During an operation in a Chicago neighborhood on October 3, immigration agents deployed tear gas by an elementary school. Community members now live in fear of being targeted by immigration officials. [Video]
Weeks after immigration agents deployed tear gas near a Chicago elementary school, community fears persist
A Chicago woman has told Newsweek she was “forcibly removed” from her vehicle by immigration agents. Dayanne Figueroa, a U.S. citizen and paralegal, said her car was struck by an unmarked government vehicle at the 1600 block of West Hubbard Street in Chicago on the morning of Friday, October 10, while she was on her way to get coffee before work.
A Chicago woman has told Newsweek she was “forcibly removed” from her vehicle by federal immigration agents.
Dayanne Figueroa, a U.S. citizen and paralegal, said an unmarked government vehicle struck her car at the 1600 block of West Hubbard Street in Chicago on the morning of October 10, while she was on her way to get coffee before going to work.
“I was in shock and terrified,” Figueroa told Newsweek. “Instead of handling the situation as a routine traffic incident, the masked agents, armed in hands, forcibly removed me from my car without questions and without informing me that I was under arrest.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek that Border Patrol was making a targeted arrest when Figueroa’s vehicle blocked agents and struck an unmarked government vehicle.
Footage obtained by Newsweek appears to show armed federal agents detaining Figueroa, dragging her by the legs to remove her from her vehicle. Some agents brandish guns, and bystanders can be heard shouting, “You hit her,” as the situation unfolds.
Additional video obtained by Figueroa’s family from another witness provides a different angle of the encounter. The bystander who is filming tells federal agents: “You hit her. We all saw it.”
“You guys are f*****g scumbags, f*****g Nazis. They hit her car. You guys hit her, and you f*****g know it,” the bystander is heard saying.
“As agents were departing, the driver, a U.S. citizen, struck an unmarked government vehicle,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek.
“In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers attempted to remove her from the vehicle. She violently resisted, kicking two agents and causing injuries. This agitator was arrested for assault on a federal agent,” McLaughlin added.
Figueroa disputes DHS’s account, denying that she crashed into agents and accusing the immigration enforcers of using excessive force.
“The video evidence is clear: Agents crashed into me. I was not involved in any protest or related activity, and I intend to seek justice for how I was treated. I am confident the facts will speak for themselves,” she said.
Chicago has emerged as a focal point in the national conversation over immigration enforcement as federal authorities step up operations under the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz. The initiative has included increased ICE activity across the city, with arrests and targeted actions in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. Critics say the operations have heightened fear among residents and strained community relations, while federal officials maintain that the measures are necessary to enforce immigration laws and detain individuals with criminal records.
Amid the Trump administration’s hard-line mass deportation push, there have been dozens of reports of U.S. citizens being questioned or detained by immigration authorities, raising concerns over racial profiling, the agencies’ practices and enforcement criteria. Multiple federal agencies—including Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—are being mobilized to carry out coordinated immigration operations as the administration pursues its goal of removing millions of migrants without legal status.
Figueroa described the experience as physically and emotionally distressing, saying the manner in which she was removed from her vehicle left her traumatized and injured. She said she was treated “like cattle.”
The paralegal said she was transported to multiple undisclosed locations and was not allowed to contact her family or legal counsel. She said she was never charged with a crime or informed of a legal reason for her detention.
“These actions constitute serious violations of federal civil rights law and multiple provisions of the United States Constitution,” Figueroa said.
She said she had recently undergone kidney surgery. “I am presently receiving ongoing medical treatment and attending numerous appointments to rehabilitate from recent kidney surgeries and from multiple new injuries directly caused by this assault,” Figueroa said.
Her family is now raising money on GoFundMe for legal and medical fees following the incident.
US Citizen dragged from car by Border Patrol in Chicago
“I was in shock and terrified,” Dayanne Figueroa told Newsweek.
A shakeup is looming at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because Donald Trump’s White House has become increasingly frustrated with the pace of arrests of undocumented immigrants — and now jobs are on the line.
According to a report from the New York Times, regional ICE officials are being asked to explain why arrest numbers are down which led former senior ICE official Claire Trickler-McNulty to explain, “They are under constant threat; people are ground down; it’s a culture of fear.”
Noting that the agency has been in constant turmoil, Trickler-McNulty added, “There has been so much shuffling of deck chairs — I can’t imagine anyone even having the ability to take on real challenges.”
…
With the administration setting a goal of 600,000 deportations by the end of Trump’s first year of his second term, the report states the numbers are falling from the proposed 3,000 immigrants per day, ordered by Trump advisor Stephen Miller, down to slightly more than 1,000 a day.
ICE officials living in a ‘culture of fear’ as arrests lag and jobs threatened: report
Attorneys with Romanucci & Blandin said a U.S. citizen minor was detained, restrained, and held without family contact for hours during the incident. Romanucci said, “This is how people disappear in autocracies—grabbed off streets, held in unmarked locations, no calls to family, no stated charges, no due process.”
Border Patrol SUV Rammed in Chicago Immigration Arrest
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux revealed last week that he has declined a $25 million offer from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a move that has sparked sharp criticism from Mayor Eric Johnson (KDFW).
Dallas police chief turns down $25M offer to partner with ICE
Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux revealed last week that he has declined a $25 million offer from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a move that has sparked sharp criticism from Mayor Eric Johnson (KDFW).
Cory Booker, Ed Markey and others urge Linda McMahon to step in amid violent crackdowns near Chicago schools
A group of Democraticsenators have demanded that the Department of Education stop immigration enforcement activities from taking place close to schools, following several violent crackdowns near school grounds in Chicago.
Although the raids are conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the senators are making an appeal directly to the education secretary, Linda McMahon.
They said aggressive actions were affecting the safety of students.
“Federal agents continue to use unwarranted, excessive levels of force around Chicago, demonstrating an alarming lack of care or regard for the health and wellbeing of children, particularly by conducting unfocused, inflammatory operations within close proximity of school grounds,” the senators wrote, according to NBC News.
“We demand you pressure your colleague, secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, to reinstate restrictions on federal immigration enforcement operations in and around places of education.”
Democratic senators call on education department to stop ICE raids by schools
Cory Booker, Ed Markey and others urge Linda McMahon to step in amid violent crackdowns near Chicago schools
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed an executive order Thursday authorizing the creation of an accountability commission after the deployment of federal officers to the state.
At a news conference, Pritzker announced the creation of the Illinois Accountability Commission, dedicated to “truth, transparency and justice.” Tensions have risen in the state as demonstrators call for more accountability from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
“I am angry because this is not the country that I want for us,” Pritzker said. “This is not the country that any of us thought that we were living in. And yet here it is, nine months into an administration, I wish we didn’t have to do this. Can you imagine that we have to do this in this country?”
Pritzker said the commission will have three core missions: Creating a public record of the alleged abuses, capturing the impact on families and communities and recommending actions to prevent further harm and to pursue justice.
Pritzker calls for ‘truth, justice’ in response to Trump takeover
During the fracas at the Coast Guard base, federal agents deployed apparent flash-bang grenades to disperse the crowd and fired a pepper round that struck a clergyman near the chin. The impact caked his face and clothing in orange powder.
The Rev. Jorge Bautista, pastor of the College Heights United Church of Christ in San Mateo, said an agent shot him in the face with the projectile from about 5 feet away.
“I’m in a lot of pain,” Bautista texted the Chronicle from an emergency room in Oakland. “He clearly was aiming for the face.”
Protest of Bay Area immigration crackdown met with apparent stun grenades at Coast Guard base
Reacting to a NBC News report that the rush to put more masked ICE agents on the streets is resulting in a flood of applicants who have violent histories and possible criminal backgrounds, the panel on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” warned chaos on U.S. cities is about to take a turn for the worse.
As co-host Mike Brzezinski reported, “ICE officials later discovered that some recruits had criminal backgrounds, failed drug tests, or did not meet physical or academic standards. What’s more, some recruits had not submitted fingerprints for background checks, which is a violation of ICE hiring policy. In fact, one recruit had prior charges for strong-armed robbery and battery related to domestic violence.”
“Additionally, nearly half of recruits failed the written exam, even with access to notes and textbooks,” she continued. “All of this as ICE has shortened its training program from 13 weeks to six weeks to accelerate the on-boarding process. ICE’s HR office is reportedly overwhelmed by more than 150,000 applicants, spurred by a $50,000 signing bonus.”
‘A recipe for disaster’: ICE scorched over recruitment chaos
Larysa Kostak was at a routine court hearing when three masked officers grabbed her, put her in shackles, and dropped her in a crowded holding room at 26 Federal Plaza, New York City’s immigration court.
She was so frightened, she couldn’t remember her husband’s phone number to call for help.
“That moment, my life stopped and split before and after,” the Brooklyn resident of 20 years told PIX11 News.
Kostak was held for seven days in one of the building’s widely-criticized holding rooms, then transferred 1,000 miles away to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. Her story has become all too common as federal agents crawl the hallways of 26 Federal Plaza, constantly and often violently cuffing immigrants who’ve shown up for court, according to advocates who say the Trump administration is acting unlawfully.
Three months later, Kostak is reunited with her son and husband in Sheepshead Bay. But her fight to stay in the U.S. is far from over, as the federal government tries to detain her again, her lawyers said.
“I lost three months of my life. I don’t want to [lose] my life again. I live in constant fear of being re-arrested,” Kostak said. “I don’t want to go back there.”
NYC woman lives in ‘constant fear’ after monthslong ICE detention
NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) — Larysa Kostak was at a routine court hearing when three masked officers grabbed her, put her in shackles, and dropped her in a crowded holding room at 26 Federal Plaza, New …
