Leroy N. Soetoro
2025-02-03 21:29:37 UTC
https://nypost.com/2025/01/31/us-news/chicago-raids-expose-how-leftist-
groups-help-crooks-evade-ice/
CHICAGO It was still dark and cold at 5:30 am Thursday when teams of US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers hit the streets on
targeted enforcement missions to arrest criminal illegal migrants.
They call them the worst of the worst.
The Post embedded with one team of federal ICE agents who admitted the
task of identifying criminal migrants in the sanctuary city which orders
its local law enforcement not to help them and actually making arrests
can be like finding needles in haystacks.
Further complicating matters, local activists, legislators and school
administrators in Illinois have been coaching migrants, including
criminals charged with sex assaults, weapons violations and worse, on
their rights and how to evade ICE agents. Even those detained were fairly
brazen.
On Thursday, between 10 teams of about 10 agents each, ICE made only two
arrests in Chicago after five hours on the ground.
The Post witnessed Diego Antonio Montero, 24, a Venezuelan national who
crossed illegally into the US in May 2023 as he was arrested and put into
a caged van by ICE agents.
He was calm and composed and told ICE in Spanish he was not a criminal and
was confident hed go before a judge and be set free.
His record shows otherwise. Chicago police had previously arrested him for
criminal trespass, battery, and aggravated assault with the use of a
deadly weapon. All charges are pending before the Circuit Court of Cook
County, Illinois. An arrest warrant was issued on April 22, 2024, but not
honored.
Sometimes its a very uphill battle, officer Sam Olson, a nearly 25-year
veteran of ICE, told The Post as he drove to the first target.
We have their information because they were previously arrested and
booked in and fingerprinted somewhere, therefore we know they are here.
But its not as if we are getting notification if these criminal aliens
are arrested. Nobody local will tell us that.
Montero was also on the run from Homeland Security. After he skipped out
on a 2024 immigration hearing, a judge ordered him removed from the US.
Last August, ICE officers encountered Montero and arrested him. He was
detained until November 7, 2024, then released into the Alternative to
Detention Program with a GPS tracking device. ICE picked him up Thursday
after locating him via his ankle bracelet.
ICE agents, who have been joined by agents from the DOJ, FBI and ATF as a
result of Trump and new Border Czar Tom Homans demand for more arrests,
call what they do in their early morning trips knock and talks.
They arrive at a targets home or apartment at 6 a.m. or after as they are
not allowed to knock before that time.
But at two stops in the Humboldt neighborhood, the targeted residents in
the homes where ICE knocked, knew not to open the door.
Instead, at one house three people gazed down from an upper floor window
seemingly unfazed by the presence of armed agents in bulletproof vests and
loud walkie-talkies knocking repeatedly at the front and side doors.
After about 10 minutes of stalemate, ICE gave up and returned to their
vehicles to go to their next scheduled stop.
ICE officers rarely obtain warrants from federal judges for their knock
and talks and can only arrest their targets if they open the door.
Olson made clear his team is not picking up the wives or girlfriends of
the criminals they are targeting. The Post saw ICE agents talking gently
to one girlfriend of a man they attempted to detain to explain why they
were there.
Organizations in Illinois like Catholic Charities, La Voz Latina and
school administrators are holding workshops and making flyers and videos
explaining to illegal migrants what their rights are, and how to evade
ICE.
I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions or sign or hand
you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights under the United States
Constitution, reads text on cards being distributed in Chicago and
elsewhere in the state.
According to the citys Welcoming Letter, We have a responsibility to
provide access to shelter, food, and medical care to everyone, regardless
of immigration status.
Many of our new arrivals have walked hundreds of miles, navigating great
danger through multiple countries, in pursuit of safety and opportunity in
the United States. We are committed to assisting each family and
individual, providing human services with respect and dignity.
Chicago police are prohibited from questioning, arresting or prosecuting
individuals solely on suspicion of being undocumented, according to the
city office of Immigrant, Migrant or Refugee Rights.
Sanctuary cities like Chicago are making it very difficult, Homan,
former head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Post
Friday. I call everything theyre doing How to Escape ICE. But were
fighting back.
We have some plans in the pipeline that are going to increase our chances
of making it easier for ICE to make more arrests. As it is, having all
these teams out and with help from the ATF and other agencies is like a
force multiplier. Our guys are doing a great job and we arent going
away.
There are at least 11 million people living in the US without legal
status, with 77 percent having lived here for five years of more,
according to the most recent census figures.
I sympathize with the ICE agents stuck working in Illinois because their
backs are really up against the wall, Terry Newsome, a local longtime
activist and host of the Behind Enemy Lines podcast, told The Post.
They have to aggressively find these individuals who are being coached to
fight back and what to do to keep from being arrested. Even [Venezuelan
criminal gang] Tren de Aragua are being coached by the radical Illinois
Democrats on how to avoid ICE.
The citizens of Illinois have to fight against the sanctuary city and
state and demand they put the citizens of Illinois before the criminal
illegal aliens that have flooded our communities.
President Trump has promised mass deportations of millions in the
country illegally.
But celebrities such as Selena Gomez and Democratic pundits have unfairly
characterized ICE as the bad guys, out to raid and arrest terrified
families the reality on the ground in Chicago was very different.
Our mission is targeting the worst of the worst, said the soft-spoken
Olson, who said one of the toughest parts of his job is seeing ICE
officers portrayed as heartless Nazis.
Were people from the community ourselves, Olson said. We want the
community to be safer for everyone, including our families and we are
only upholding the Constitution and enforcing the laws Congress has
mandated while putting our lives on the line daily.
Olson said the money and manpower needed to track down each criminal
migrant is huge even though they are in the country illegally.
We have very smart officers doing constant and incredible research before
we can even get to the point of going out to find people, he said. The
amount of hours that go into just one case are unbelievable.
Though ICE was able to arrest Montero at their last stop, they had to let
two other migrants go after first cuffing them.
Olson said while they had criminal backgrounds, they had also applied for
asylum and were out on bond and therefore immune from arrest.
But Olson was cheerful enough as his van pulled back into the parking lot
near the ICE offices in a gritty, industrial area of downtown Chicago five
hours after the teams set out. He is careful to avoid any discussion of
politics and declined to speak about the change in administration from
Biden to Trump.
Were doing what we are mandated to do and we are confident were going
to make more and more progress, Olson said. I hope people realize
someday that this is all about upholding the law and making the country
safer but our job will continue no matter what misconceptions people
have about us.
--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.
The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
groups-help-crooks-evade-ice/
CHICAGO It was still dark and cold at 5:30 am Thursday when teams of US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers hit the streets on
targeted enforcement missions to arrest criminal illegal migrants.
They call them the worst of the worst.
The Post embedded with one team of federal ICE agents who admitted the
task of identifying criminal migrants in the sanctuary city which orders
its local law enforcement not to help them and actually making arrests
can be like finding needles in haystacks.
Further complicating matters, local activists, legislators and school
administrators in Illinois have been coaching migrants, including
criminals charged with sex assaults, weapons violations and worse, on
their rights and how to evade ICE agents. Even those detained were fairly
brazen.
On Thursday, between 10 teams of about 10 agents each, ICE made only two
arrests in Chicago after five hours on the ground.
The Post witnessed Diego Antonio Montero, 24, a Venezuelan national who
crossed illegally into the US in May 2023 as he was arrested and put into
a caged van by ICE agents.
He was calm and composed and told ICE in Spanish he was not a criminal and
was confident hed go before a judge and be set free.
His record shows otherwise. Chicago police had previously arrested him for
criminal trespass, battery, and aggravated assault with the use of a
deadly weapon. All charges are pending before the Circuit Court of Cook
County, Illinois. An arrest warrant was issued on April 22, 2024, but not
honored.
Sometimes its a very uphill battle, officer Sam Olson, a nearly 25-year
veteran of ICE, told The Post as he drove to the first target.
We have their information because they were previously arrested and
booked in and fingerprinted somewhere, therefore we know they are here.
But its not as if we are getting notification if these criminal aliens
are arrested. Nobody local will tell us that.
Montero was also on the run from Homeland Security. After he skipped out
on a 2024 immigration hearing, a judge ordered him removed from the US.
Last August, ICE officers encountered Montero and arrested him. He was
detained until November 7, 2024, then released into the Alternative to
Detention Program with a GPS tracking device. ICE picked him up Thursday
after locating him via his ankle bracelet.
ICE agents, who have been joined by agents from the DOJ, FBI and ATF as a
result of Trump and new Border Czar Tom Homans demand for more arrests,
call what they do in their early morning trips knock and talks.
They arrive at a targets home or apartment at 6 a.m. or after as they are
not allowed to knock before that time.
But at two stops in the Humboldt neighborhood, the targeted residents in
the homes where ICE knocked, knew not to open the door.
Instead, at one house three people gazed down from an upper floor window
seemingly unfazed by the presence of armed agents in bulletproof vests and
loud walkie-talkies knocking repeatedly at the front and side doors.
After about 10 minutes of stalemate, ICE gave up and returned to their
vehicles to go to their next scheduled stop.
ICE officers rarely obtain warrants from federal judges for their knock
and talks and can only arrest their targets if they open the door.
Olson made clear his team is not picking up the wives or girlfriends of
the criminals they are targeting. The Post saw ICE agents talking gently
to one girlfriend of a man they attempted to detain to explain why they
were there.
Organizations in Illinois like Catholic Charities, La Voz Latina and
school administrators are holding workshops and making flyers and videos
explaining to illegal migrants what their rights are, and how to evade
ICE.
I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions or sign or hand
you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights under the United States
Constitution, reads text on cards being distributed in Chicago and
elsewhere in the state.
According to the citys Welcoming Letter, We have a responsibility to
provide access to shelter, food, and medical care to everyone, regardless
of immigration status.
Many of our new arrivals have walked hundreds of miles, navigating great
danger through multiple countries, in pursuit of safety and opportunity in
the United States. We are committed to assisting each family and
individual, providing human services with respect and dignity.
Chicago police are prohibited from questioning, arresting or prosecuting
individuals solely on suspicion of being undocumented, according to the
city office of Immigrant, Migrant or Refugee Rights.
Sanctuary cities like Chicago are making it very difficult, Homan,
former head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Post
Friday. I call everything theyre doing How to Escape ICE. But were
fighting back.
We have some plans in the pipeline that are going to increase our chances
of making it easier for ICE to make more arrests. As it is, having all
these teams out and with help from the ATF and other agencies is like a
force multiplier. Our guys are doing a great job and we arent going
away.
There are at least 11 million people living in the US without legal
status, with 77 percent having lived here for five years of more,
according to the most recent census figures.
I sympathize with the ICE agents stuck working in Illinois because their
backs are really up against the wall, Terry Newsome, a local longtime
activist and host of the Behind Enemy Lines podcast, told The Post.
They have to aggressively find these individuals who are being coached to
fight back and what to do to keep from being arrested. Even [Venezuelan
criminal gang] Tren de Aragua are being coached by the radical Illinois
Democrats on how to avoid ICE.
The citizens of Illinois have to fight against the sanctuary city and
state and demand they put the citizens of Illinois before the criminal
illegal aliens that have flooded our communities.
President Trump has promised mass deportations of millions in the
country illegally.
But celebrities such as Selena Gomez and Democratic pundits have unfairly
characterized ICE as the bad guys, out to raid and arrest terrified
families the reality on the ground in Chicago was very different.
Our mission is targeting the worst of the worst, said the soft-spoken
Olson, who said one of the toughest parts of his job is seeing ICE
officers portrayed as heartless Nazis.
Were people from the community ourselves, Olson said. We want the
community to be safer for everyone, including our families and we are
only upholding the Constitution and enforcing the laws Congress has
mandated while putting our lives on the line daily.
Olson said the money and manpower needed to track down each criminal
migrant is huge even though they are in the country illegally.
We have very smart officers doing constant and incredible research before
we can even get to the point of going out to find people, he said. The
amount of hours that go into just one case are unbelievable.
Though ICE was able to arrest Montero at their last stop, they had to let
two other migrants go after first cuffing them.
Olson said while they had criminal backgrounds, they had also applied for
asylum and were out on bond and therefore immune from arrest.
But Olson was cheerful enough as his van pulled back into the parking lot
near the ICE offices in a gritty, industrial area of downtown Chicago five
hours after the teams set out. He is careful to avoid any discussion of
politics and declined to speak about the change in administration from
Biden to Trump.
Were doing what we are mandated to do and we are confident were going
to make more and more progress, Olson said. I hope people realize
someday that this is all about upholding the law and making the country
safer but our job will continue no matter what misconceptions people
have about us.
--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.
The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.