CHICAGO — US Border Patrol agents deployed to Chicago led a late-night raid on an apartment building this week, rappelling from helicopters onto rooftops and breaking down doors in an operation authorities said targeted gang members but which swept up US citizens and families.
The show of force highlighted President Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of Border Patrol agents as a surge force in major cities, rerouting personnel who would normally be tasked with guarding America’s borders with Mexico and Canada.
Naudelys, a 19-year-old Venezuelan woman, says she was in her apartment with her 4-year-old son and another couple with a baby when agents knocked down their door during the raid early Tuesday. Agents told them to put up their hands and pointed guns at them, she said.
Naudelys, whose husband was arrested and detained by immigration authorities three months ago, said she tried to record the scene but an agent knocked away her phone. The Spanish-speaking agents told them to go back to their country and made a sexualised remark about Venezuelan women, she said. One of the agents hit a man in front of her son, and she begged him to stop, she said. “My son was traumatised,” said Naudelys, who requested her last name be withheld.
She said authorities alleged her friend’s partner is a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, something she disputes.
The US Department of Homeland Security, which includes Border Patrol, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Naudelys’ account of the raid.
As part of the raid, some US citizens were temporarily detained and children pulled from their beds, according to interviews with residents and news reports. Building hallways were still littered with debris two days later. Trump, a Republican, has vowed to escalate immigration enforcement in Chicago and other Democratic strongholds that limit cooperation with federal operations. Border Patrol — staffed with some 19,000 agents and under less pressure with border apprehensions at historic lows — has increasingly taken on a new role in major cities, led by Gregory Bovino, the agency’s commander-at-large.
