Inside South Side immigration raid

CHICAGO — When Border Patrol agents paraded on a sunny Sunday afternoon in downtown Chicago many questioned their purpose. When some of those same agents stormed a South Shore apartment building early Tuesday morning with guns drawn and a helicopter circling overhead, their purpose was crystal clear.  

Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino told NewsNation correspondent Ali Bradley they were targeting members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua.

“They went through that structure — which is a very large structure, it’s 5 stories — they went through that structure a lot quicker than I thought and several apprehensions,” he said.

NewsNation reported at least 30 arrests were made. Federal officials did not release specific charging details — or criminal histories — of any of the people taken into custody.

The Trump Administration previously designated Tren de Aragua as a “Foreign Terrorist Orgnaization.”

Bovino also acknowledged some U.S. citizens were briefly detained as the Chicago building was cleared. 

“We generally don’t determine alienage while we’re in the building clearing the building,” Bovino told NewsNation. “It’s too dangerous, so we’ll bring them out. It’s safer for the U.S. citizens. It’s safer for the illegal aliens, and most of all it’s safer for our officers.”

The man running the Chicago operation lead a similar assault on illegal immigrations in Los Angeles this summer. Bovino called his operations in L.A. “turn and burn” arrests and caused controversy leading officers on horseback through a peaceful park.  

NewsNation’s border correspondent has accompanied immigration agents on dozens of operations and says whether it’s a show of force on a weekend afternoon in downtown Chicago or storming a building, it’s all meant to send a message. 

“When they’re out there walking around town, that was a show of force in the sense of saying ‘we’re not going anywhere.’ That’s what Chief Bovino says: They’re going to continue to operate in Chicago,” NewsNation’s Ali Bradley said.