Michael Macher in Phenomenal World:
On September 30, hundreds of federal law enforcement officers raided a 130-unit apartment complex in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. After rappelling from a Black Hawk helicopter, rifle-wielding agents hurled stun grenades, kicked down doors and dragged residents out of their apartments, zip-tying and detaining some of them for hours. The operation, ostensibly targeting an alleged stronghold of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, resulted in thirty-seven arrests of mostly Venezuelan immigrants. Dramatic footage was posted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on social media alongside the ominous caption: “To every criminal illegal alien: Darkness is no longer your alley. We will find you.” DHS later conceded that only two of those arrested actually belonged to any gang.
The South Shore raid is a microcosm of the new regime imposed by immigration hardliners at the DHS, the Justice Department, and the White House. Communities targeted by this enforcement blitz are familiar with its hallmarks, from indiscriminate force to the abandonment of due process, vacuous claims of criminality to theatrical violence. The fallout of such tactics is well-documented: a veteran attacked and dragged into a Portland ICE field office; Congressional Candidate Kat Abughazaleh thrown to the ground outside an immigration processing facility in Chicago; a Mexican national fatally shot while driving away from ICE agents; a 79-year-old man body-slammed by Border Patrol agents; NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka arrested by ICE agents under false pretenses. And now, the brutal killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, followed by the Trump administration’s attempts to smear her as a “domestic terrorist.”
ICE’s crackdowns and shock-and-awe operations are being carried out alongside more routine sweeps, in which facial recognition algorithms and the whims of street-level agents—rather than legal status, identification documents, or judicial process—increasingly decide who is detained and deported. With public opposition to the agency reaching fever pitch in many cities, it is worth pausing to ask whether this terrifying spectacle represents something genuinely new.
More here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.