Durbin, Illinois Democrats Release Fact Sheet Debunking The DHS Misinformation Campaign

CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led all Illinois Congressional Democrats in releasing a comprehensive fact check of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) misinformation campaign regarding its dangerous immigration enforcement actions.

“The Trump Administration continues to peddle outright lies since its unprovoked, unnecessary, and unhelpful enforcement activity in Illinois. The photos and videos out of Illinois are horrific, showing unspeakable acts committed by the United States government against its own civilians including teargassing, pepper spraying, racial profiling, excessive force, and physical violence. Neighbors are looking out for neighbors—but it shouldn’t have to be this way. We will continue to document and share the reality of what’s actually happening in Chicago and communities impacted by this anti-immigrant agenda—and hold the Trump Administration accountable for these atrocities,” said Durbin.

“The Trump Administration has continued to spin lies—about our city, the people they’re targeting and their excessive use of force against Illinoisans. Trump’s agents have deployed tear gas outside elementary schools, shot a priest in the head with pepper balls, violently attacked peaceful protestors and brandished weapons at innocent bystanders. They’ve detained a preschool teacher at a daycare, hardworking people with work permits and even scores of American citizens—and then put out misleading or outright false public statements to try and justify their unlawful actions. We will continue to push back against this misinformation, and I encourage Illinoisans to continue recording everything they see to shed light on the truth and help us hold this Administration accountable,” said Duckworth.

"The Trump administration has repeatedly proven they cannot be trusted to tell us the facts. So, here's the truth: Chicagoans are terrified and angered by ICE's Gestapo tactics and DHS's clear abuses of power. I visited the apartment in my District raided by federal agents and met with constituents separated from loved ones, and I've seen the destruction and heartbreak caused by DHS. I'm holding truth to power and will always expose President Trump's lies,” said Kelly.

"Greg Bovino, Tricia McLauglin, Kristi Noem, and Tom Homan are vicious liars. Over and over again, Trump's DHS has been caught lying and manipulating to hide their unlawful actions. Holding them accountable starts by shedding light on the truth. I am proud to work with my colleagues of the Illinois Congressional Delegation to set the record straight on the terror and lawlessness that ICE and CBP have inflicted on our communities,” said Ramirez.

“I have seen the brutality and abuses of power by DHS officers in my district. I have seen images of my constituents being tear gassed, dragged out of vehicles and detained without warrants just because of the color of their skin, or the job they do. My grandchild is scared because their helicopters are hovering at night over our neighborhood. People are being detained and disappeared. DHS is lying about their actions and about who they are arresting, and we must hold them accountable for the chaos and brutality they have brought to Chicago,” said García.

“The Trump Administration has emboldened ICE to use violent, unconstitutional tactics as an attempt to increase control and spread fear. Illinoisans will not be intimidated. While the Trump Administration seems hellbent on spreading misinformation to deny their most egregious actions, we must continue to ensure that the American people know the truth about what is happening in Illinois,” said Casten.

"The Trump Administration is spreading false narratives while putting Illinois families and communities in real danger. Hardworking Illinoisans are being subjected to unnecessary force, intimidation, and fear, while local leaders and neighbors step up to protect them. We will continue to expose the truth, hold this administration accountable, and fight to ensure our communities remain safe and welcoming for everyone,” said Krishnamoorthi.

“What’s happening in Chicago and across Illinois isn’t about law and order, it’s about power and cruelty. The Trump administration continues to use lies to terrorize our communities, and we will not be silent. Every person, regardless of immigration status, deserves to live with dignity and without fear. Now, more than ever, we must speak up, hold truth to power, and defend our shared values of compassion, justice, and solidarity. We are a nation of immigrants, and immigrants make our communities strong. No amount of intimidation will change that. I will continue to fight back and hold this administration accountable for every act of violence and abuse against our people,” said Schakowsky.

"Operation Midway Blitz is not law enforcement—it is a campaign of fear and intimidation. Federal agents, under orders from the Trump Administration, have repeatedly used violence against peaceful communities—detaining immigrants and U.S. citizens without due process, tearing families apart, and disrupting our local economy. It's disturbing, yet unsurprising, that the administration is spreading lies to hide these abuses and continue terrorizing our hardworking Latino neighbors,” said Foster.

“For more than 10 months the Department of Homeland Security has engaged in a horrifying campaign to spread fear in our communities, trample over our constitutional rights, and violently snatch people from our streets. Their conduct is illegal, dangerous, and completely unacceptable. Our communities deserve the truth about what is going on, not to be subjected to endless propaganda and disinformation from the people who are charged with keeping us safe. I’m glad to join my colleagues in this effort to set the record straight, and will continue my work to demand answers and accountability from the Trump Administration,” said Underwood.

For a pdf version, click here.

FACT CHECK: DEBUNKING THE DHS MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has repeatedly spread misinformation about events in Illinois and its so-called “Operation Midway Blitz,” only to be contradicted by eyewitness accounts, video evidence, and local law enforcement. Despite the evidence debunking these claims, DHS misinformation is being used by President Trump to support an unlawful and unconstitutional troop deployment to Illinois and to mislabel peaceful protestors, journalists, and elected officials as “Antifa.” This misinformation and the reckless, dangerous, and cruel actions of federal agents in Illinois should not be used to support the Trump Administration’s unlawful attacks on our democracy and constitutional rights.

Claim: Violent rioters are assaulting federal law enforcement.

Reality: Federal agents have engaged in excessive force against overwhelmingly peaceful protestors, regularly deploying tear gas, flash bang grenades, and other weapons against protesters and journalists—and even members of the clergy—who are engaged in peaceful and lawful activity.

• In Illinois alone, federal officials have:

• Arrested an elected official merely for asking if agents had a warrant.
• Threatened, physically assaulted, injured and subjected to arrest several members of the press, including by firing a pepper ball at the car of a journalist driving by the Broadview facility, causing chemical agents to enter her car.
• Threatened local police, telling them that there will be “a s*** show” during protests in Broadview, Illinois, in retaliation for local officials calling on ICE officials to “stop making war on our community.”
• Detained and pushed to the ground a 70-year-old Air Force veteran for handing his cell phone to a protestor.
• Responded to a pastor’s prayer by firing pepper balls directly into his face.
• Regularly deployed tear gas on peaceful protestors in neighborhoods around Chicago.

Claim: DHS is trying its best to coordinate with local officials in Illinois, and local police refuse to cooperate.

Reality: DHS officials refuse to share information with local officials, and federal government actions have endangered first responders.

• In early October, DHS Secretary Noem arrived in Broadview with an entourage of cameras and a production crew for a photo op—and failed to coordinate a meeting with the Broadview mayor, instead appearing unannounced at the Village Hall when the mayor was unable to meet. Meanwhile, snipers, an armored vehicle, and militarized federal agents with assault rifles responded to protests outside the Broadview ICE facility.
• Demonstrating the lack of coordination, federal officials have even exposed local police to tear gas.
• According to the sworn declaration of the Broadview police chief who witnessed this conduct daily: “The use of chemical agents by federal agents at the ICE facility in Broadview has often been arbitrary and indiscriminate. At times it is used when the crowd is as small as ten people. The deployment of chemical agents is dangerous to the health of both demonstrators and first responders on the scene. In addition, when ICE agents deploy chemical agents, it causes the crowd of protesters to disperse, sometimes running into the road, which is dangerous both for them and for motorists. Broadview police officers have had to attempt to position themselves in a way that directs the crowd to disperse in a safe manner. Over the course of my career in law enforcement, the way in which federal agents have indiscriminately used chemical agents in Broadview is unlike anything I have seen before.”

Claim: DHS law enforcement officers are not engaged in racial profiling.

Reality: DHS officials are arresting individuals on the basis of race or ethnicity. In fact, when asked, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino admitted that race and ethnicity play a significant role in arrests, stating that when considering arrest factors, an agent examines “obviously, the particular characteristics of an individual, how they look.”

• In Illinois, a judge found that ICE illegally arrested nearly two dozen people, conducting warrantless arrests without probable cause to believe someone is in the United States unlawfully and is a flight risk.
• As the judge noted, probable cause is particularly critical given that “[c]itizens and non-citizens with legal status who share commonalities (such as race/ethnicity, a preference for speaking Spanish, or employment in certain occupations or locations) with—or mere physical proximity to—Latino foreign nationals may now find themselves more likely to be subjected to ICE questioning for sometimes lengthy periods of detention, and, potentially, warrantless arrests during immigration enforcement operations.”
• The decision followed the Supreme Court granting a stay in a 9^th Circuit case in September that essentially allows the federal government to, as Justice Sotomayor noted in dissent, “seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”
• In one incident in Chicago, masked, armed agents dressed in camouflage, arrested a family of four, including two young children aged three and eight, in Millenium Park in Chicago. The mother noted that “[t]here were a lot more people there, but the agents came directly to us because of how we look,” going on to say “[i]t’s not fair.”

Claim: DHS law enforcement officers are not targeting U.S. citizens.

Reality: Immigrants and U.S. citizens alike have been targeted by masked, unidentified agents conducting violent raids, arrests, and arbitrary detentions.

• Federal immigration agents in Waukegan detained a U.S. citizen, but the local mayor intervened on her behalf. Federal agents claimed that she was impeding a federal law enforcement operation, but she believes she was targeted due to having a Mexican flag on her car.
• Federal agents detained a U.S. citizen of Latino descent working in the service industry and held her for an hour, even after she presented her passport. The agents stated that she didn’t “look like” a person with her last name and accused her of lying.
• Federal agents detained several U.S. citizens, including Jacqueline Lopez and Elianne Bahena, staffers for Alderman Michael Rodriguez, during a militarized raid in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago. In addition to serving as Alderman Rodriguez’s chief of staff, Bahena serves as an elected 10th District Police Commissioner.

Claim: DHS is arresting the “worst of the worst.”

Reality: Federal agents are mostly detaining people who have committed no crimes in order to meet an arbitrary 3,000-person daily arrest quota.

• ICE and other federal agents conducting immigration enforcement actions are sweeping up hardworking, longstanding members of our communities in disorganized, dangerous, and, raids and arrests—including an arrest that turned deadly.
• In fact, this Administration is undermining investigations into the “worst of the worst” to arrest immigrants with no criminal convictions. The Trump Administration has pulled federal law enforcement officials away from investigating serious threats to our communities, including child sex exploitation, counterterrorism, and national security threats, to focus on its disastrous mass deportation campaign.

Claim: Illinois is like a war zone.

Reality: Illinois is a welcoming, vibrant state that has long thrived thanks to the contributions of immigrants to our communities and our economy.

• Illinois does not need National Guard troops or militarized federal agents targeting our friends and neighbors. One analysis found that one video that the White House posted supposedly showing Chicago in “chaos” was littered with outdated footage of drug busts, arrests, and deportation raids in other states, including Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska.

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