With the anticipated arrival of the National Guard and more United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Chicago over the weekend, one West Side neighborhood has reportedly already seen ICE agents take residents from a building in South Austin.
According to CBS News, a landlord said that, on Aug. 24, six people were taken from an apartment building on Jackson Boulevard that she owns. She told CBS that at least one resident was taken to an ICE detention facility in Broadview.
“My tenant called me very scared. He said that ‘Police are trying to break into our house,'” property owner Arminda Castelin told CBS Chicago. “When I came on Monday, I see these doors — they break these doors.”
Castelin told CBS that most of the six residents whom ICE took were fathers and husbands, and many of the rest of the building’s tenants fled after the raid. She added that, before tenants signed leases, she checked their IDs and documents to ensure they are legal U.S. residents.
Chicago police confirmed the presence of U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents on the West Side, CBS reported.
Anyone who wants to enter a residence needs a warrant, even if they identify themselves as police rather than ICE. The warrant should be signed by a judge, not an ICE agent, and residents should request that the warrant is slid under the door, instead of opening it. Residents have the right to deny entry and, if they are detained, remain silent or demand to speak with an attorney.
