Pertissue Fisher is still recovering from being detained by federal immigration agents who burst into her South Shore apartment building and pulled her and other residents from their beds early Wednesday morning.
An agent put a gun in her face, she said. Another placed her in handcuffs tight enough to leave bruises.
Fisher and other victims of the raid are U.S. citizens, but they were still held for hours.
âI want answers. I have kids, I have grandkids, and if I would have [gotten] killed, who gonna answer for it? Nobody,â said Fisher, 54.
The raid was the latest in a string of aggressive tactics by the feds as part of the Trump administrationâs âOperation Midway Blitz.â The continuing raids in the Chicago area have angered local elected officials, including U.S. Reps. Jesus âChuyâ Garcia, Delia Ramirez, Robin Kelly and Jonathan Jackson, who are now calling for an end to all raids and federal immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.
At a Sunday news conference, the Congress members spoke alongside activists and residents touched by the raids. They urged unity and cooperation among Black residents and immigrants. Many of the residents detained from the South Shore building are Black.
âThis is a part of whatâs become and will be one of the most shameful periods in American history. But itâs not too late to wake up and to turn it around,â Garcia said. âThis isnât just about immigrants. This is about controlling every one of our communities, Black, Brown, poor, working-class.â
Agents from the U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid, including some who âare believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes and immigration violators,â according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. Rep. Jesus âChuyâ Garcia speaks during a South Shore news conference Sunday. He said the stepped-up immigration enforcement in Chicago over the last month is also targeting Black, Brown and working-class people.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
On Sunday, large slabs of plywood covered the doors of several units in the building at 7500 S. South Shore Drive. Broken glass lay on the ground outside the building near busted-out windows. A cardboard sign reading âThe fascists who did this have names and addressesâ was posted on a fence outside.
The representatives are working to connect displaced families with mutual aid groups and legal and immigration resources, Ramirez said.
Resident Markus Bracey wasnât detained, but he said he saw agents detain his neighbors. Bracey and nearly 30 others continue to live in the building, he said.
Federal agents âcame from the roof, they came from the bottom, and they squeezed in so they couldnât get away,â he said.
âThe helicopter was on the roof. Every floor looks like this, or worse,â he said, gesturing to boarded-up units.
Ramirez and other members of the House of Representativesâ Homeland Security and Judiciary committees are working to identify âmore accountability stepsâ after the South Shore raid and other combative immigration enforcement operations. She said representatives are considering legislative action and possible litigation related to the raid.
âEveryone has to ask themselves, âWhat are the ways that I can be supporting people in this moment?â And it doesnât look the same,â Ramirez said. âBut one thing we are clear on is that these ICE agents have been emboldened in covering their face[s]. They certainly can do whatever the heck they want with impunity.â
Meeting sought with ICE leader
Ana Guajardo, a community activist who works with immigrants, was at the news conference to push for the release of Laura Morillo, a mom of two who was detained by ICE while selling tamales outside a Home Depot store. She is being held in El Paso, Texas, Guajardo said, leaving her 18-year-old daughter Genesis to care for her younger sister.
âLaura was not a criminal,â Guajardo said. âShe was an entrepreneur, a worker, a mother. She fed her children through sweat and tears working in this country for many years.
âThatâs the message: âFree Laura,ââ she said.
A search for Morillo in Cook County court records returned no results.
Ramirez and U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have requested a meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office Director Russell Hott to discuss oversight of the Broadview processing facility that has become a de facto detention center and the center of anti-ICE protests.
Hott rescheduled the meeting, Ramirez said.
âWe expect that meeting to happen as soon as possible, whether the government is shut down or not,â she said.
ICE wouldnât confirm whether the meeting had been rescheduled and said the public and reporters wouldnât be made aware of any future meetings ahead of time.
âDue to operational security, official meetings are scheduled directly between agencies and not provided to reporters prior to their occurrence,â an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
Also Sunday, dozens of city leaders signed a letter in support of 26th Ward Ald. Jessie Fuentes, who was handcuffed and briefly detained at Humboldt Park Hospital. Video shows Fuentes asking officers for a signed judicial warrant for a man held in custody at the hospital before an agent forces her hands behind her back and handcuffs her.
âShowing a warrant before detention is not optional; itâs a cornerstone of constitutional law,â the letter reads. It was signed by 37 City Council members and Mayor Brandon Johnson, City Clerk Anna Valencia and city Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin. âAnd yet, ICE agents continue to ignore this requirement.â