"The documents, published on Wednesday by ProPublica's Melissa Sanchez and Jodi S. Cohen, were filed Tuesday as part of ongoing federal litigation. They show that the September 2025 operation was not based on evidence that the gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building as administration officials repeatedly asserted but instead on allegations that immigrants were unlawfully occupying apartments with the landlord's consent to search the premises."
"It was a brutal lie against the American public, said Mark Fleming, an attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center and co-counsel in the lawsuit that produced the records, to ProPublica. This was really about immigrants purportedly occupying apartments unlawfully, which is radically different than the story they told. The raid unfolded in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood, where federal agents descended on a 130-unit apartment complex in the middle of the night, arriving by Blackhawk helicopter,"
"For months afterward, the Department of Homeland Security cited alleged gang activity to justify the aggressive operation, framing the arrests as a counterterrorism success. Yet the newly uncovered arrest records for two of the men detained that night tell a different story. According to those reports, agents entered the building with the owner/manager's verbal and written consent and launched the search based on intelligence that there were illegal aliens unlawfully occupying apartments with the landlord's consent to search the premises."
Federal court records show the September 2025 Chicago operation was not supported by evidence that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had seized a 130-unit building. Agents entered with the owner/manager's verbal and written consent and relied on allegations that immigrants were unlawfully occupying apartments. The raid involved Blackhawk helicopters, forced entries, and residents — including U.S. citizens — being zip-tied; thirty-seven immigrants were detained. The Department of Homeland Security repeatedly cited alleged gang activity to justify the aggressive tactics, but arrest reports for detainees contradict the public narrative and describe lawful consent and occupancy claims as the basis for the search.
Read at www.mediaite.com
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