ICE capades: the roundup
PWS weekly on the ghoulish acts, dastardly deeds, and unseemly actions of the country's now-biggest LEO
‘Operation Midway Blitz’ Detains US citizens: Children and Senior Citizens left cuffed for hours
Federal Agents conducted a 2 a.m. raid of a 130-unit apartment building on Tuesday, pulling US citizens from their beds and zip-tying them for hours, according to residents.
Without warrants, they detained women and children, leaving them zip-tied in freezing vans for hours, one senior citizen who lived in the building told Chicago media org Book Club Chicago.
“They didn’t tell me why I was being detained,” Rodrick Johnson, a US citizen, said. “They left people’s doors open, firearms, money, whatever, right there in the open.”
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said agents arrested 37 people in the raid on the building, which they claim was frequented by Venezuelan Gang the “Tren de Aragua.”
Residents’ homes were destroyed, doors kicked in, windows broken, and belongings destroyed. Other residents reported that their belongings were stolen while they were detained after federal agents left the apartments in a state of easy access.
“ICE really just a gang,” one resident told Chicago Book Club. He explained that he had been friends with many of the Venezuelans in the building. “They were cool people,” he said. “We took it upon ourselves to at least keep it clean over here.”
The raid was broadcast by NewsNation, who was invited along to document it, and included federal agents who rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters onto the roof the building.
Governor of Illinois JB Pritzker said his office received numerous confirmed reports of ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers “abusing their power,” intimidating innocent people, and “waging war on local neighborhoods.”
DHS posted footage of the raid to their social media on Wednesday, saying, “To every criminal illegal alien: Darkness is no longer your ally. We will find you.”
ICE/CBP detention numbers reach an all-time high
Recent public ICE reports reveal that 61,226 people were detained on August 23, 2025. The number of people in detention has never reached this level before, even for a single day, in 16 years of recorded data.
In addition, the majority of those now in ICE/CBP data have no criminal record, another milestone for the organizations.
A US-born citizen arrested twice by ICE has filed a class-action lawsuit against migration authorities
Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen, Leo Garcia Venegas, says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks, despite carrying a REAL ID. In both cases, agents claimed his identification was fake and accused Venegas of lying.
He is a lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday, which also represents other US citizens detained by migration officials. Lawyers from public interest law firm Institute for Justice, representing plaintiffs, demand an end to what the firm calls “unconstitutional and illegal immigration enforcement tactics” by the Trump administration.
DHS doesn’t seem to know what the Statue of Liberty stands for
A series of posts by DHS social media accounts have featured AI-generated images of the Statue of Liberty created in the style of 20th-century anti-migrant propaganda. The posts have targeted “globalists”, “foreign infiltrators”, “communists”, and “those who would attack our culture.”
They have also used the phrase “America for Americans”, a term which was popularized by the Klu Klux Klan.
The Statue of Liberty was gifted to the US as an homage to their policy of accepting migrants from around the world, a cornerstone of how the US was constructed.
The Round-up:
At least five people face federal felony charges related to protests at the Broadview ICE Facility in Chicago.
The Trump administration’s policy of arresting and trying to deport international students for protesting in support of the Palestinians is blatant and illegal suppression of free speech, a Boston federal judge ruled Tuesday.
A second migrant has died after succumbing to wounds sustained at an ICE facility near Dallas. Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, who had not previously been named, had lived in the US for two decades. This is his photo:
Hundreds of protesters have surrounded ICE facilities in Portland after Trump announced plans to deploy National Guard there in an operation similar to those in Washington DC and Chicago. Federal Officers have been accused of “instigating” clashes with those protesting.
Department of Homeland Security adviser Corey Lewandowski on Wednesday fumed over Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny’s headlining of the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, threatening migrants who may attend.
“We will find you,” he said. “We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you. So know that that is a very real situation under this administration, which is completely contrary to how it used to be.”
Immigration agents have arrested the superintendent of the largest school district in the US state of Iowa, accusing him of overstaying his student visa.
ICE Chilling Photo of the Week:
Amanda Moore, posted this photo of federal officers threatening protesters at the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago. You can find the details at her Substack “The Turtle Diaries” (
).Photographer: Pierre Lavie
You can also donate a one-time gift via “Buy Me a Coffee”. It only takes a few moments, and you can do so here.
And if you can’t do any of that, please do help us by sharing the piece! We don’t have billionaire PR teams either.
Hasta pronto, piratas