A growing number of lawsuits stemming from the crackdown are winding through the courts. Authorities are investigating agents\u2019 actions, including a fatal shooting. Activists say they are not letting their guard down in case things ramp up again, while many residents in the Democratic stronghold where few welcomed<\/a> the crackdown remain anxious<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel a sense of paranoia over when they might be back,\u201d said Santani Silva, an employee at a vintage store in the predominantly Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen. \u201cPeople are still afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n Intensity slows, but arrests continue<\/p>\n For more than two months, the Chicago area was the focus of an aggressive operation<\/a> led by Gregory Bovino<\/a>, a Border Patrol commander behind similar efforts in Los Angeles and soon Louisiana.<\/a><\/p>\n Armed and masked agents used unmarked SUVs and helicopters throughout the city of 2.7 million and its suburbs to target suspected criminals and immigration violators. Arrests often led to intense standoffs with bystanders, from wealthy neighborhoods to working-class suburbs.<\/p>\n While the intensity has died down in the week since Bovino left, reports of arrests still pop up. Activists tracking immigration agents said they confirmed 142 daily sightings at the height of the operation last month. The number is now roughly six a day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not over,\u201d said Brandon Lee with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. \u201cI don\u2019t think it will be over.\u201d<\/p>\n Suburb under siege<\/p>\n Bearing the brunt of the operation has been Broadview, a Chicago suburb of roughly 8,000 people that has housed a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center<\/a> for years.<\/p>\n Protests outside the facility have grown increasingly tense<\/a> as federal agents used chemical agents that area neighbors felt. Broadview police also launched three criminal investigations into federal agents\u2019 tactics.<\/p>\n Community leaders took the unusual step of declaring a civil emergency last week, after Bovino left the area, and moving public meetings online.<\/p>\n Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson said the community has faced bomb threats, death threats and violent protests because of the crackdown.<\/p>\n \u201cI will not allow threats of violence or intimidation to disrupt the essential functions of our government,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n Questionable arrests and detentions <\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has touted more than 3,000 arrests, but the agency has provided details on only a few cases where immigrants without legal permission to live in the country also had a criminal history.<\/p>\n The Trump administration takes to social media to post photos of supposed violent criminals apprehended in immigration operations, but the federal government\u2019s own data paints a different picture. <\/p>\n Of 614 immigrants arrested and detained in recent months around Chicago, only 16, less than 3%, had criminal records representing a \u201chigh public safety risk,\u201d according to federal government data submitted to the court as part of a 2022 consent decree<\/a> about ICE arrests. Those records included domestic battery and drunken driving.<\/p>\n A judge in the cases said hundreds of immigrant detainees qualify to be released on bond, though an appeals court has paused their release. Attorneys say many more cases will follow as they get details from the government about arrests.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of this has quite added up,\u201d said Ed Yohnka with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which has been involved in several lawsuits. \u201cWhat was this all about? What did this serve? What did any of this do?\u201d<\/p>\n Investigations and lawsuits <\/p>\n The number of lawsuits triggered by the crackdown is growing, including on agents\u2019 use of force<\/a> and conditions<\/a> at the Broadview center. In recent days, clergy members filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging they were being blocked from ministering inside a facility.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors have also repeatedly dropped<\/a> charges against protesters and other bystanders, including dismissing charges<\/a> against a woman who was shot several times by a Border Patrol agent last month.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, federal agents are also under investigation in connection with the death of a suburban man fatally shot<\/a> by ICE agents during a traffic stop. Mexico\u2019s president has called for a thorough investigation, while ICE has said it did not use excessive force. <\/p>\n
\n Follow on
\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n