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Illinois Investigates Claim That Landlord Tipped Off High-Profile ICE Raid

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/us/chicago-building-ice-raid-
investigation.html

Illinois Investigates Claim That Landlord Tipped Off High-Profile ICE Raid
The state said it has opened an investigation into whether the management 
of a troubled South Side building may have called federal agents to try to 
help clear out Black and Hispanic tenants.

By Jesus Jiménez
Jan. 21, 2026
On the South Side of Chicago last fall, dozens of federal immigration 
agents swarmed an apartment building in the middle of the night. Some of 
them rappelled down from a Black Hawk helicopter and banged on doors. Many 
residents were restrained outdoors and forced to wait while agents checked 
their identities.

By the end of the night, at least 37 people, mostly Venezuelan nationals, 
had been arrested, and the building was left in disarray. The Sept. 30 
raid was one of the most aggressive in the early months of the Trump 
administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. It raised questions 
about why a random, blighted building in Chicago’s predominantly Black 
neighborhood of South Shore had been targeted for such a large show of 
federal force.

At the time, Trump administration officials said they were targeting a 
number of unauthorized Venezuelan immigrants living in the building, some 
of them with purported ties to criminal gangs.

But on Wednesday, Illinois officials said they have opened a new 
investigation into claims that building managers had contacted the federal 
government with a tip about Venezuelan immigrants who were not authorized 
to be living in the building. State officials say it may have been an 
illegal attempt on the managers’ part to force Black and Hispanic tenants, 
including U.S. residents, out of the building.

In the aftermath of the raid, residents described years of conflicts among 
tenants, building management and city officials over claims of inadequate 
maintenance, safety hazards and frequent instances of crime. The 
building’s ownership has countered that it had spent $2 million on 
repairs, maintenance, security and evictions since 2020, but had been 
unable to keep squatters and criminals out.

In a document filed to support the new investigation, state officials said 
that the building’s management had tipped off federal officials in 
September that Venezuelans “who were unauthorized occupants and had 
threatened other tenants” were living in the building without the owners’ 
permission. During the raid, the document said, federal agents removed 
dozens of Black and Hispanic tenants from their homes and separated them 
outside the building based on race and national origin.

State officials said they would look into whether the tip about 
Venezuelans was in fact an attempt to “intimidate and coerce the 
building’s Black and Hispanic tenants, as well as the Venezuelan 
immigrants, into leaving the building.”

The state said the raid effectively targeted the entire 130-unit building, 
“terrorizing all tenants, knocking down doors, clearing units and 
destroying tenants’ property.”

The investigation, which will be led by the Illinois Department of Human 
Rights, will also look into claims that within hours of the raid, workers 
employed by building management were clearing out units whose tenants were 
arrested and throwing out those tenants’ belongings.

The investigation was formally opened against Strength in Management LLC, 
7500 Shore A LLC and Trinity Flood, three companies that owned and 
operated the building. None of them responded to requests for comment on 
Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security also did not have an immediate comment 
on the new investigation. At the time of the raid, a senior Border Patrol 
official said that among those arrested were people officials believed to 
be members of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua.

Weeks before the raids, the Department of Homeland Security said at the 
time, a man had been fatally shot, execution style, in the building by an 
undocumented man from Venezuela.

It is unclear exactly how many of those arrested had criminal records or 
whether they faced new charges after they were taken into custody. It was 
also not clear whether any of them was deported.

Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois said in a statement that the claims of 
housing discrimination “raise serious concerns for people struggling to 
maintain housing — and the communities that have been profiled and 
relentlessly targeted by the federal government during its violent 
immigration enforcement operations.”

The filing on Wednesday does not mean that the Illinois Department of 
Human Rights has already made any findings, but it allows department 
investigators to begin interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence. If 
the department finds substantial evidence of discrimination and the matter 
cannot be settled, then the department can file a formal complaint on 
behalf of the tenants with the Illinois Human Rights Commission.

The raid came in the middle of a large-scale immigration crackdown in the 
Chicago area, which federal officials called Operation Midway Blitz, that 
brought dozens of immigration agents to the city and its suburbs for 
weeks. The operations prompted protests and lawsuits against the federal 
government over claims that agents had used aggressive tactics and 
racially profiled residents.

But it appeared that there had long been issues between tenants and 
building management. In interviews after the raid, former and current 
residents described a history of issues at the apartment complex, 
including complaints about prostitution, drug and gang activity at the 
building.

Residents described squalid conditions, including mold, broken pipes and 
trash in the hallways. In the aftermath, some said that it was difficult 
to distinguish what mess had been caused by federal agents and what was 
already there.

The state cited some of these previous complaints in the document it filed 
on Wednesday,

“7500 S Shore building management unlawfully discriminated against their 
tenants when they refused to make maintenance and repairs and then tipped 
federal officials, alleging that the Venezuelan tenants of the building 
were unauthorized occupants and had threatened other tenants,” the 
charging document said.

Jim Bennett, the director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights, said 
in a statement that the claims against the owners and managers of the 
building reflected “more than isolated harm.”

He added, “It describes a pattern of intimidation that reverberates 
through our communities.”


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forward to America being great again.

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Illinois Investigates Claim That Landlord Tipped Off High-Profile ICE Raid "Leroy N. Soetoro" <leroysoetoro@americans-first.com> - 2026-01-24 04:25 +0000
  Re: Illinois Investigates Claim That Landlord Tipped Off High-Profile ICE Raid Anonymous User <noreply@dirge.harmsk.com> - 2026-01-24 05:46 -0500

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