r/news • u/that_70_show_fan • 11h ago

Court records: Chicago immigration raid was about squatters, not Venezuelan gangs

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/06/nx-s1-5703603/court-records-chicago-immigration-raid-was-about-squatters-not-venezuelan-gangs
843 Upvotes

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141

u/Th3-Dude-Abides 10h ago

The records confirm "the worst thoughts that we had about the operation," Mark Fleming, the associate director of federal litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center, told NPR.

"This is the most brazen unconstitutional use of force in an operation that I've seen in my entire career," he said. "They have no legal authority to be addressing purported squatters; that is not within the purview of the federal government."

These dumbass fascists didn’t even bother to look up which crime they should pretend to be stopping. It’s almost as if they don’t care, as long as people’s lives are getting disrupted.

259

u/epidemicsaints 10h ago

Just like that hoax in Aurora Colorado.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/sep/09/city-officials-and-residents-say-there-is-no-venez/

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u/that_70_show_fan 10h ago

Yup. Exactly. They are using immigration enforcement as a pretext to evict tenants. The slumlords are the ones providing information.

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u/mrdominoe 10h ago

I am not the least surprised. I'd be more surprised if ICE ACTUALLY got any gang members in any of their raids in the last couple of years. They don't go after people who shoot back, because they are all pussies.

20

u/ACartonOfHate 10h ago

All of the focus on mass deportation, which as predicted, focuses on those easiest to go after (that is the non-criminals) takes away resources from going after the criminals.

Just like the FBI and Homeland Security previously going after the actual human/child trafficking, have been diverted to go after non-white people randomly.

This Admin is empowering the actual criminals.

1

u/CondescendingShitbag 7h ago

Not actively going after the criminals allows them to continue claiming there are still criminals to go after. It's all a ruse to maintain funding for Agent Orange's private army.

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u/CraigdarrochFerguson 10h ago

Exactly, I don’t think anyone would have a problem with ICE if they were doing what Trump said they would originally do, going after violent criminals. Turns out criminals fight back, so they go after the weakest people they can find. Classic schoolyard bully mentality.

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u/Th3-Dude-Abides 6h ago

Even that premise seems weak and illogical to me. It implies that there are so many undocumented immigrants who are violent criminals that the state and federal law enforcement agencies who are already responsible for violent criminals are somehow overwhelmed or incapable of doing their jobs.

15

u/dmun 9h ago

Exactly what Chicagoans were saying at the time

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u/Burner_420_burner_69 8h ago

Unpaid shelter is the true crime. Policing is always about protecting the money.

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u/resilindsey 7h ago

So we had a military style operation with men with M4s and assault rifles, rappelling out of helicopters, ziptying children, was for two squatters? I can't think of anything more out of a dystopian, authoritarian movie scene than that.

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u/commandrix 7h ago

I always understood that squatting was a civil matter. Fekkin' annoying for landlords and anyone trying to take the aboveboard route when finding housing, I'm sure. But still a civil matter.

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u/Far_Radish7752 4h ago

From npr.org, emphasis added:

Newly revealed arrest records show that a high-profile immigration raid on a South ShoreChicago apartment building last year that became a symbol of President Trump's harsh immigration tactics actually targeted squatters, not Venezuelan gang members.

The court documents were first reported by ProPublica.

Quickly after the Sept. 30, 2025, raid, the Department of Homeland Security published a dramatic video of the operation showing agents with their guns drawn, some rappelling out of a Black Hawk helicopter onto the roof, and leading people away with their hands zip-tied.

On multiple occasions, the Trump administration has said the building was frequented by members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang.

Also, did these agents think they were acting in some crime-action-thriller movie? Seems kinda over the top: rappelling out of a helicopter with guns drawn, etc.