A legal advocacy group has called on Illinois officials to initiate criminal investigations into the actions of federal agents deployed in Chicago under President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” Free Speech For People, a national pro-democracy nonprofit, urged state Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, and Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to examine what it describes as an “escalating pattern of criminal activity” by federal law enforcement over the past two months.
The operation, launched in early September, has reportedly led to the arrest of more than 1,500 individuals, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The group highlighted several incidents involving agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which it described as “military-style operations” conducted across the Chicago area.
In one case, federal agents shot two Chicago residents—Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, a 38-year-old Mexican father of two, and Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old anti-ICE protester and U.S. citizen. Both were accused by the Department of Homeland Security of ramming their vehicles into officers, though body camera footage later cast doubt on these claims. In another incident, agents rappelled from military helicopters to conduct an overnight raid on a South Shore apartment building, where they broke down doors, smashed belongings, and detained dozens of residents, including children, in U-Haul vans.
The letter also details allegations of racial profiling. It references comments by Gregory Bovino, the commander of the border patrol operation in Chicago, who reportedly suggested that people were being detained based on “how they look,” implying that a white reporter would be less likely to face arrest. In one instance, a 44-year-old Latina U.S. citizen, Maria Greeley, was detained at her workplace and held with zip ties for an hour after officers claimed her passport was “fake” because she “doesn’t look like” her last name was Greeley.
The group reported that federal agents have also attacked individuals for protesting or attempting to document ICE raids. At the Broadview ICE detention facility, where hundreds of detainees are reportedly held in poor conditions, protesters have faced violence. Pastor David Black was shot in the head with a pepper ball while praying outside the facility. Following statements from Kristi Noem, who said she and Trump were “sick” of how protesters were speaking about law enforcement, Bovino led a force that fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators and journalists in a designated free speech area.
Other cases include the arrest of Alderwoman Jessie Fuentes, a Puerto Rican official, who was handcuffed after questioning whether officers had a warrant for a man they were attempting to detain in a hospital emergency room. In another incident, officers breached a cemetery gate to detain two U.S. citizens who were filming their activities, an act protected under the First Amendment.
“These are not law-enforcement operations; they are acts of political violence,” said Courtney Hostetler, the group’s legal director. She accused President Trump and his agents of using federal power to kidnap residents, terrorize communities, and suppress First Amendment rights. “State officials have both the power and the duty to act.”
While the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution limits the ability of states to interfere with federal law enforcement, Ben Clements, the group’s chairman and senior legal adviser, emphasized that “federal agents do not have a license to commit crimes.” The group noted that Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills has already initiated three criminal investigations into ICE officers for false 911 calls, striking protesters with vehicles, and shooting a pepper ball at a CBS News Chicago reporter.
“When federal officials become the perpetrators of violence and illegality, it falls to the states to defend the rule of law,” said Ben Horton, counsel at Free Speech For People. “Illinois must not wait for and, with this lawless administration, cannot rely on Washington to police itself.”
The group argued that criminal liability should extend not only to individual agents but also to Trump and his senior officials who ordered aggressive immigration enforcement. “The brutality and illegality of these operations are a feature, not a bug,” the letter stated. “They are designed to crush dissent and spread fear among President Trump’s perceived political enemies and marginalized communities.”
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