Discussion
Rodrick Johnson, 67, is one of many residents who were detained by federal agents during the raid. A #US #citizen, he said agents broke through his door & dragged him out in zip ties.
Johnson said he was left #TiedUp outside the building for nearly 3 hours before agents finally let him go.
“I asked [agents] why they were holding me if I was an American citizen, & they said I had to wait until they looked me up. I asked if they had a #warrant, & I asked for a #lawyer. They never brought one.”
In the South Shore raid, neighbors said federal agents used #flashbang #grenades to burst through the building & several #drones & helicopters were deployed.
Ebony Sweets Watson, who lives across the street, said it “looked like hundreds” of agents were outside her front door.
Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including #kids, out of the
building without any clothes on & into U-Haul vans. Kids were #separated from their mothers, she said.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Watson. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing #kids coming out buck #naked & taken from their #mothers, it was horrible.”
Watson said she went into the building to help one of the residents & was shocked by what she saw.
“Stuff was everywhere,” said Watson. “You could see people’s #BirthCertificates, & papers thrown all over. Water was leaking into the hallway. It was wicked crazy.”
#Trump #law #immigration #FamilySeparation #HumanRights #Gestapo
Jones, who lives on the 4th floor, said most of his neighbors were #Venezuelan & often took turns cleaning the hallway because the property owners did little to maintain it.
“They were cool people,” Jones said as he looked into his next door neighbor’s unit. “They didn’t speak a lick of English, but we used translator apps to talk to each other.”
Jones wondered what would happen to his neighbor’s young #children.
#Trump #law #immigration #FamilySeparation #HumanRights #DueProcess #tyranny
Brandon Lee, spox for the #Illinois Coalition for #Immigrant & #Refugee Rights, said the group was working to identify those taken in the raid.
“It was a #violent show of force in the middle of the night,” Lee said. “Taking #families out of an apartment building in a residential neighborhood like that is harmful, is #traumatic, & that is not something that people can easily recover from, whether they themselves were taken or whether they witnessed it.”
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