Pertissue Fisher is still recovering from being detained by federal immigration agents who burst into her South Shore apartment building and pulled her and other residents from their beds early Wednesday morning.
An agent put a gun in her face, she said. Another placed her in handcuffs tight enough to leave bruises.
Fisher and other victims of the raid are U.S. citizens, but they were still held for hours.
“I want answers. I have kids, I have grandkids, and if I would have [gotten] killed, who gonna answer for it? Nobody,” said Fisher, 54.
The raid was the latest in a string of aggressive tactics by the feds as part of the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” The continuing raids in the Chicago area have angered local elected officials, including U.S. Reps Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Delia Ramirez, Robin Kelly and Jonathan Jackson, who are now calling for an end to all raids and federal immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.
At a Sunday news conference, the Congress members spoke alongside activists and residents touched by the raids. They urged unity and cooperation among Black residents and immigrants. Many of the residents detained from the South Shore building are Black.
“This is a part of what’s become and will be one of the most shameful periods in American history. But it’s not too late to wake up and to turn it around,” Garcia said. “This isn’t just about immigrants. This is about controlling every one of our communities, Black, Brown, poor, working class.”
Border Patrol, FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents arrested 37 people in the raid, including some who “are believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes and immigration violators,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
On Sunday, large slabs of plywood covered the doors to several units in the building, at 7500 S. South Shore Drive. Broken glass lay on the ground outside the building near busted-out windows. A cardboard sign reading “The fascists who did this have names and addresses” was posted on a fence outside.
The representatives are working to connect displaced families with mutual aid groups and legal and immigration resources, Ramirez said.
Resident Markus Bracey wasn’t detained, but he said he saw agents detain his neighbors. Bracey and nearly 30 others continue to live in the building, he said.
Federal agents “came from the roof, they came from the bottom and they squeezed in so they couldn’t get away,” he said.
“The helicopter was on the roof. Every floor looks like this, or worse,” he said, gesturing to boarded-up units.
Ramirez and other members of the House of Representatives’ Homeland Security and Judiciary committees are working to identify “more accountability steps” following the South Shore raid and other combative immigration enforcement operations. She said representatives are considering legislative action and possible litigation related to the raid.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez speaks to reporters during a press conference outside an apartment complex that federal law enforcement recently raided during Operation Midway Blitz, located at 7500 S. South Shore Dr; in the South Shore neighborhood, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. | Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Time
“Everyone has to ask themselves, ‘What are the ways that I can be supporting people in this moment?’ And it doesn’t look the same,” Ramirez said. “But one thing we are clear on is that these ICE agents have been emboldened in covering their face[s]. They certainly can do whatever the heck they want with impunity.”
Seeking meeting with ICE leader
Ana Guajardo, a community activist who works with immigrants, was at the news conference to push for the release of Laura Morillo, a mom of two who was detained by ICE while selling tamales outside a Home Depot store. She is currently being held in El Paso, Texas, Guajardo said, leaving her 18-year-old daughter Genesis to care for her younger sister.
“Laura was not a criminal,” Guajardo said. “She was an entrepreneur, a worker, a mother. She fed her children through sweat and tears working in this country for many years.”
“That’s the message: ‘Free Laura,’” she said.
A search for Morillo in Cook County court records returned no results.
Ramirez and U.S. Sens.Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have requested a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office director Russell Hott to discuss oversight of the Broadview processing facility that has become a de facto detention center and the center of anti-ICE protests. Hott rescheduled the meeting, Ramirez said.
“We expect that meeting to happen as soon as possible, whether the government is shut down or not,” she said.
ICE didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the meeting.
Also Sunday, dozens of city leaders signed a letter in support of Ald. Jessie Fuentes, who was handcuffed and briefly detained at Humboldt Park Hospital. Video shows Fuentes asking officers for a signed judicial warrant for a man held in custody at the hospital before an agent forces her hands behind her back and handcuffs her.
“Showing a warrant before detention is not optional; it’s a cornerstone of constitutional law,” the letter reads. It was signed by 37 City Council members and Mayor Brandon Johnson, city clerk Anna Valencia and city treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin. “And yet, ICE agents continue to ignore this requirement.”