Building operators gave ‘consent’ for massive immigration raid on South Shore apartment complex

Newly filed arrest records made public as part of an ongoing lawsuit over immigration arrests in Chicago are shedding new light on the massive immigration raid last fall at a South Shore apartment complex.

The newly filed arrest records state the “building’s owner/manager” gave verbal and written consent for the raid.

At the time of Sept. 30 raid that involved dozens of Border Patrol and ICE agents, a Department of Homeland Security press release noted the operation involved the arrest of 37 people, including members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

But the newly filed arrest records for at least two people apprehended that night make no mention of gangs and appear to differ from DHS’s original explanation.

DHS and ICE have so far not responded to questions sent Thursday by NBC 5 Investigates.

The two arrest records from the Sept. 30 raid — compiled and written by immigration agents — noted that raid on the South Shore apartment complex “was based on intelligence that there were illegal aliens unlawfully occupying apartments in the building. The entry and subsequent search of the premise was facilitated as a result of the building’s owner/manager’s verbal and written consent. The combined forces search consisted of only apartments that were not legally rented or leased at the time.” ProPublica was the first to report on the records this week.

NBC 5 Investigates’ previous reporting on the raid noted that several U.S. citizens were temporarily detained as a result of the raid, including a man named Isaiah Johnson who told us at the time: 

“Once I went into the hallway, it was a bunch of people in green and they were like, ‘lay down, you have to go to the front.’ They made everybody go to front, and they put us in the plastic wristband thingies, and they just took our information,” said Johnson, a Chicago native who said he was detained on the sidewalk near the building.

NBC 5 Investigates has not seen the arrest records for the 35 others.

“To be clear, squatting in an apartment is not a federal matter – yet we needed all these resources and frankly violated the constitution in order to have a shock and awe and terrorize not only immigrants many U.S. citizens were zipped tied during that operation,” Attorney Mark Fleming with the National Immigration Justice Center told NBC 5 Investigates.

Fleming is currently suing the federal government, alleging that hundreds of people swept up in Chicago’s immigration crackdown have been improperly arrested and detained. The lawsuit stems from a 2022 consent decree over how agents conduct immigration arrests in the Chicago region.

In court filings, his team argues that Border Patrol and ICE agent conducted warrantless arrests and failed to meet a policy requirement in making such arrests that includes justifying why the person being detained poses is flight risk.

“What we’ve seen during Operation Midway Blitz is a complete disregard not only for what the law requires but for what the consent decree requires,” Fleming said.

The South Shore raid is just one of the examples cited in Fleming’s court filings this week.

Another includes an immigration arrest of a man from Oct. 30 near Diversey and LeClair Avenue.

The arrest record says the person detained “attempted to run away,” but video introduced as an exhibit in the case does not appear to show that. It does show agents surround a work van and apprehend a man they say entered the U.S. illegally. Facial recognition technology was used, according to the arrest report, which stated the man had no record and had been in the United States 32 years.

In previous court filings, the government has argued “… their operation is not inherently unlawful…”

Attorneys representing DHS have until Monday to file their response to Fleming’s latest filings, which most recently have challenged the warrantless arrests of 205 people detained by immigration authorities in the Chicago area.

NBC 5 Investigates also left messages for the building owner and property management company. We have so far not heard back.