ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\nRing camera video captured both a tenant and homeowner Leo Feler repeatedly telling agents to leave.<\/p>\n
“You do not have a warrant. You do not have a warrant to be on our property,” one resident said.<\/p>\n
“You have no permission to be on my property,” another resident said. “ICE, you are not allowed on my property. Get off my property. This is private property.”<\/p>\n
Feler said there was no justification for the operation.<\/p>\n
“There was no reason for this raid to be happening. There was nothing illegal that had been happening on my property. It was just workers doing construction,” he said.<\/p>\n
Feler said he watched the incident unfold in real time through his Ring cameras. His lawsuit alleges immigration officers moved throughout the home, causing tens of thousands of dollars in property damage.<\/p>\n
Body-worn camera footage from the incident shows agents entering the home and eventually taking one man into custody.<\/p>\n
Attorneys with the Institute for Justice, which is representing Feler, argue the agents’ actions violated the Constitution.<\/p>\n
“Hiring construction workers to renovate your house is not an invitation to raid it,” attorney Dylan Moore said. “Make no mistake, this warrantless raid was a search and it was unconstitutional.”<\/p>\n
The incident drew neighbors into the street, with residents gathering in support of Feler and the construction workers. Body-worn camera footage captured agents discussing the use of gas.<\/p>\n
“Throw it for fun. Can I pop a gas? Gas coming out, gas coming out,” one agent said.<\/p>\n
The man who was taken into custody did not have a criminal record and was released three weeks later.<\/p>\n
Feler said he unsuccessfully attempted to file police reports about the incident.<\/p>\n
“I got a call from the central district saying they weren’t going to investigate. That they were unable, they had been told not to investigate,” he said.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit seeks compensation for the damage allegedly caused to the property. Feler’s attorneys said the case is also about government accountability.<\/p>\n
“We cannot rely on other governments, certainly not the federal government itself to be responsible to hold itself accountable. We have to hold the government accountable,” said Patrick Jaicomo, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice.<\/p>\n
Neither the Department of Justice nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment. The federal government has 21 days to answer the complaint or move to dismiss it.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — A Lakeview homeowner has filed a lawsuit against the federal government over an October immigration…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":966308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[388224,960,106792,5462,5386,1818,1808,175465,388223],"class_list":["post-966307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-388224","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-immigration","tag-chicago-news","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-immigration-raid","tag-lakeview-chicago","tag-leo-feler"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117002073982811424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966307","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=966307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}