Chicago ICE raid draws condemnation over tactics including zip-tying naked children and terrorizing residents, even citizens

“It’s illegal. Unconstitutional. It’s dangerous. It’s wrong. This is not about deportation. This is not about safety. This is about authoritarianism. It’s about stoking fear. It’s about breaking the Constitution” – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson  

By Alexander J. Schorr

October 8, 2025 (Chicago) —   On Friday morning at 1:00 AM   on Chicago's South Shore Drive, federal agents in military garb smashed through doors with flash-bangs, dragged residents into streets in zip-ties—including naked children—and left families outside for hours while apartments were trashed. Eyewitnesses say children were zip-tied together, with one agent reportedly laughing and said “F*** them kids,” a witness told ABC.   

Eyewitness Darrel Ballard told the reporters: “We’re under siege. We’re being invaded by our own military.” This particular raid is considered a significant escalation in federal immigration enforcement tactics under the Trump administration, and has drawn widespread condemnation from civil rights groups, lawmakers, and the Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who accused agents of violating due process rights.

The raid detained all tenants in the building, CNN reports, even U.S. citizens and immigrants who committed no crimes.

Public and Legal Fallout

Some context: in late January, reports emerged of immigration raids being done in Chicago, which included the targeting of undocumented immigrants. The raids followed an announcement that “border czar” Tom Homan and other Department of Justice officials were in the city to oversee enforcement. 

Civil Rights groups, including the National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, have challenged the government’s legal basis for the raids. The lawsuit alleges that federal agents made dozens of arrests without probable cause or warrants and detained US citizens. 

Attorneys argue that the agents did not properly document probable cause for many of the arrests. While DHS claimed that the South Shore was tied to the Tren de Aragua gang, reports indicate that only a few of the arrested individuals have suspected gang ties. Additionally, the use of military-style tactics, such as raids and flash bangs without a clear or sufficient cause, raises constitutional questions about unlawful searches and seizures. 

Lawyers have also emphasized concerns over agents allegedly carrying blank warrants to fill out on the spot. A federal judge is preparing to rule on the legitimacy and damage of this invasion of ICE agents into the homes of citizens.

Cindy Hernandez of the Chicago Sun-Times reported on the raid, noting that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said some of those arrested were “believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes and immigration violators.” According to DHS, it is also said to be a neighborhood to be “a location known to be frequented by Tren de Aragua and their associates.” However, just as Hernandez reported, DHS did not provide any evidence to support its assertions— some of the people detained during the raid were US citizens.

Most Americans now disapprove of ICE tactics

Overall, the majority of Americans (51%) now think Trump has gone too far in “arresting and deporting immigrants,” a number that increased since April. Fewer (26%) say his approach has been “right,” or even fewer (15%) believe that he hasn’t “gone far enough.” A full 55% of independents think Trump has gone too far.

According to the Wall Street Journal, public opinion appears to be turning on Trump and his top White House aide Stephen Miller. Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda, who in a tense meeting in May at the ICE headquarters, had demanded that officers do “what they needed to do” to make more arrests, including arresting noncriminals in public places.

A July Gallup Poll found that fewer  Americans supported mass deportations compared to the previous year. Specific ICE tactics, like increased workplace raids, also say a majority disapproval in a June Pew Poll.There has been federal enforcement activity in the Los Angeles area in recent months, which prompted the presence of these vans:

In August 2025, ICE arrested about 200 people in a Los Angeles-area operation targeting individuals with criminal histories and others subject to deportation. In June of 2025, there were reports of multiple immigration sweeps across Los Angeles, with some federal agents operating in unmarked cars and street clothes. Lawsuits were filed against the government after a 79-year-old US citizen was reportedly pinned to the ground by ICE agents during a raid at his business in Van Nuys in late September.

Right now, three Liberty Vans are rolling in Los Angeles, with a chaplain, lawyer, veteran, and camera crew in tow. This is to document raids in real-time, deescalate situations, and protect families, as well as broadcast to the nation what is happening under the President's weaponization of ICE against citizens. The vans were launched by the activist group “Save America Movement” to monitor federal immigration enforcement activities.

Support for abolishing the ICE agency has increased since 2024, driven largely by Democrats, as well as some gaining support among independents and few Republicans. Widely reported raids, along with the “Abolish ICE” movement” have placed the agency and its actions in the public and subsequently influencing public perception.

The growing opposition to ICE is consistent with the broader trends in immigration attitudes over the past decade. In a 2024 report for the Democracy Fund, John Sides, Robert Griffin, and Michael Tesler showed how the public’s perception of immigration enforcement from 2016 to 2024 adapted following the alternating political discourse over the immigration issue during the Trump and Biden presidencies. 

As politicians and the media shifted from criticizing unpopular Trump-era policies like family separation to expressing concern about the record number of border crossings during the Biden administration, the opinions of average Americans shifted in a similar way. It is no surprise that in recent polling, there is growing support for giving most undocumented immigrants in the United States a pathway to legal status, as well as a rising disapproval of how President Trump is handling deportations. 

ICE’s popularity is plummeting; most Americans believe that ICE’s actions have “gone too far.” Even while Congress decided to give ICE an additional $75 billion for four years under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the only significant piece of legislation that the Trump administration is able to provide, ICE morale has been reported at a low. This has been linked to grueling schedules, increasing pressure to meet quotas, and general job dissatisfaction, prompting the agency to offer recruitment incentives like signing bonuses and student loan repayment to attract new staff amid staffing shortages.