{"id":420815,"date":"2025-12-03T02:21:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T02:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/420815\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T02:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T02:21:23","slug":"residents-of-chicago-building-raided-by-ice-now-forced-to-vacate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/420815\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents of Chicago building raided by ICE now forced to vacate"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a freezing Tuesday morning after Chicago\u2019s snowiest November day on record, residents of a building that made international headlines after a federal immigration raid earlier this year decried a recent court-ordered mandate to vacate their homes at 7500 South Shore Drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The five-story apartment building with its decrepit infrastructure and scarce electricity was the site of a late-night raid in September that was among the most infamous moments in President Donald Trump\u2019s Operation Midway Blitz<\/a>. Now its residents, who last month formed the South Shore Tenants Union, face the possibility of being thrown out of their homes within days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Circuit Court of Cook County granted an order on Nov. 24 from Wells Fargo Bank to have residents at 7500 S. Shore Drive to vacate by Dec. 5 for those with valid leases and all other occupants were instructed to leave by Dec. 12 of this year.<\/p>\n

The South Shore Tenants Union, supported by the Metropolitan Tenants Organization and Southside Together, said they were blindsided by the court order, which was granted without tenant input and leaves members \u201cscrambling to find housing in bitterly cold weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my community and I should not be forced out especially at a time like this when it\u2019s literally freezing outside,\u201d said Travaris Ivy.<\/p>\n

The two-year resident said he saw the note ordering residents to vacate posted on the wall the day before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

\"WorkersWorkers from DAWGS Vacant Property Security bring metal sheets to board up windows while a 7500 South Shore Tenants Union news conference takes place in front of the apartment building in Chicago on Dec. 2, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Ivy\u2019s apartment had no electricity since around mid-November and the food in his fridge was rotting, he told the Tribune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still don\u2019t got no heat, no electricity, my light is out, I have to stay with relatives just because it\u2019s too cold for me to stay here,\u201d Ivy said at the news conference.<\/p>\n

Ivy said he had not been offered any relocation assistance to date.<\/p>\n

The union is asking for $7,500 in relocation assistance provided 30 days before the scheduled moveout and paid by the building\u2019s management firm Friedman Communities, the city of Chicago, Cook County or the state of Illinois.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The union also asked Friedman Communities to take immediate steps to repair the building\u2019s heat, electricity, elevator and sewage, among other maintenance, as well as hire 24-hour security.<\/p>\n

According to the union, the building has 37 known occupants and several wheelchair users are unable to move since the elevators don\u2019t work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether the judge thinks the building is safe or not, it\u2019s less safe for people to be homeless in the snow on the holidays,\u201d said Jonah Karsh, a housing organizer.<\/p>\n

Friedman Communities was recently appointed manager of the apartment building, after a legal dispute between lender Wells Fargo and Trinity Flood<\/a>, the owner of the building property, and the city had proposed a moveout by Dec. 12, according to earlier Tribune reporting.<\/p>\n

\"AA cat sits on a chair in an open apartment unit with garbage on the floor in the 7500 S. South Shore Drive apartment building in Chicago on Dec. 2, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

A note posted on the building wall stated that representatives from Friedman Real Estate Management would be at the property answering questions and providing additional moveout and relocation support between Dec. 1 and Dec. 5.<\/p>\n

Asked about the tenants\u2019 demands Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson said his administration \u201chas been working with these tenants for some time.\u201d He added that the city would find \u201cdignified housing\u201d for residents using Chicago Housing Authority vouchers and keep residents safe before the moveout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy administration is working overtime with the organizers of these tenants to ensure that they have a place of comfort and a place that they can afford and feel good about,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson did not take a clear stance on the Dec. 12 deadline. Instead, he promised to \u201cwork with expediency\u201d to relocate residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s an opportunity to work with the court to provide maximum time for comfort and placement, of course, we\u2019ll explore that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Inside the 130-unit apartment building a dog and a cat roamed the complex moving through half open doors and pools of water on the hallway floors. These same floors were trampled by immigration agents on Sept. 30 when the South Shore apartment building became the center of a militarized raid that left many residents traumatized.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That day, agents smashed windows, broke down doors and zip-tied the hands of residents in a controversial middle-of-the night operation. The federal government said it was searching for Tren de Aragua gang members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DAWGSDAWGS Vacant Property Security doors lean against the hallway wall in standing water on the first floor of the 7500 S. South Shore Drive apartment building in Chicago on Dec. 2, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

A federal judge has ordered the release of at least six Venezuelans arrested that night amid allegations that their detainment violated a consent degree limiting warrantless detainments. Those six individuals have little to no criminal history<\/a> and no apparent ties to any gang. They remain in custody pending the federal government\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

The Tribune reported exclusively in October that no public criminal charges have been filed against anyone in connection with the raid.<\/p>\n

Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday called the building\u2019s raid \u201cabominable\u201d but said supporting the tenants was a city issue, as opposed to a state one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a local endeavor that has obviously state importance and national importance in some ways, and so we\u2019ll continue to monitor that and be responsive to the city as it needs assistance in helping those tenants,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cThe tenants of that building are deserving of attention for the concerns that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the snow on Tuesday, shivering unionizers and residents, some wrapped in blankets, interrupted each other and chanted \u201cThat ain\u2019t right!\u201d in show of support. Meanwhile, a truck with the logo Dawgs Vacant Property Security, a firm that provides door and window guards for vacant property, unloaded what appeared to be a white board and took it into the building.<\/p>\n

\"ResidentResident Samantha Stamps cries during a news conference with the 7500 South Shore Tenants Union in front of the apartment building in Chicago on Dec. 2, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Resident Samantha Stamps wept.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never been through nothing like this in my life,\u201d Stamps said between tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is bad,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t even have my grandkids over and they was here with me every weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago Tribune\u2019s Olivia Olander and Jake Sheridan contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a freezing Tuesday morning after Chicago\u2019s snowiest November day on record, residents of a building that made…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":420816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[20174,69509,140728,960,69,5410,106786,5386,1818,409,19409,12084,7090,112100,121074,7093],"class_list":{"0":"post-420815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-brandon-johnson","9":"tag-broadview","10":"tag-broadview-ice","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-ice","14":"tag-ice-in-chicago","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-illinois","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-immigration-raids","19":"tag-jb-pritzker","20":"tag-national-guard","21":"tag-national-guard-in-chicago","22":"tag-operation-midway-blitz","23":"tag-raids"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115653253616052412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}