CHICAGO – Federal agents rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters. Dozens of others, their faces hidden behind masks, arrived in moving trucks. In total, 300 officers stormed a South Side apartment building that Department of Homeland Security officials say harbored criminals.

An agency spokesperson said the raid in the early hours of Sept. 30 was aimed at capturing members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang President Donald Trump has designated as a terrorist organization. Hundreds of agents swarmed apartments in the multi-story building, detaining several American citizens, including children, for hours and netting 37 total arrests. The outcome of those arrests remains unclear.

The extraordinary raid came nearly a month into the White House’s immigration enforcement crackdown in the Chicago area, known as Operation Midway Blitz. Federal officials said it has netted more than 800 arrests since Sept. 8.

“Our continued targeted enforcement in Chicago shows criminals have nowhere to hide,” Michael Banks, the chief of U.S. Border Patrol, said in an X post. “Not at the border, not in our cities.”

Overnight apartment building raid

The Trump administration has vowed to flood cities run by Democrats with federal agents as part of a nationwide immigration crackdown. Federal officials have targeted so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

The Chicago Sun-Times and NewsNation were among the first to report on the raid in the city’s South Shore neighborhood. The historically Black area gained a sizable Venezuelan population after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused tens of thousands of migrants from the border to the Democratic city in 2023. Many moved to the neighborhood after first being placed in city-run shelters in the area.

Videos of the raid shared online by the Department of Homeland Security show Border Patrol agents with guns drawn approaching the building in the middle of the night. Agents led shirtless men outside.

The raid saw dozens arrested and the building left in shambles, according to photos shared with USA TODAY. Two "confirmed Tren de Aragua members" were captured, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement.

"Federal law enforcement officers will not stand by and allow criminal activity to flourish in our American neighborhoods," Homeland Security said in a statement. Among others captured, according to the agency, were a "suspected" Tren de Aragua member; six people with a criminal history ranging from aggravated battery to possession of marijuana; and two people "suspected of being involved in a shooting investigation."

An American citizen with a local arrest warrant, and four U.S. citizen children of immigrants were also caught up in the raid, Homeland Security reported. The children were taken into custody to be "put in the care of a safe guardian or the state," the agency said.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported people were taken outside while still naked; NewsNation reported from the Black Hawk helicopters at the scene.

Videos from the scene taken at about 2 a.m. and shared with USA TODAY show masked agents arriving in the back of Budget and U-Haul moving vans carrying military-style rifles.

Detained immigrants were shown held in a parking lot and across the street a woman crying calls out in broken Spanish, "I’ll always love you."

Federal law enforcement agencies including DHS, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection would not say if the Black Hawks used in the raid were from the U.S. Army, National Guard, or a non-military department.

Arrests create widespread fear

Out of more than 800 people arrested during the last month in the Illinois operations, it’s unclear how many actually had criminal convictions or pending charges, versus those with no criminal record, including children.

An Oct. 1 DHS news release included mugshots of more than a dozen migrants from Eastern Europe and Latin America who had been arrested because of previous criminal convictions.

One Venezuelan woman was listed as the only alleged Tren de Aragua gang member. The Trump administration has focused on the Venezuelan gang despite little evidence of widespread presence in Chicago or the United States more broadly.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said federal agents have failed to focus on violent criminals. Instead, he said in an Oct. 3 social media post, the operations have created panic by scaring residents, violating due process rights and detaining citizens.

“Illinois is not a photo opportunity or warzone,” he said, “it’s a sovereign state where our people deserve rights, respect, and answers.”

Other large-scale ICE raids

In other large-scale operations, federal agents have mostly detained people with no criminal records.

Highly publicized raids across Southern California in June showed most people arrested had no criminal histories. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data showed that, out of over 2,000 people arrested that month, more than two-thirds had no criminal convictions, and over half had never been charged with a crime, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A July raid of a cannabis farm in Camarillo, California, found only four of the 361 people arrested had existing criminal convictions, as the Ventura County Star, part of the USA TODAY Network found.

In September, federal officials led a large worksite raid of a Hyundai battery plant under construction in Georgia. Agents arrested about 475 people, including more than 300 South Koreans, many of whom who were here on visas allowing them to train American workers.

About 71.5% of nearly 60,000 people currently in ICE detention have no criminal convictions, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group at Syracuse University.

(This story has been updated with new information.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 800 arrests amid Chicago immigration 'blitz' of helicopters and midnight raids

Reporting by Michael Loria and Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect