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.
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
In case after case, Homeland Security’s Public Affairs Office releases incorrect information about arrests carried out by federal immigration officers.
If you’ve spent any time reading the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) public statements lately, you’ve probably gotten a strong whiff of what Tennessee Williams once called the “powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity.”
Of course, all governments since time immemorial have lied, but it’s been hard not to notice, especially for reporters, the decline in reliable information being released by the federal government, particularly the DHS Office of Public Affairs, which is responsible for distributing public information about the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.
Homeland Security won’t stop lying about who immigration enforcers are arresting
In case after case, Homeland Security’s Public Affairs Office releases incorrect information about arrests carried out by federal immigration officers.
A local immigration lawyer said three of her clients who were legal residents of the U.S. were taken in Wilder on Sunday.
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Nikki Ramirez-Smith, a Nampa-based immigration lawyer, told the Idaho Statesman the people detained included at least three who legally resided in the United States. They have not been charged with any crimes in connection with the gambling, she said.
ICE detained immigrants with work visas in Wilder raid, attorney says
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained a Texas father whose green card was revoked due to charges from when he was a teenager, his lawyers and wife told Newsweek.
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Roman Surovtsev, now 41 years old, immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union when he was 4 years old. When he was a teenager, his green card was revoked after he pleaded guilty to charges including carjacking and burglary, NPR reported.
But he was not deported after his prison sentence. Surovtsev is technically stateless, as neither Russia nor Ukraine, the two countries to which the U.S. government initially sought to deport him, has been able to prove him as a citizen, his lawyers Eric Lee and Christopher Godshall-Bennett told Newsweek.
“The Trump administration is trying to send him to a country where he will be drafted into the army and sent to front, where there is a very, very high likelihood of death,” Lee said. “This is somebody that has lived in the United States since he was a child. Yes, he’s made mistakes. He’s paid the price through the criminal process, but he has two young U.S. citizen daughters, a U.S. citizen wife He’s got a job and reformed himself. There’s absolutely no reason why he’s being detained.”
ICE detains dad after green card was revoked due to teenage crime—Lawyer
Roman Surovtsev, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Soviet Union when he was 4, has been held in ICE custody since August.
He’s not deportable — neither Russia nor Ukraine will accept him as their citizen — and he’s kept his nose clean for over 20 years. He also has 3 family members (wife, 2 daughters) who are U.S. citizens.
Sometimes people deserve a second chance, and he’s done well. Let him stay!
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) faces allegations of instructing officers to refrain from assisting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents during a violent confrontation involving protesters. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that the CPD’s Chief of Patrol ordered officers to stand down, during which an armed assailant, Marimar Martinez, was shot and injured. Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz have been charged in connection with the attack. The incident has escalated tensions, with Illinois officials launching an independent inquiry into the CPD’s response and federal actions.
Pritzker, Feds Trade Blame After Protest Turns Violent
Children were reportedly zip-tied during a multi-agency law enforcement raid in Wilder, Idaho, as hundreds of people were detained and police fired rubber bullets.
The operation took place on October 19 at La Catedral Arena, a horse racing venue west of Boise, according to The Idaho Statesman.
Children Zip-Tied During ICE Raid on Family Event in Idaho
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek that ICE arrested 105 migrants without legal status during the operation.
A series of public statements from the Department of Homeland Security during its migrant crackdown in Chicago and across the country has been contradicted or undermined by local officials, a civil rights attorney and a legal filing.
These issues have been particularly notable in three prominent incidents: the arrest of a WGN employee, the shooting of a US citizen accused of ramming police vehicles and ICE’s detention of a 13-year-old in Massachusetts.
A closer look at the incidents underscores the broader skepticism of the Department of Homeland Security’s statements as federal agents have moved into city streets in Chicago and elsewhere.
In immigration crackdown, DHS statements on arrests face a problem of credibility | CNN
A series of public statements from the Department of Homeland Security during its migrant crackdown in Chicago and across the country has been contradicted or undermined by local officials, a civil rights attorney and a legal filing.
ICE is “creating mayhem,” says Illinois Gov. Pritzker.
‘Profoundly concerned’: Judge orders ICE official to testify after Chicago tear-gassing incident
A federal judge on Thursday said she is “profoundly concerned” with the apparent violations by federal agents of a temporary restraining order she issued last week.
