CHICAGO—Across the United States, from Memphis to Los Angeles to Chicago, cities are bracing under an intensifying wave of federal law enforcement deployments. National Guard troops, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and tactical task forces have flooded urban neighborhoods under the banner of “restoring order.”
In Chicago, that mission turned South Shore into what witnesses describe as a war zone.
In the early hours of October 1, helicopters circled low above 75th Street and South Shore Drive as federal agents in full combat gear stormed a five-story apartment building, detonating flash-bang grenades and forcing frightened families into the street. By sunrise, 37 people—mostly Venezuelan migrants—were in federal custody, and residents said the scene looked “like a war zone.”
“They came in like it was a war,” said Archie Collins, a longtime tenant who was inside the building during the raid, speaking to The Final Call. “You could hear the doors blowing off and people screaming.
Children didn’t have no shoes on, no shirts—just scared. They had helicopters, assault rifles, even rocket launchers pointed at the building. I ain’t never seen nothing like that in my life.”
While federal officials called it part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” South Shore residents called it something else: a siege—swift, violent, and deeply unsettling.
While many Black tenants and neighboring residents condemned the raid’s violence and the trauma it caused, others expressed conflicted feelings—relief that a dangerous situation in the building might finally be addressed, coupled with anger that it took a military-style operation for the government to pay attention.
In a neighborhood once defined by Black homeownership and community pride, the images of federal agents storming apartments symbolized both abandonment and intrusion—a reminder, residents said, of how South Shore is too often ignored.
Once a model of Black upward mobility, many of South Shore’s institutions were gutted by decades of redlining and displacement. Now, its residents say the same government that abandoned them has returned—not with housing funds or job programs, but with flash-bang grenades.
“We love our people, but we’ve been living next to folks we can’t communicate with,” said a resident who identified himself by his street name. “Ain’t nobody come down here when it was us. They only show up now that ICE hit the building.
This used to be a Black community—Black businesses, Black schools. They closed our schools, gave away our buildings, and moved new people in. We’re tired of being left out.”
Faith leaders call for unity and prayer amid chaos
As The Final Call interviewed tenants and neighbors, faith leaders and activists arrived unannounced to pray and assess conditions. Among them were Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church, Rev. Ciara Taylor, Rami Nashashibi of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), and Dr. Alli Muhammad, who was already on site helping to organize a community coalition.
Standing before the building, the faith leaders formed a circle of prayer.
“Prayer must always lead to struggle,” Rev. Taylor said. “If they can spend hundreds of millions on helicopters and armored vehicles for one night, they can invest in schools, housing, and peace.”
“Your family is my family,” Father Pfleger added. “We have to stand together against systems that profit from our pain.”
The clergy announced plans for a citywide day of fasting and prayer “for truth, healing, and accountability.”
Their visit reflected a familiar pattern in Black Chicago history—faith meeting fear, and faith leading resistance. It also echoed the warnings and guidance of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has for decades cautioned that the United States government would one day turn its militarized power inward, targeting poor and Black communities under the guise of restoring order.
During his Saviours’ Day 2017 address, Minister Minister Farrakhan issued a direct warning:
“I told you that the army was coming. I told you to get your act together and clean up your act, because they’re coming with a mind to slaughter us. Have I not said it for three decades? I have been warning you about the government of America planning a war—not only with Muslims overseas, but with Black people and the Nation of Islam in America?”
In that same address, Minister Farrakhan warned then-President Donald Trump directly:
“You can come, bring your army, but if you slaughter my little young brothers, watch what God will do for you, Mr. Trump. America will never be made great again.”
Yet, the Minister’s message has always carried a call to self-accountability within the Black community. Speaking years earlier in 2007 in a message marking the occasion of the 12th Anniversary of the Historic Million Man March, delivered from the Atlanta Civic Center on October 16, 2007, he said:
“On any given Saturday night, we are busy killing each other. You make it easy for racist police to kill you because you are busy killing yourself.”
Minister Farrakhan’s message was clear—divine retribution for America’s sins is inevitable, but so is the need for moral discipline and unity among Black people, which is necessary to avoid being caught up in that retribution. “We must respect and protect the life of one another, our women, and our girls,” he urged. “If we do not, we give our enemies reason to destroy us.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) on an appearance on the political podcast “Here’s Why,” cautioned that Black Americans should not dismiss the implications of the ICE operations. “They are rounding up U.S. citizens,”
She said in remarks also reported by Shine My Crown. “If you allow them to do illegal things to non-citizens, at some point in time, they are going to actually round us up too. We are all in the same sinking ship right now.”
Over the past several months, the president has either authorized or threatened to authorize deployments of federal troops to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New Orleans, Memphis and Portland, Oregon. Lawsuits have been filed on local and state levels to try to put a halt to his actions.
‘They treated civilians like combatants’
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the raid was part of Operation Midway Blitz, a Chicago-area enforcement surge. Officials claimed those arrested were suspected of drug or weapons offenses and alleged links to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, though no individual charges have been made public.
However, subsequent news reports paint a broader—and more troubling—picture. According to local broadcast journalists, similar predawn raids occurred in Bronzeville, where federal agents stormed a local homeless shelter, detaining at least four residents.
Shelter staff said they were never warned and described the scene as “chaotic and traumatizing.” Advocates note that the South Shore and Bronzeville raids appear linked, forming part of a broader federal sweep across the city.
In a DHS press release dated October 1, officials said the blitz was part of a statewide operation that resulted in “more than 800 illegal aliens—including the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens—arrested.” The statement portrayed the effort as a necessary campaign to “restore public safety” and remove “violent offenders” from sanctuary jurisdictions.
Yet multiple civil-liberties organizations and local clergy told The Final Call that many of those detained were ordinary migrants or longtime residents with no criminal record. A report from The Daily Beast even cited cases of U.S. citizens wrongfully detained, raising questions about the scope and legality of the raids.
Dr. Alli Muhammad, a resident, said the assault traumatized the entire neighborhood.
“My building was shaking,” Dr. Muhammad told The Final Call. “A Black Hawk helicopter, then flash bangs—boom, boom, boom—from top to bottom of the building. Children were zip-tied. Black children, Latino children. They treated the people as enemy combatants.”
He said he saw uniformed soldiers with military-issue weapons surrounding the area. “These were not ordinary police or ICE,” he said. “They were U.S. soldiers—real soldiers—and the sight of rocket launchers and armored trucks in a neighborhood like this tells you everything about how our government views poor people.”
President’s deployment deepens alarm
Days after the raid, the White House confirmed that President Trump had authorized the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago in coordination with federal agencies.
“Amid ongoing violent riots and lawlessness in Chicago, the president will not turn a blind eye,” said a White House announcement, adding that “the federal government will restore order where local leadership has failed,” according to multiple news reports on October 4.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called the order “outrageous and un-American.” Alderperson Maria Hadden (49th Ward) said the growing militarization of immigrant and Black neighborhoods resembled “urban-warfare training masquerading as public safety.”
On October 6, Illinois and the City of Chicago filed a lawsuit to block President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops, arguing the move is illegal and unconstitutional.
At presstime, it was reported that a federal appeals court ruled that the National Guard troops in Illinois can be federalized by the president but he cannot deploy or dispatch them. The White House spokesperson stated that an appeal will be filed.
The Trump administration has publicly spoken about considering invoking the Insurrection Act to dispatch troops to states, which allows the president to dispatch military troops inside the country to act as law enforcement to stop an “insurrection.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson also signed an executive order declaring Chicago an “ICE-Free Zone,” barring federal use of city-owned property for immigration operations.
“We will not tolerate ICE agents violating our residents’ constitutional rights nor allow the federal government to disregard our local authority,” Mayor Johnson said. “With this Executive Order, Chicago stands firm in protecting the rights of our residents and immigrant communities while upholding our democracy.”
Community organizing: ‘The people are mobilizing, not retreating’
Leading up to Final Call presstime, community groups across Chicago were mobilizing under the banner of unity and self-defense.
On October 8, the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA)—a broad alliance including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Chicago Teachers Union, and other groups—led thousands on a downtown rally and march to protest the National Guard’s presence.
“Trump is violating the law,” said Frank Chapman of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “He has no constitutional right to do what he’s doing. This is an illegal military occupation of our community, and we have an inalienable democratic right to resist it.”