will expire, say, six weeks before the midterm elections next fall. They would then assure those depending on these subsidies that further help is both wanted and can be expected after the elections, but only if those in the House and Senate who supported Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” are voted out of office—“Oh, and here, by the way,” they would add, “are the names of those who voted for it.”
Now that would be hardball! But DC Democrats have nothing like this up their sleeve. They are quicker to tell you why any such plan could never work than to come up with one that can. But there are some out there, such as Pritzker with his list, who are writing a new playbook, one to “get going on” right now, based on fighting back, getting things done, and giving Trump and his conspiracy of fools far more to worry about than they can handle.
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How Many People Were Charged After DHS Claimed Chicago Building Was Filled With 'Terrorists'? Zero.
“The department I once served is engaging in fascist shows of force,” said Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration.
Nov 13, 2025
Late at night on September 30, over 300 federal agents stormed an apartment building in one of Chicago's lowest-income neighborhoods. After descending from Black Hawk helicopters, they broke down residents' doors, destroyed furniture and belongings, deployed flash-bang grenades, and dragged sleeping people—some naked—out into the cold evening. Dozens of people, including children and American citizens, were held in zip ties and detained for hours.
As part of the highly publicized raid at the South Shore complex, which was filmed and edited into a miniature action film by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), at least 37 Venezuelan residents of the apartment complex were taken into custody.
On Thursday, an investigation by ProPublica revealed that the raid, heralded by the Trump administration as a counterterrorism victory, has resulted in zero charges against the people who were detained.
In the wake of public backlash to the militarized raid’s extraordinary, indiscriminate brutality, the assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, claimed that the operation "successfully resulted in the arrest of two confirmed Tren de Aragua members,“ describing the cartel as ”a terrorist organization.“ She added that ”One of these members was a positive match on the terror screening watchlist.“
She added that others who were detained had their own rap sheets, including "domestic battery, family violence, battery against a public safety official, aggravated unlawful use of a firearm, retail theft, soliciting prostitution, possession of a controlled substance," while another "had an active warrant and was listed as armed and dangerous [with] weapons offenses."
Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to President Donald Trump and an architect of his "mass deportation" policy, said that the building was "filled with TdA terrorists" and that the raid had “saved God knows how many lives."
But ProPublica's report called many of the government’s claims into question. The government has not released the names of the 37 Venezuelans detained in the raid, but reporters identified the names of 21 of them and interviewed 12.
The report found that contrary to the government's claims of their rampant criminality, federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against a single person who was arrested. They have also not provided any evidence that two of the men arrested were part of the Tren de Aragua gang.
The names of the two supposed gang members have not been made public, but ProPublica managed to track down one of them—24-year-old Ludwing Jeanpier Parra Pérez—using another government press release that described him as a “confirmed member” of the terrorist cartel.
While the release also described him as a “criminal illegal alien,” the only criminal charges ever filed against him—for drug possession and driving without a license after a traffic stop last year—were dropped. No other charges against him, related to gang activity or anything else, have been filed.
"I don’t have anything to do with that,” Parra told ProPublica from the Indiana jail where he's detained along with 17 others nabbed in the raid. “I’m very worried. I don’t know why they are saying that. I came here to find a better future for me and my family.”
ProPublica said its reporters have also observed eight immigration court hearings for the detained individuals, many of whom have asked to be deported back to Venezuela. In not a single one of the hearings has a government attorney mentioned any pending criminal charges against them while arguing for their deportation, nor have they alleged that any of them have affiliations with Tren de Aragua.
Judges have instead ordered them deported or granted voluntary departure, which the outlet noted is "a sign that they are not seen as a serious threat and can apply for return to the United States."
Mark Rotert, a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney in Chicago, told ProPublica that if these detainees actually had the long criminal histories the government claimed they do, they would likely pursue charges.
“Do they really believe they have people who are members of a violent organized crime gang?" he said. "If they believe they have people who fit that criteria, I would be very surprised if they were satisfied with only deporting them.”
As far as other crimes, ProPublica found that 18 of the 21 detainees they identified had no criminal charges against them. Meanwhile, the other three, who were charged with offenses “ranging from drug possession to battery,” have all had their charges dropped.
Among those rounded up at the South Shore apartment who spoke to ProPublica were a man with a steady job at a taco restaurant who has a daughter in elementary school, and a construction worker and former Venezuelan army paratrooper who is raising four children.
The investigation's findings are in line with how the Trump administration has attempted to sell its militaristic Operation Midway Blitz and other prongs of its mass deportation crusade to the public.
While the White House has persistently claimed to be targeting “the worst of the worst” criminals, the latest immigration data shows that around 72% of current detainees have no criminal convictions. Previous data from the libertarian Cato Institute has shown that 93% of ICE book-ins were for non-criminals and nonviolent offenders.
Michael D. Baker, an immigration and criminal defense lawyer based in Chicago, described it as laughable that a "300-agent raid" was being "called a terrorist victory" even while it had "zero criminal charges."
"The Trump administration’s showcase anti-gang operation was built on spectacle, not evidence," he said.
In response to the story, Miles Taylor, who served in the DHS from 2017-19, including as its chief of staff, during the first Trump administration, lamented on social media that the department "is no longer recognizable."
"The department I once served is engaging in fascist shows of force," he said, "violating the rights of Americans—only to satiate the creepy desires of an old man who wants to seem macho."
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'Reign of Terror' in Chicago as Locals Suffer Under 'Secret Police' Sent by Trump
"I am flooded with stories. There are so many I cannot remember them all; cannot keep straight who was gassed, beaten, abducted, or shot."
Nov 10, 2025
Chicago residents are increasingly resisting operations being conducted by federal immigration enforcement operations being conducted in their city, while at the same time warning the rest of the country about the trauma federal agents are inflicting on their communities.
In a lengthy article published in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend, journalist Andrew Carter documented how residents of the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago, which has been the target of multiple raids over the last month, have created a network of neighbors who carry whistles with them at all times so they can alert people when federal agents are in the area.
Baltazar Enriquez, president of the community counsel in Little Village, told Carter that he began walking around wearing a whistle this past June, and he said that since then "it grew like wildfire," and spread to other neighborhoods in the city.
One person who has joined in the resistance to the immigration raids is Lisa Porter, a 53-year-old suburban mother who told Carter that she had never been much of an activist until she found herself horrified by videos of masked agents snatching people off the streets.
Porter said that she's been following the lead of other Chicagoans in trying to warn people in her neighborhood whenever federal agents are in the area. In one particularly memorable instance, Porter said she saw a young man mowing a lawn in her neighborhood and told him to keep an eye out for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) patrols that she'd seen earlier.
"They came and took my dad 10 minutes ago," the young man said in reply.
Kyle Kingsbury, a Chicago-based computer safety researcher, wrote on his personal blog over the weekend about the pervasive sense of fear that has consumed his community ever since immigration officials began ramping up operations earlier this fall.
In his lengthy essay, Kingsbury said that he is constantly receiving messages from neighborhood watch groups alerting him about masked federal agents detaining people while going about their daily lives, including one notorious recent incident where officials dragged a woman out of the local childcare facility where she worked.
"This weight presses on me every day," he explained. "I am flooded with stories. There are so many I cannot remember them all; cannot keep straight who was gassed, beaten, abducted, or shot. I write to leave a record, to stare at the track of the tornado. I write to leave a warning. I write to call for help."
Kingsbury also warned that federal immigration officials, whether in the form of ICE or the US Border Patrol, are acting like an unaccountable secret police force akin to those typically seen in totalitarian states.
"I want you to understand, regardless of your politics, the historical danger of a secret police," he wrote. "What happens when a militia is deployed in our neighborhoods and against our own people. Left unchecked their mandate will grow; the boundaries of acceptable identity and speech will shrink."
Chicago Alderman Mike Rodriguez, who represents Little Village, told Block Club Chicago on Monday that recent Border Patrol operations in the neighborhood have been like a "reign of terror," and he noted that agents once again deployed tear gas while making arrests over the weekend.
Despite angry condemnations from local officials and residents, US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino appears completely unbowed.
As Block Club Chicago reported, Bovino brought dozens of agents with him on Monday for a photo-op at the famous Cloud Gate sculpture—often called The Bean—in Millennium Park in which they smiled and collectively said "Little Village," in mocking reference to the neighborhood they've been raiding, as photographers snapped pictures.
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ICE Raid at Chicago Daycare Condemned as 'Domestic Terrorism'
ICE, said one organizer, "should rightly be called child abusers."
Nov 06, 2025
A parent at Rayito de Sol, a Spanish immersion daycare center in North Center, Chicago, summarized what took place there Wednesday when armed immigration agents entered the facility and arrested one of the childcare providers.
"What has happened today is domestic terrorism," said Maria Guzman said at a press conference held by federal and local lawmakers and "traumatized" members of the community. "It is a violation of our rights, it is a violation of these children's rights, it is a violation of these teachers' rights, who have a right to work in this country and care for our most vulnerable kids."
Guzman spoke alongside Democratic US Reps. Mike Quigley and Delia Ramirez, who represent communities in the Rayito de Sol vicinity, after at least three armed federal agents arrived at the center at about 7:00 am Wednesday when the worker, Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano, was arriving at work along with parents and children.
Alderman Matt Martin told Block Club Chicago that the agents had followed Galeano to her job and chased her into the building, where they "tore her away" from the children and pushed her coworkers as they tried to intervene. They then dragged her outside with her hands pulled behind her back, before at least one agent reentered the building and, according to Ramirez, went from room to room and demanded to see evidence that other teachers were legal residents.
It appears ICE agents are targeting preschools in Chicago today.
One woman was dragged out of Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Preschool on West Addison, while a father was reportedly taken from the Rayito de Sol Immersion Preschool on West Montrose, as he was dropping off his… pic.twitter.com/IwTjwSuWVa
— Jesus Freakin Congress (@TheJFreakinC) November 5, 2025
Galeano's arrest and the raid took place in front of children and parents. The center closed for the day as other teachers expressed fears about coming to work.
"This is what's happening right now via that force of terror called Homeland Security under [Secretary] Kristi Noem," said Ramirez. "I went into the daycare this morning as part of rapid response and I see teachers, I see parents crying. They're wondering, how could it be that the place where I send my children for eight hours when I go to work has been broken into by these masked agents with guns, running through the daycare?"
It was a hard day here in Chicago with ICE targeting a day care center. I wanted to take a moment to talk about it. pic.twitter.com/RCTKyYwJYY
— Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (@repdeliaramirez) November 6, 2025
Parents and officials said Galeano, who has children of her own, has permits to work in the US.
At the press conference, Quigley demanded Galeano's release and condemned President Donald Trump for ending protections that had been in place under the Biden administration which kept US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from conducting enforcement operations at schools, daycares, churches, hospitals, and shelters. He rejected claims by Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin that the agency "did not target a daycare."
"They can say they aren’t targeting a daycare, but that’s where they were this morning,” Quigley said. “They’re supposed to be going after the 'worst of the worst,' if they’re now trying to tell us that what’s left of the worst of the worst is someone with papers who’s educating kids at a daycare, then I think everything they say comes into question.”
"We need ICE out of our schools and out of Chicago!" added Quigley.
Jonathan Cohn, political director of Progressive Mass, said ICE "should be rightly called child abusers" for conducting a raid while children were present.
"It's bad on its own for its brutality toward adults, but they are traumatizing kids," he said.
Rayito de Sol parents organized a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with Galeano's legal fees; as of Thursday morning it had raised more than $64,000.
Alderperson Andre Vasquez called on all community leaders to join in local grassroots efforts to fight against ICE's raids across the Chicago area, in which the Department of Homeland Security has said more than 1,500 people have been detained since the Trump administration began its mass deportation campaign in the city, "Operation Midway Blitz."
After ICE agents raided a Chicago day care Wednesday morning and arrested a teacher that has citizenship documents, Alderperson Andre Vasquez says the city doesn't have time to wait for elections to fix the Trump administration's chaos and calls for Chicagoans to act now.
"We're… pic.twitter.com/gboYLpoSWu
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) November 5, 2025
"We're all crossing our fingers and hoping for elections to change things, but we don't have that time right now," said Vasquez. "If you're anybody here in the city of Chicago and you don't have a whistle around your neck and you're not out here doing school patrol, please find time to do so. We need everyone here."
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Top ICE Official Says Protesters Can Be Arrested for Simply Criticizing Mass Deportation Campaign: Court Filing
"It's impossible to overstate how much of what ICE is doing on the ground reflects this completely preposterous conflation of hostile speech and hostile conduct," commented one legal expert.
Nov 04, 2025
A court filing released late on Monday alleged that US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino said that merely making what he called "hyperbolic comments" about immigration enforcement operations, including President Donald Trump's "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago, was enough to justify being arrested.
As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday, attorneys representing several Chicago-based media organizations who are suing to restrict federal immigration agents' use of force in their city claimed that Bovino said during a sworn deposition that "he has instructed his officers to arrest protesters who make hyperbolic comments in the heat of political demonstrations."
The attorneys also said in the court document that Russell Hott, the field director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago, said during his deposition that he did not agree that it would be "unconstitutional to arrest people" simply for expressing opposition to his agency's current mass deportation operation in the Windy City.
This section of the filing caught the attention of Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, who said it appeared federal immigration officials are straightforwardly violating the First Amendment right to peacefully protest.
"It's impossible to overstate how much of what ICE is doing on the ground reflects this completely preposterous conflation of hostile speech and hostile conduct," he wrote in a post on Bluesky. "The First Amendment protects—or, at least, is supposed to protect—the former up and until it's a 'true threat,' which none of this is."
Elsewhere in the filing, the plaintiffs' attorneys alleged that Bovino said during testimony that he had "interacted with many violent rioters and individuals" at the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, which in recent weeks has become the focal point of local protests. Additionally, the attorneys wrote, Bovino would "not admit he has ever seen protesters who were not violent rioters."
The attorneys commented that "by Bovino's logic, anyone who shows up to protest is presumptively violent or assaultive and he can 'go hard' against them."
The case involving the Chicago media organizations and federal immigration enforcement officials is currently being overseen by US District Court Judge Sara Ellis, who last month issued a temporary restraining order that barred federal officers from using riot control weapons “on members of the press, protestors, or religious practitioners who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others.”
Federal immigration officials have been employing increasingly aggressive and violent tactics in the Chicago area in recent weeks, including attacking a journalist and a protesting priest with pepper balls outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility; slamming a congressional candidate to the ground; dragging US citizens, including children, out of their homes during a raid in the middle of the night; and fatally shooting a man during a traffic stop.
A hearing on whether to make permanent Ellis’ restraining order which strictly limits the use of riot control munitions has been set for November 5.
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Stormtroopers in Suburbia
Chicago is hundreds of miles from Canada and 1,500 miles from Mexico, but US Customs and Border Patrol turned my peaceful suburb upside down on Halloween.
Nov 04, 2025
It can’t happen here.
I live in a quiet, affluent suburb just north of Chicago. Our house is on a brick street, surrounded by well-maintained homes with manicured lawns.
On Halloween day, leaves from 100-year-old oak and maple trees were turning yellow, amber, red, and orange. Landscapers with lawnmowers, leaf blowers, and rakes had begun annual fall cleanups. The setting resembled a Normal Rockwell painting.
As an attorney, I’m trained to make distinctions. A legal precedent that otherwise seems problematic can become irrelevant if the advocate can persuade the court to distinguish it. “The facts of that case are distinguishable from this one, your Honor” is every litigator’s rhetorical tool.
But that skill is fraught with dangerous traps. Distinctions in the service of selective perception and confirmation bias can facilitate complacency.
It Can’t Happen Here
I’ve followed President Donald Trump’s deployment of the military on America’s streets. I watched the Los Angeles mobilization. The chaos and violence was and is disturbing, to say the least. But California is distinguishable from Chicago. For starters, it’s 2,000 miles away.
That can’t happen here.
When Trump sent troops into Washington, DC, that was distinguishable too. DC is a special situation where the federal government has unique powers.
Portland? Again, it’s thousands of miles away.
That can’t happen here. Besides, I had faith that the courts would keep Trump’s troops from running amok.
It Can Happen Here
Before Trump moved his fight to Chicago, he posted ominously: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning… Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
He wasn’t kidding. Three weeks later, a Black Hawk helicopter circled overhead as hundreds of armed officers raided an apartment building below. The assault occurred about 25 miles from my home. But the South Shore area is a world away from my north suburban life.
That can’t happen here.
It Did Happen Here
Chicago is hundreds of miles from Canada and 1,500 miles from Mexico, but US Customs and Border Protection (CBP, or Border Patrol) turned my peaceful suburb upside down on Halloween.
Clear, sunny skies and a temperature in the mid-50s were perfect for the season. Soon the youngest trick-or-treaters, dressed in costumes that they had carefully selected or made, would emerge from elementary schools and descend on the neighborhood. Parents escorting their kids past spooky lawn displays would remain on the sidewalk as their children summoned the courage to ring the bell or knock on the door and say, “Trick or treat!”
But this Halloween, Nextdoor—a community engagement and communication site that usually includes information on gas leaks, water main breaks, traffic jams, and lost pets—had two disturbing videos of events a few blocks from my home.
The first victim was Hispanic—a 30-something delivery driver for Target. A resident with a smartphone started filming as she came upon the scene. Parked at the curb was the driver’s old maroon minivan. In the middle of the street alongside the van was a grey Chevrolet Tahoe with California license plates. The delivery driver’s doors and rear of the van were open, revealing his yet-to-be delivered packages.
For what’s now happening on the streets of America, the 21st-century adaptation should be: “If you see something, pull out your smartphone and film it. Then post it—everywhere you can.”
Two soldiers in military fatigues with CBP patches on their sleeves stood next to him. A third soldier who had been behind the wheel of the Tahoe joined the scene as the resident stopped her car to continue filming. The men were equipped for battle: masks covering everything but their eyes, helmets, body armor, and holstered sidearms. The driver provided some sort of identification card and waited nervously while one of the soldiers analyzed it.
“Are you ICE?’ the resident asked.
“Border Patrol, ma’am,” one of the soldiers answered.
“How do you sleep at night?”
“Great,” he answered as one of his colleagues nodded vigorously. “Just doin’ our job, ma’am.”
“Why are you here?” she inquired.
“We’re everywhere, ma’am.”
A few minutes later, one of the soldiers returned the driver’s identification card to him and shook his hand, saying, “Here you go, man. You’re all set, man.”
As the second soldier shook the driver’s hand, the first soldier turned to the camera and said, “Did you get that ma’am?”
He thought that he somehow deserved praise for the manner in which he had forcibly interrupted a citizen’s delivery route for no reason other than the color of the man’s skin and the sorry state of his van.
The two soldiers returned to their cars. As they drove away, the delivery driver turned to the camera, smiled, and said, “Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.”
He was one of the lucky ones. The government doesn’t track the number of US citizens it has held in detention facilities. So Pro Publica investigated and found that Immigration agents have held more than 170 American citizens, including nearly 20 children: “They’ve been kicked, dragged, and detained for days.”
The victim of the second Halloween episode in my suburb wasn’t as fortunate as the Target delivery driver. A resident’s video of that encounter showed a landscaper running down the street as three soldiers chased him. The video didn’t reveal what happened next.
Nextdoor videos and the Chicago Tribune documented other Halloween arrests in the nearby suburb of Evanston. In one videotaped incident, three soldiers detained two landscapers. A third landscaper was released after insisting that he was an American citizen—but only after they put him in handcuffs.
A witness who recorded a different incident in Evanston said, “They had yanked his shoes off, they were shoving him on the ground multiple times. It got to the level where they punched him. They kicked him. They slammed his head on the ground.” A video seemed to corroborate that account.
When It Becomes Personal, It Becomes Real
As word of the Border Patrol’s activities spread throughout the community, schools implemented a “soft” lockdown—closed campus, no outdoor recess, all Halloween festivities moved inside. The community had to protect innocent children from the trauma that its own government was inflicting on all of us.
Trump branded his Chicago deportation surge “Operation Midway Blitz.” It’s apt. “Blitz” is not only a football term, but also shorthand for Hitler’s early surprise attacks on neighboring countries at the start of World War II. Trump is “blitzing” his own country—and ours.
What can one person do? After 9/11, the ubiquitous catchphrase was: “If you see something, say something.”
For what’s now happening on the streets of America, the 21st-century adaptation should be: “If you see something, pull out your smartphone and film it. Then post it—everywhere you can.”
Observing an experiment changes it. The CBP soldiers who detained the Target delivery driver knew they were being filmed. So did the guys who handcuffed a landscaper before eventually letting him go. Perhaps those outcomes would have been the same without the scrutiny of a camera, but with more than 170 “mistaken” federal abductions, there’s no way to know for sure.
There are no longer any meaningful distinctions.
It can happen here. It is happening now. It’s happening to US citizens. And if it can happen in my peaceful suburb, it can happen where you live too.
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New Lawsuit Details 'Horrific and Inhumane Conditions' in ICE Broadview Facility
"Community members are being kidnapped off the streets, packed in hold cells, denied food, medical care, and basic necessities, and forced to sign away their legal rights," said the lead attorney for the case.
Oct 31, 2025
A few weeks after a federal judge sided with journalists and protesters attacked by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside of an ICE building in the Chicago suburb Broadview, detainees on Friday sued over "deplorable and inhumane conditions" inside the "de facto immigration detention facility right outside the city limits."
"Huge numbers of people are being arrested and detained" as part of President Donald Trump's "massive and inhumane immigration enforcement operation in the Chicago area—Operation Midway Blitz," notes the class action complaint, filed in the Northern District of Illinois by the ACLU of Illinois, MacArthur Justice Center, and Chicago office of the law firm Eimer Stahl.
Like plaintiffs Pablo Moreno Gonzalez and Felipe Agustin Zamacona, most immigrants targeted in the operation have been brought to the Broadview facility. There, the complaint states, federal defendants "have created a black box in which to disappear people from the US justice and immigration systems," and they "are perpetrating mass constitutional violations."
The suit names not only ICE and key agency leaders—Acting Director Todd Lyons, Enforcement and Removal Operations Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles, and Interim Chicago Field Office Director Samuel Olson—but also the US Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Customs and Border Protection, and CBP Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino.
"DHS personnel have denied access to counsel, legislators, and journalists so that the harsh and deteriorating conditions at the facility can be shielded from public view," said ACLU of Illinois legal director Kevin Fee in a statement. "These conditions are unconstitutional and threaten to coerce people into sacrificing their rights without the benefit of legal advice and a full airing of their legal defenses."
Echoing recent reporting by Chicago journalists, the filing features several anecdotes from attorneys and people who have been detained in Broadview, where "there is blood, other bodily fluids, and hair in the sinks and on the walls," and holding rooms are "infested with cockroaches, centipedes, and spiders."
"This is a vicious abuse of power and gross violation of basic human rights by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security."
One person quoted in the complaint said that immigrants at Broadview were confined in cells "like a pile of fish," while another said that "they treated us like animals, or worse than animals, because no one treats their pets like that."
In September, Fredy Cazarez Gonzalez was "held in a small room with hundreds of people" and "forced to lay down near the toilet, where there was urine on the ground," the filing says. He "was unable to shower for the five days he was at Broadview. Officers did not give him any soap, toothpaste, a toothbrush, or anything else to clean himself with."
Juan Gabriel Aguirre Alvarez "saw a man get sick and vomit in and around the toilet in his holding room. The officers did not provide medical care, nor did they clean up the vomit," the document details. "On the final night that Aguirre Alvarez was detained at Broadview, another man in the room defecated in his pants. The man's soiled pants were placed in the garbage. No staff members came to clean it up, so it was left there the entire night and smelled terrible."
"Jose Guerrero Pozos was detained with some individuals who were diabetic, but they received the same food—a small amount of bread—as all the other detainees, which can lead to dangerous and uncontrolled surges in blood sugar," according to the complaint.
The details alleged in the suit get pretty lurid. Per multiple declarations, detainees are forced to sleep on the floor, amid "urine and dirty water" caused by clogged toilets. The suit also claims there are cameras pointed at the toilets, causing detainees anxiety and concern over sexual abuse.
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— Dave Byrnes (@djbyrnes1.bsky.social) October 31, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center's Illinois office and lead counsel on the suit, stressed in a statement that "everyone, no matter their legal status, has the right to access counsel and to not be subject to horrific and inhumane conditions."
"Community members are being kidnapped off the streets, packed in hold cells, denied food, medical care, and basic necessities, and forced to sign away their legal rights," she said. "This is a vicious abuse of power and gross violation of basic human rights by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. It must end now."
Chicago, the third-largest US city, has been a primary target of Trump's immigration crackdown and his attempt to deploy National Guard troops—the latter of which is before the US Supreme Court after being blocked by a federal judge in response to a suit filed by the Democrat-led city and state.
However, "the conditions at Broadview are not an anomaly," the complaint highlights. "Similar overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, lack of basic hygiene, insufficient food and water, inadequate sleeping conditions, substandard medical care, and extreme restrictions on attorney-client communications are pervasive at immigration facilities in New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Alexandria, and other cities throughout the country."
"Incommunicado detention is not tolerated in our democracy. Defendants have an obligation under the US Constitution and federal law to provide the people they detain with due process and to treat them with basic decency," the filing declares, imploring the district court to "order defendants to stop flouting the law inside Broadview."
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Chicago Judge Demands Answers From Border Patrol Chief Over Tear Gas at Kids' Halloween Parade
"Their sense of safety was shattered," the judge said of local children whose Halloween parade was disrupted by federal agents deploying tear gas in their vicinity.
Oct 28, 2025
A Chicago judge rebuked US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino on Tuesday after several of his agents over the weekend deployed tear gas in a neighborhood where local children were preparing for a Halloween parade—in violation of a previous court order barring the use of the chemical unless federal officers are in immediate danger.
During a court appearance, Bovine was dressed down by US District Court Judge Sara Ellis, who said Border Patrol agents had violated her earlier restraining order that barred US Department of Homeland Security officials from using riot control weapons “on members of the press, protestors, or religious practitioners who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others."
As reported by Heather Cherone, a politics reporter at local Chicago news station WTTW, Ellis grilled Bovine about multiple uses of force by federal immigration agents in recent weeks.
First, Ellis asked Bovine to comment on allegations filed in her court last week about federal immigration agents pointing a gun at a man who was peacefully protesting against their actions while standing on the side of a public street.
Bovine replied that he did not know the specific details of that incident, which Ellis said violated her earlier restraining order "on its face."
Next, Ellis described video footage taken last weekend in the neighborhood of Old Irving Park showing federal immigration agents placing a US citizen in a chokehold after he had approached agents and asked them what they were doing. In this case, Bovino acknowledged that this action as described would not be an appropriate use of force.
Finally, Ellis asked Bovino about the tear gas deployed in Old Irving Park as families were preparing for an annual children’s Halloween parade. The Border Patrol agents' use of the chemical appeared impossible to justify, said Elliis, given all known facts.
"These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered," Ellis said, referring to children in the neighborhood. "It is going to take a long time to come back, if ever."
According to Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Meisner, Ellis also told Bovino that kids should feel they're able to go to local Halloween events without having to "worry about getting tear-gassed."
"That’s not how any of us want to live," Ellis emphasized. "I know you wouldn’t want to live that way."
The federal immigration operation in Old Irving Park on Saturday targeted a man named Luis Villegas, an undocumented immigrant who was working in the area and who, according to his brother, was brought to the US when he was four years old.
Agents detained two other people in the neighborhood in addition to Villegas, and deployed tear gas after several neighbors came out of their homes to yell at the officers, film them, and demand that they leave the neighborhood. A former Cook County prosecutor who lives in Old Irving Park and witnessed Villegas' arrest told reporters that the agents were never under any threat.
Ellis ordered Bovino to appear in her courtroom every single day going forward to recap his agents’ actions in the district, according to Cherone.
She also demanded that Bovino ensure that every one of his officers is equipped with a body camera, and to submit all reports on use of force incidents and corresponding body camera footage by Friday.
A hearing on whether to make permanent Ellis' restraining order which strictly limits the use of riot control munitions has been set for November 5, according to Cherone.
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