The night of the military raid on a Chicago apartment complex, a loud boom woke the Nigerian man who lived in Unit 215. Tolulope Akinsulie got up from his bed and saw heavily armed federal agents rushing into his apartment. He then felt the jaws of a large dog bite his right ankle, knocking him to the ground. Akinsulie screamed as the dog ripped the flesh from her ankle, thighs, hip and wrist.
At the end of the corridor, agents took away a Venezuelan mother and her 16-year-old son from their apartment at gunpoint to another unit. There, they saw officers hitting one man with what looked like the butt of a rifle and kicking another who was lying on the ground. As he watched, his son began hyperventilating.
“Here’s another one,” officers said of a Mexican man who lived in Unit 502, before tying his hands behind his back and leading him out of the building. The officers told the man he was not welcome in the United States, took his Chicago city ID and tore it up in front of him.
While much has been documented about the Sept. 30 raid conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, new testimony from 17 men, women and children detained that night paints a violent and terrifying portrait of how federal agents carried out the operation.
Their descriptions form the basis of administrative claims filed on their behalf Tuesday against DHS and several other federal agencies that participated in the midnight raid in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
The claims mark the tenants’ first step toward seeking accountability, their lawyers said, as well as millions of dollars in damages, for federal agents’ actions during the raid, a key moment in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Chicago. The allegations allege the officers did not have a warrant before entering the apartments.
“There was no reason to do me like that,” Akinsulie said in an interview with ProPublica. His body still bears the dark scars of dog bites. The complaint, he said, is intended to send the message that public officials are not above the law. “Everyone can get a check and balance,” he said. “People need to learn to do the right thing. »
The allegations allege that federal agents caused physical injuries, emotional trauma, “brutal detention” and financial losses. Each of the plaintiffs — 15 are immigrants and two are U.S. citizens — is seeking about $5 million, an amount lawyers say is comparable to similar judgments handed down by a Chicago court.
“No amount of damages will compensate our clients for the trauma they experienced that night,” said Susana Sandoval Vargas, Midwest regional advisor for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national Latino civil rights organization that represents some of the tenants. “This is about holding the federal government accountable for its illegal actions. »
A DHS spokesperson said Wednesday that “the operation was carried out in full compliance with the law” and that no compensation is owed to the tenants. “DHS takes appropriate and constitutional action to uphold the rule of law and protect our agents and the public from dangerous criminal illegal aliens.”
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about Akinsulie’s injuries. But federal immigration agents said they issued verbal warnings when they entered Akinsulie’s unit and believed he was trying to hide and evade arrest, according to documents filed in an unrelated lawsuit. Akinsulie said he was sleeping soundly and did not hear any warnings or barks from the dog.
Within DHS, complaints from South Shore tenants were also submitted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Additionally, they were sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, neither of which responded to ProPublica’s questions.
An 18th complaint was also filed Tuesday on behalf of a tenant who had been arrested outside the building a week before the search and who had lost his belongings.
The Federal Tort Claims Act provides one of the only avenues for people who believe they have been harmed by federal employees acting illegally and provides compensation for emotional distress, property damage, injury or death. If the agency does not respond or resolve a claim within six months, or if it denies a claim, then individuals can file a lawsuit.
DHS would not say how many claims have been filed since last year. But there have already been dozens across the country: A pregnant woman in California reported giving birth prematurely after being detained and shackled. A Marine Corps veteran says he was accosted by federal agents while protesting in Oregon. A Chicago city councilman said officers insulted, shoved and handcuffed her after she questioned their presence in a hospital emergency room. The DHS spokesperson said the three individuals obstructed or interfered with law enforcement.
In interviews, a half-dozen attorneys said they expected to see more claims in the coming months. “Hopefully this case and others will help thwart the most aggressive and reckless forms of (immigration) enforcement,” said Mark Fleming, an attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center, who worked on the case with MALDEF, the University of Chicago Immigrant Rights Clinic and the MacArthur Justice Center.
During the South Shore raid, some 300 heavily armed officers stormed the dilapidated five-story building; some descended from a Black Hawk helicopter. They threw flash grenades, broke down apartment doors, and tied up dozens of immigrants and U.S. citizens who lived in the building. The drama was filmed by a television crew who accompanied the agents.
The Trump administration has repeatedly justified its actions by saying it had intelligence that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building and that there were weapons, drugs and explosives inside. ProPublica journalists, who in recent months have interviewed 16 of the 37 immigrants arrested that night, previously reported that there was little evidence to support the government’s claims. To date, federal prosecutors have not filed charges against anyone arrested.
The tort claims detail what families, including those with young children, allegedly experienced during the raid. A Venezuelan mother and father huddled together in their apartment with their four children, the youngest a 1-year-old U.S. citizen, who “screamed and cried in terror” as agents pointed guns at them. The officers took them out in their pajamas and separated the father. One of the boys, now 9, had a panic attack, according to the complaint.
DHS officials had previously insisted the children were not restrained, but the account of the 16-year-old boy who hyperventilated at the sight of agents assaulting the immigrants said he and his mother were restrained outside the building. DHS called it a “abject lie” and said no child was handcuffed or restrained.
While the tenants were detained, records show, many of their belongings were stolen or lost: shoes, Playstations, smartphones, jewelry, mattresses, a backpack containing $1,300 in cash and toys. Several also reported losing their vehicles.
The raid turned the lives of the tenants upside down. Many immigrants, mostly Venezuelans, have already been deported. A lot U.S. citizens who lived in the building, including some on public housing assistance, were forced to move out late last year after a judge ordered the building closed over safety concerns and code violations.
José Miguel Jiménez López, 42, the Mexican who lived on the fifth floor, worked as a welder in Chicago before the raid disrupted his life. Jiménez said he was not a gang member or involved in criminal activity. SO Even when the agents pointed guns at him, tied his hands and told him to go back to his country, he thought they would let him go. They didn’t do it.
Over the next four months, he was transferred to detention centers in Indiana, Kentucky and Louisiana before being released at the Mexican border in February. He now lives in his childhood home in the state of Guanajuato. “I have friends and family who are still there and they are afraid,” he said in an interview. “I wouldn’t want to see them go through what I had to go through.”
Her claim details harsh conditions at the facility, including lack of food and water, constant air conditioning in winter and little time spent outside. Others described falling ill because of the drinking water, lack of adequate medical care and constant fear of never seeing their loved ones again. The DHS spokesperson said “the safety and well-being of detainees is a priority” and that detainees have access to medical care and nutritious meals.
In his complaint, Jiménez claimed that “ICE agents treated him and other detainees as if they were subhuman and not entitled to basic dignity or respect.” He said he lost $3,000 worth of property, including a television and a drill.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan woman and her 16-year-old son were transferred to the immigration processing center in Dilley, Texas. They spent three weeks there until they were released to the United States under electronic monitoring. The woman is now having trouble sleeping, while her son is seeing a psychiatrist to understand what happened that night.
Akinsulie, 42, said he was grateful to be alive. A devout Christian, he found peace in reading the Bible and in prayer. But during his detention, he had so many nightmares that he had to see a psychiatrist. He dreamed of dogs barking behind him. Chase him away. Talk to him.
“What really confused me was when the shepherd went emand was chasing me. Then I was running,” Akinsulie said. “The German shepherd was about to bite me. It really scared me because I don’t want any more bites.”
The nightmares stopped after his release in March; the government recognized that it and others had probably been arrested illegally. Akinsulie, who said he has lived in Chicago since 2007, has no criminal history, according to the arrest report from the night he was arrested.
He’s back in Chicago now, staying with a friend and doing odd jobs. He has difficulty standing for long periods of time and sometimes the pain extends from his hip to his right foot. Once a football fan, he said he could no longer kick a ball or run like he used to. He fears the injuries are permanent, but he cannot afford to see a doctor.
