![\"Ricardo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/CDFIRHHOTRGVLO67B7EL7FWYH4.jpg\")
Ricardo Mendez filmed a brutal immigration raid\u2014and it cost him his job. Ricardo Mendez <\/p>\nA security guard working at a superstore owned by an ally of Donald Trump was fired after filming a brutal Department of Homeland Security immigration raid in its parking lot.<\/p>\n
Ricardo Mendez was positioned at the door of Menards\u2014a Midwestern chain of home-improvement stores whose billionaire owner, John Menard Jr., is a GOP megadonor\u2014in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, Illinois, when agents deployed by DHS arrived on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Like so many in the city since \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d began in September, Mendez had been \u201con the lookout\u201d since federal immigration officers \u201cstarted taking over,\u201d he told the Daily Beast.<\/p>\n
When he saw the masked officers in unmarked vehicles drive into the lot, Mendez decided to pull out his cameraphone and start recording\u2014\u201cto do my part,\u201d he said\u2014as Illinois governor JB Pritzker has repeatedly asked people.<\/p>\n
Ricardo Mendez filmed a brutal immigration raid\u2014and it cost him his job. Ricardo Mendez <\/p>\n
What came next was brutal, as the Puerto Rican security guard filmed two Border Patrol agents smashing the window of a white Ford pickup with their batons. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe poor guy was surrounded by agents, workers, and customers,\u201d said Mendez, 27, who added that the incident was so dramatic and shocking that other store staff also came out to film.<\/p>\n
![\"Border](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/JRQCTRS4GZDY5BVOG2OJPSHSMY.png\")
Border Patrol officer smashes the window of a car during the detention of a man. After Menards’ security guard Ricardo Mendez filmed it, he was fired. Ricardo Mendez <\/p>\n
The officers then pulled out a Hispanic man before handcuffing him, and bundling him into an unmarked red vehicle.<\/p>\n
After the man was detained, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a separate unmarked blue Chevy Tahoe threatened to tear-gas anyone who intervened, Mendez says, before they all drove out of the lot as one ICE officer can be seen in his video flipping him the bird.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AFRO2M5HW5HNLGID7ZKXELYO5A.png\")
The man detained by Border Patrol during the raid, which saw Ricardo Mendez fired. Ricardo Mendez <\/p>\n
But despite Mendez having done what he believed any good citizen should have, he says a supervisor \u201csent me home\u201d after Mendez objected to his superior\u2019s demands to stop filming and go back to his position at the shop door.<\/p>\n
Mendez, who claims that Menards\u2019 bosses demanded store staff who had filmed the episode delete their footage, was then fired altogether the same day, according to a termination notice obtained by the Beast.<\/p>\n
The letter from security contractor O\u2019Brien & Associates\u2014which provides security staff to Menards\u2014cites \u201cinsubordination\u201d and claims Mendez left his \u201cdesignated post,\u201d argued with an \u201cICE employee,\u201d and \u201calmost [got] pepper-sprayed.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IS42DLBO5JBNDIMOKJ5FVRDNBE.png\")
An ICE agent flips Ricardo Mendez the bird for filming the raid. Ricardo Mendez <\/p>\n
It states that he then returned to the lot twice against instructions, and when sent home, he told his site manager, \u201cMake me.\u201d <\/p>\n
The letter says: \u201cYou are terminated as of Tuesday October 28th, 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Menards'](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3IIGZOX7TNDV7EJL5LTG3KI7OQ.jpg\")
Menards’ security guard Ricardo Mendez received this termination letter from his employer, contractor O’Brien & Associates. Supplied <\/p>\n
Mendez disputes some of what his former company says, claiming managers had previously insisted the lot was private property and off-limits to immigration operations.<\/p>\n
Having worked at the store for two years and now seeking a new job, he was unrepentant. \u201cWould I do it again? Yes, I would,\u201d Mendez said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Menards is owned by John Menard Jr., a long-time Republican donor who has bankrolled conservative causes and worked with Donald Trump to advise on economic reopening in 2020, according to Urban Milwaukee<\/a> and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign<\/a>\u2019s summary of his giving to GOP-aligned groups. Federal contribution records show that Menards-linked donations flow overwhelmingly to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since September, \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d has seen the growth of hard-edged Border Patrol actions in and around Chicago, which have increasingly overshadowed ICE\u2019s presence in the city, as the Trump administration escalates more widespread raids to increase deportation tallies.<\/p>\n![\"Menards](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/MCOEOTD7GNBHTNOYDS65PLUAXY.jpg\")
Menards in Cicero, where the incident took place. Instagram <\/p>\n
![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/CLMA6YWLT5FAVENL4LW7CRREZM.jpg\")
US Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino (C) leaves federal court at Dirksen Federal Building after his hearing in Chicago, Illinois, on October 28, 2025. Bovino was ordered to appear in federal court for violating a temporary restraining order issued by District Judge Sara Ellis that orders immigration enforcement agents to limit use of tear gas and other crowd-suppression items except when there is an imminent threat. KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n