Article Summary

Springfield, Ill. (Capitol News Illinois) – Shortly after midnight on Sept. 30, 300 federal law enforcement agents, including some rappelling from Black Hawk helicopters, raided a Chicago apartment building in search of Venezuelan gang members.

Many of the building’s residents were rounded up and detained, regardless of citizenship status, as their homes were ransacked by members of the U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.

The Illinois Department of Human Rights announced Wednesday it would launch a new investigation of the building’s landlords. The state alleges the raid in the city’s South Shore neighborhood came after the building’s owner and management tipped off federal authorities, claiming the 130-unit apartment building was becoming overrun by members of Tren de Aragua — a violent Venezuelan gang.

Shortly after the arrests, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said two confirmed gang members were arrested. But according to reporting by ProPublica and others, no one arrested during the raid was ever charged with a crime. Federal officials have not provided evidence that any Venezuelans arrested were members of Tren de Aragua.

Read more: ‘I lost everything’: Venezuelans were rounded up in a dramatic midnight raid but never charged with a crime

The complaint alleges that the building’s owner, a Wisconsin-based firm, according to state records, “sought to intimidate and coerce the building’s Black and Hispanic tenants into leaving their apartment units based on stereotypes about Venezuelan immigrants” in violation of state law prohibiting discrimination and intimidation against tenants based on their race, ancestry and national origin.

IDHR said violations also occurred when the landlords refused to carry out maintenance.

“7500 S. Shore building management blamed Venezuelan tenants for their own failure to provide needed locks and security service, as well as other needed maintenance and repairs, and perpetuated stereotypes about Venezuelan gang members to send a message that tenants born outside the United States were considered gang associates, even if they were law abiding,” IDHR’s complaint states.

The complaint adds building management began clearing units within hours of the raid that left many people’s doors off the hinges and their belongings destroyed. Residents who remained at the apartment building were forced to move out in December after the building was deemed unsafe by a Cook County judge, according to Block Club Chicago.

“These allegations of housing discrimination raise serious concerns for people struggling to maintain housing – and the communities that have been profiled and relentlessly targeted by the federal government during its violent immigration enforcement operations,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.

The owners could be subject to civil penalties if found in violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act.

Details of the raid

The raid was part of Operation Midway Blitz, the federal immigration enforcement campaign that began in the Chicago area in early September and lasted through mid-November.

The raid was the subject of a video produced by DHS and set to dramatic music that shows federal agents led by Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino searching through apartments and detaining residents in vans. Homeland Security’s social media caption read: “To every criminal illegal alien: Darkness is no longer your ally. We will find you.”

Thirty-seven immigrants were arrested and several were eventually deported, according to ProPublica, while U.S. citizens were also detained with zip ties for several hours during the raid.

In raw video footage released by NewsNation, Bovino said U.S. citizens living at the apartment were temporarily detained because it was a “high-risk operation” and “no rights have been violated today.”

Several residents said in interviews with ProPublica that agents hit them in the head with guns, pushed them up against the wall, and threw flash-bangs into their units. Others said their children were taken outside with few clothes on.

The state additionally alleges that people were separated based on their race, ancestry and national origin, and children were among those detained with zip ties. Federal agents also did not honor any requests to see warrants or speak to attorneys.

Apartment issues

The apartment had issues before the feds arrived, however. The building failed 18 of 21 inspections over the last two years and the city sued its owners in 2024 for failing to maintain the building, according to ProPublica.

ProPublica also reported several tenants described positive relationships with Venezuelans who lived there, many of whom arrived in Chicago in 2022 during an influx of migrants to  Texas’ southern border who were sent to Chicago via bus.

But other residents describe issues with guns, parties, drugs and prostitution by both citizens and immigrants. Conditions in the building were also generally abhorrent with water leaks, trash piling up, bug and rodent infestations and damaged walls, according to ProPublica.

(Reporting by Ben Szalinski, Capitol News Illinois)

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.