The Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago on Oct. 4, 2025. Photo: Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Alain Stephens is an investigative reporter covering gun violence, arms trafficking, and federal law enforcement.

Before dawn, federal agents moved on Chicago’s South Shore in camouflage uniforms with rifles drawn, the thrum of chopper rotors breaking the sky. Officially, it was a “ targeted immigration enforcement operation. ” In reality, it looked like a military incursion into a historic Black neighborhood — home to working families, elders, and churches that have held the South Side together for generations. By the end of the night, an entire apartment building was under siege.

U.S citizens and children were zip-tied, families separated, and re

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