A Black man was at his Chicago home when he heard an unexpected knock on his front door. It was around 10:30 p.m. on a typical Monday in September, but no one could’ve expected the trauma he would soon live through.
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The unnamed man spoke to journalist Don Lemon after he allegedly had a run-in with ICE agents in the city. President Donald Trump has been revving up National Guard troops and immigration officers across the country. Chicago is one of the latest cities on Trump’s hit list.
The man knew about the rising Guard presence, but as a Black man and American citizen, he told Lemon he didn’t expected his treatment by the Guard to be worse than his time at the infamous Cook County Jail in Chicago.
“When I looked through the window, I could see people in [Army] uniform,” he said. That’s when he opened his front door to absolute chaos.
“They pushed their way in,” he continued, referring to the Guard officers, who allegedly told the man, “We want you to come with us.” The Black man tried to tell the officers that they were detaining the wrong person, but it didn’t work. “And I was told to shut up and just follow instructions,” he recalled. The man did exactly that.
Before being escorted out of his home, he allegedly grabbed his backpack, which conveniently held his birth certificate and state ID. The officers allegedly secured him with zip ties and put him in the back of a Budget rental truck. The man recalled at least 40 people already detained and placed inside the vehicle by the time he was taken. Then, they drove to the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago, where the man again tried to reason with the officers.
“You got the wrong person. I’m a U.S. citizen,” he allegedly told the troops. And again, he was told to “shut up.” He said the officers refused to see any evidence validating his citizenship, including the documents in his backpack. “They didn’t want to see nothing,” he told Lemon. “They’re not checking IDs.”
The Trump administration previously ensured that agents would follow proper protocol, including checking people’s IDs before making an arrest. Still, Guard and ICE agents have been repeatedly accused of racial profiling and “kidnapping” people without proper cause.
Even John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director, told POLITICO he’s never seen agents act this way. “All of this is unprecedented… I don’t think we’ve ever seen a nationwide immigration enforcement effort like this,” he said.
The Chicago man continued that the arresting agents were actually meant to target another building. “I couldn’t understand why they were at my building,” he said, adding that his home was located a block from the intended target. Eventually, the man was let go with basically no record of eight hours he spent inside the facility. “They just said ‘You can go,’” he told the journalist.
Neither ICE officials nor the Trump administration has responded to the man’s claims. “I think the whole thing is crazy,” the Chicago man said. “I think things are gonna get worse before they get better.”
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