WICKER PARK — Federal agents stopped people at random, detaining at least two, while wandering the streets of West Town and Wicker Park on Friday morning.
Agents in two cars wound through the neighborhood for at least 45 minutes, pulling over drivers and stopping people seemingly at random. The random stops are at odds with the mission of Operation Midway Blitz, which federal officials previously said would “target the worst of the worst criminal” undocumented immigrants.
At 10:15 a.m., agents pulled up to a person, who appeared to be white, walking outside and asked if they were a U.S. citizen. The person answered yes, sounding confused, and the agents drove away.
Shortly before 10:30 a.m., agents pulled over a driver in the 1000 block of North Wood Street and checked his immigration status. The agents told the driver he had overstayed his visa, a Block Club Chicago photographer heard. They put him in handcuffs and put him into their car.
As the agents walked the man into their car, a neighbor said, “What the f–k are all of you doing? Playing pretend being in our fucking city. Cowards!”
They continued weaving through side streets, and agents checked the status of a few other individuals they stopped.
At another stop in West Town, agents surrounded a driver parked near other rideshare vehicles and asked for identification. The agents told the driver to keep their documentation on them before driving away.
About 11:05 a.m., agents drove up to a red pick-up truck parked on Huron Street near Throop Street, neighbor Bridget Sebek said.
An agent appeared to use a face-scanning app on his cellphone to identify the man sitting in the red truck before frisking and handcuffing him. Sebek approached the man and asked for contact information before agents sped away, saying they were off to a “secret” staging area to process detained people.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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