In the early-morning hours of Sept. 30, a military-style deportation crackdown which promised to “target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens” in the city, a group of armed soldiers in tactical gear rappelled down from a helicopter in the dead of night onto a 130-unit mid-rise in a largely Black community to break down doors and disappear men, women, and children.

So far, no public criminal charges have been filed against anyone in connection with the raid.

Inside the 130-unit mid-rise, hastily nailed wooden boards now cover entrances where those who were detained used to live. During the raid, agents broke down doors and smashed windows. They forced residents outside and bound some of their hands with zip-ties. They corralled them into rented box trucks, while ignoring their cries of being fellow Americans.

In what appears to have been a warrantless operation in a largely Black community, the federal government has provided no public accounting of how many people were detained, who remains in custody and what happened to the children who were living in the building before the blitz but haven’t been seen by residents since that night. As a result, the distrust and anger has only deepened in a neighborhood already living with the generational trauma inflicted by police brutality.

Paul Gowder, a Northwestern University professor with expertise in constitutional law, described the raid as a “mind-blowing violation of the Fourth Amendment.” He considered the military-style siege of the building to be likely “one of the most unconstitutional things the federal government has ever done.”

“The whole point of our system of warrants for searches, due process rights to defend yourself in court, and so forth, is that we don’t actually know that somebody’s a criminal,” Gowder said. “We don’t actually know that somebody’s apartment building or somebody’s individual apartment is a crime area, unless a court has said so.

“You can’t just start with, ‘Oh, you know there’s crime, therefore we can do whatever we want.’”

The Tribune has been able to identify only one individual taken into custody: a 41-year-old pizza delivery man whose family said he first came to the United States from Mexico when he was 10 years old. Currently in a Kentucky jail, he has no apparent criminal history.

MAGAts applaud this “all hat, no cattle” nonsense that's all show and no substance... largely because they worship in the cult of the demented con man who is all show and no substance.

Well, thank gawd we're safe from the criminal violence certain to rain down upon us by the likes of a pizza delivery man who has lived here for three decades without committing a violent crime.

chicagotribune.com - Ice chicago apartment raid