ICE in Chicago news: Agents raid South Shore apartment building; Donald Trump says city could become military training ground – ABC7 Chicago

Anti-ICE protesters marched up Michigan Avenue on Tuesday evening.
CHICAGO (WLS) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a South Shore apartment building overnight as the city braces for a possible military deployment.
Residents and neighbors are speaking out at what they call a traumatic event.

"My building is shaking. So, I'm like, 'What is that?' Then I look out the window, it's a Blackhawk helicopter," said witness Dr. Alii Muhammad.
Wednesday morning, DHS officials said in a statement, ""In the early morning hours of September 30, 2025, allied federal law enforcement agencies with CBP, FBI, and ATF, executed an enforcement operation in Chicago's South Shore area, a location known to be frequented by Tren de Aragua members and their associates. Some of the targeted subjects are believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes, and immigration violators."
DHS said 37 people were arrested.
ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later.
"They just treated us like we were nothing," Fisher said.
Fisher said she came out to the hallway of her apartment complex on the corner of 75th and South Shore Drive in her nightgown around 10 p.m. Monday only to find armed ICE agents yelling "police."
"It was scary, because I had never had a gun in my face," Fisher said. "They asked my name and my date of birth and asked me, did I have any warrants? And I told them, 'No,' I didn't."
Fisher said she was handcuffed before being released around 3 a.m., and she was told that if anyone had any kind of warrant out for them, even if it was unrelated to immigration, they would not be released.
SEE ALSO | Chicago federal intervention: Tracking surge in immigration enforcement operations | Live updates
"They, like, piling us all up in the back on the other side, and it wasn't no room to move nowhere," Fisher said.
Citizen app video captured the chaotic scene, and neighbors say there were dozens of ICE agents.
"As I got to my unit to stick my key in the door, I was grabbed by an officer. And, I said, 'What's going on? What's going on?' He never actually told me. He said I was being detained.," said Alicia Brooks.
Neighbors like Eboni Watson say they ducked for cover as they heard several flash bangs.
"They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"
Watson said trucks and military-style vans were used to separate parents from their children. Other neighbors said agents destroyed property to get in the building.
"They had a big, 15-inch chainsaw with round blade on it, cutting this fence down," said witness Darrell Ballard. "We're under siege. We're being invaded by our own military."
Marlee Sanders' boyfriend was detained, Sanders said.
"They had the Black people in one van, and the immigrants in another van," Sanders said.
The FBI confirmed on Tuesday morning that they were helping U.S. Border Patrol carry out a targeted immigration enforcement operation in the area, adding that they have been supporting these efforts at the U.S. attorney general's direction.
Border Patrol Commander-At-Large Gregory Bovino, with his officers, spoke on the ground in an exclusive interview with News Nation.
"How about you live in the apartment next-door to the Tren de Aragua members that are trafficking prostitution, guns, drugs and taking advantage of American citizens in a violent way," Bovino said.
Destruction was left behind inside the apartment complex, with doors blown off their hinges and holes left in the walls.
Immigrant advocates and elected officials gathered to condemn the overnight operation.
"We're trying to fight so we can all stay in this neighborhood, but that can't happen when we have people pulling us out of our beds at night," said Dixon Romeo with South Side Together.
While immigrant advocates say they believe about 30 to 40 people were detained, federal authorities have not confirmed that number, so it is unclear just how many were held and possibly arrested.

Protesters have been gathering in response to raids like the one carried out in the South Shore neighborhood.
President Donald Trump maintains that the surge in enforcement is about public safety, but protesters say this is about intimidation and fear.
"It's ridiculous that our tax dollars are going toward these types of raids," said Nick Sous with the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. "When it could be funding healthcare, housing and other issues and needs of the community here in Chicago."
On Tuesday evening, demonstrators against immigration enforcement blocked part of westbound Wacker Drive at Michigan Avenue.
Speeches on Wacker were ongoing around 6 p.m. before the group started marching northbound on Michigan Avenue, blocking streets in the process.
One organizer told ABC7 that as the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security ramp up their efforts, so will the community.
The Coalition Against the Trump Administration organized what they call an "emergency protest against ICE and federal troops in Chicago."
SEE ALSO | Border Patrol agents chase after cyclist after he claims he's 'not a US citizen' in downtown Chicago
Organizers and protesters told ABC7 this demonstration is in direct response to what played out overnight in the South Shore neighborhood and over the weekend in other parts of the Chicago area.
"We saw over the weekend how ICE agents shamelessly occupied the streets of downtown and detained fellow residents," one speaker said.
Dozens of armed federal agents could be seen swarming downtown Chicago, at times appearing to detain multiple people on Sunday, in addition to the events that took place at an ICE facility in Broadview, where agents in full tactical gear used a variety of chemical agents.
"What I was learning in history class, I'm seeing it now, in the streets, with ICE detaining legal immigrants and treating them like they're nothing," said protester Mohamed Douhabi.

Meanwhile, Trump is putting Chicago back in the spotlight on Tuesday, saying it is one of several Democratic cities that should be used as training grounds for the military.
And while federal agents continue their efforts as part of operation "Midway Blitz," Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson raised new concerns in response to the president's suggestion that Chicago could be used as a proving ground for the National Guard.
DHS has been ramping up its immigration enforcement efforts and its show of force in Chicago, with armed Border Patrol agents making their presence known downtown in recent days.
On Monday, Pritzker said he has learned that DHS sent a memo suggesting it is planning to deploy 100 members of the National Guard to help protect ICE agents, who have frequently clashed with protesters.
Now, Trump has raised the stakes for Chicago during a meeting with military leaders and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The president called Chicago an unsafe place that he plans to straighten out.
"And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war, too. It's a war from within. I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," Trump said.
The governor and the mayor fired back.
"American cities are not training ground for the military. It's, quite frankly, it's appalling that he would even suggest such a thing," Johnson said.
"Sending troops into cities, thinking that that's some sort of proving ground for war, or that indeed there's some sort of internal war going on in the United States, is, just frankly, inane," Pritzker said.
Some Republicans are calling on the governor to tone down the rhetoric. They also believe the National Guard could help restore order in light of the escalating tensions between ICE agents and protesters.
"I think in order to keep things under control, you have to get things under control," said Assistant Illinois House Minority Leader and Republican state Rep. C. D. Davidsmeyer.
"I believe that the governor and the mayor are afraid, what if? What if it works? What if additional support actually lowers crime and keeps people safe?" said Illinois House Minority Leader and Republican state Rep. Tony McCombie.
Pritzker pointed to the conflicts at the ICE processing station on Broadview, saying the state is offering assistance.
"They deserve peace. That is why ICE needs to back off, and that is why the president of the United States should not send troops to the state of Illinois," Pritzker said.
The governor said he has no new information about a National Guard or troop deployment to the Chicago area, but the state remains poised and ready to file lawsuits if and when it happens.

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