The administration’s theater of cruelty has everyday people asking “Am I next?”
At the top are undocumented immigrants that Trump and his allies claim are “destroying the American republic…[and] the American people and our social cohesion.”
These individuals are not well-known. They are everyday people who have fallen on the wrong side of the “friends and enemies” distinction that animates Trumpism and its theater of cruelty. Almost daily, in Democratic-led cities and parts of the country like Chicago, Trump’s mass deportation campaign produces harrowing scenes.
At Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Border Patrol agents swarmed rideshare lots in search of “illegal aliens” and arrested 11 people. Food vendors are hiding. Restaurants are losing money and in danger of closing because their staff are afraid to go to work. Landscapers and other laborers are also being targeted.
No place is safe. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are also violating schools, churches, courthouses and other sanctuary zones in search of people who are not violent criminals or some great threat to society. They are working-class people who are providing an essential service to their neighbors and the larger community.
Laugh Factory Chicago is crowdsourcing for legal funds to assist night manager Nathan Griffin, who was arrested after he allegedly interfered with federal agents attempting to carry out an immigration operation outside the comedy club.
Video from the arrest shows Griffin, an American citizen, being tackled to the ground by multiple agents and handcuffed. His mother, Elaine Plybon, was also briefly held down. People shouted, “Why are you doing this? Where are you taking him?” as Griffin was pushed into the backseat of a car.
“My brother in law Nathan was detained by border patrol officers today in Chicago, despite the fact that he is a natural-born American citizen,” the description reads. “After being arrested and hidden throughout the system, he finally resurfaced about 4 hours after his detainment in FBI custody awaiting a hearing for a federal assault charge which could carry 8 years in prison if convicted.”
Chicago Laugh Factory Night Manager Arrested for Interfering With ICE, Club Mounts Legal Fund | Video
Laugh Factory Chicago is crowdsourcing for legal funds to assist night manager Nathan Griffin, who was arrested after he allegedly interfered with federal agents attempting to carry out an immigration operation outside the comedy club.
Chicago Laugh Factory Night Manager Arrested for Interfering With ICE, Club Mounts Legal Fund | Video
Laugh Factory Chicago is crowdsourcing for legal funds to assist night manager Nathan Griffin, who was arrested after he allegedly interfered with federal agents attempting to carry out an immigration operation outside the comedy club. Video from the arrest shows Griffin, an American citizen, being tackled to the ground by multiple agents and handcuffed. His mother, Elaine Plybon, was also briefly held down. People shouted, “Why are you doing…
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has announced that U.S. Southern Command commander Admiral Alvin Holsey will retire at the end of the year after serving less than a year in the post. Lawmakers have criticized the decision, citing alleged legal and oversight concerns related to an expanded U.S. campaign of strikes in the Caribbean. A White House authorization reportedly permitting covert CIA lethal operations in Venezuela has also sparked controversy.
Holsey said, “It’s been an honor to serve our nation, the American people and support and defend the Constitution for over 37 years.” He added, “Serving as your commander and deputy for the past 34 months has been a tremendous honor.”
U.S. Navy Admiral Retires Early Amid Cartel Strikes
He should stay and refuse to carry out the illegal orders coming from Trump and Hegseth. Otherwise we will end up with a military run by war criminals and nincompoops.
In the dispatch logs, federal agents reported they were boxed in by 10 vehicles, under attack and requested urgent backup. In response, the Chicago Police Chief of Patrol can be heard on dispatch recordings ordered: “No units will respond.”
Let that sink in: A law enforcement officer, in mortal danger, was denied assistance, not because there was no aid available, but because of a command decision not to send help.
Chicago Police, ICE and the fraying of the thin blue line
The price of enforcing the rules has been high as U.S. Border Patrol try to impose law on Democrat-run Chicago.
A Department of Homeland Security news release noted that Wednesday was “one of its most violent days since beginning Operation Midway Blitz.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that” agitators stalked law enforcement, rammed vehicles, fled scenes, injured agents, and caused multiple accidents across town—putting law enforcement and the public in danger.”
Border Patrol Faces Attacks from Violent Chicago Rioters on ‘Most Violent Days’ of Operation Midway Blitz
The Border Patrol is not letting threats and violence prevent it from doing its job to root out illegal immigrants in Chicago.
Mostly likely lies, give their track records in other arrests of innocent demonstrators, but to the extent, if any, that the charges are true: What goes around, comes around. ICE and the Border Patrol will get their just desserts.
President Donald Trump has demanded the imprisonment of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, accusing them of neglecting to safeguard U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers amid escalating protests over intensified immigration enforcement. A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s injunction blocking the full deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois, while Operation Midway Blitz has resulted in over 1,000 arrests of undocumented migrants in the Chicago area, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The administration has federalized 300 Illinois and 400 Texas National Guard troops to secure federal sites in Chicago and beyond, a step decried by state and city leaders as an unconstitutional intrusion and discriminatory tactic, prompting lawsuits from Illinois and Chicago to halt the operations.
Trump said, “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Officers!” He added, “Governor Pritzker also!”
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Bovino said, “I doubt the governor could fill custard in a pie factory if it came down to it, but what he is adept at is placing his citizens, his law enforcement officers, and his state in jeopardy at the hands of criminals.” Bovino added, “It’s plain and simple: he doesn’t care.”
Trump Escalates Feud With Illinois Over Immigration
Officers shot his friend and fellow pastor with a pepper bullet. He kept going back to protest.
A viral photo of an ICE agent at the site pepper spraying a pastor in the face has come to exemplify the aggressive and violent tactics federal officers are using to corral the demonstrations.
The Rev. Quincy Worthington was there the night his friend, the Rev. David Black, was shot in the back of the head with a pepper bullet and pepper-sprayed in the face, and has returned every weekend since. He’s seen ICE agents hit protesters with batons, shoot pepper balls and rubber bullets, and deploy flash-bangs into the crowd. Worthington says his faith is what keeps him going back after some of the scariest nights of his life.
What a pastor saw ICE do to protesters outside Chicago
Officers shot his friend and fellow pastor with a pepper bullet. He kept going back to protest.
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 federal court in Chicago has ordered sweeping new limits on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the Midwest, ruling that agents repeatedly violated federal law and a binding consent decree by arresting people without warrants.
The decision issued October 7 by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey I. Cummings extends court oversight of the agency until February 2, 2026, and warns that officers who disregard the order could face contempt or criminal referral.
ICE agents can be arrested over unlawful actions, Chicago judge rules
A federal judge says ICE broke the law with warrantless arrests—and officers who do it again could face charges.
