STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We're learning more about an immigration raid in Chicago. On September 30, federal agents swarmed a residential building. The agents were armed. They were masked. They rappelled from a helicopter. They broke down doors. They arrested dozens of people and released dramatic video. The Department of Homeland Security tells NPR in a statement that people arrested included two members of a Venezuelan gang designated as a terrorist group. The investigative news site ProPublica looked into all this for itself. Leila Fadel spoke with ProPublica reporter Melissa Sanchez.
MELISSA SANCHEZ: The government has said that it arrested 37 immigrants. It's worth noting the government has refused to make public any of these people's names. We identified 21 men and women and interviewed 12 of them. And those that we were able to identify, we tried to run their criminal records to see if they'd had any interactions with law enforcement in the U.S. And a couple of them did have convictions in the U.S., but in all of the records that we found, there were zero mention of any kind of gang affiliation or any other kind of serious threat. Several of these people have been in immigration court since the raid. And at eight of the hearings that we've observed, not once has a government attorney mentioned any Tren de Aragua link or any criminal activity.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: And just to be clear, what exactly did the Trump administration say after the raid about why they did it and what they had achieved?
SANCHEZ: So what they have said is that it was a spectacular success - that they had had information that the building had been taken over by the Tren de Aragua and that they had information about guns, drugs and even explosives inside the building. And so far, we have found little evidence to back this up.
FADEL: I want to get a sense of what this raid was like inside the building. As part of your reporting, you obtained this audio message from a man named Jean Carlos Antonio Colmenares Perez. And let's listen to what he's saying to his friend.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JEAN CARLOS ANTONIO COLMENARES PEREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
FADEL: "The government came in here. They came in, Ellie (ph)." And then she responds.
ELLIE: (Speaking Spanish).
FADEL: "What's happening, Jean? You're scaring me. What's happening?" she says.
What happened to him?
SANCHEZ: So that was one of the first messages I heard from anybody in that building. And you can hear the terror in Jean Carlos' voice. And soon after he sent that message to a friend of his who lives in another part of the city, his own door came down. Agents burst in. They knocked him down. According to him, they zip-tied his hands behind his back. His 6-year-old nephew came running over to him to hold him. He said at one point, agents hit him over the head with the butt of a rifle. Everybody in that unit, just like everybody on that floor, was detained. They were all Venezuelan immigrants. Jean Carlos was eventually sent to a jail in Kentucky. I haven't talked to him in a couple of days. I think he's still in ICE custody, but it's unclear what facility he's in.
FADEL: Does he have a criminal record? Was he charged with anything?
SANCHEZ: I mean, he was charged with nothing in connection to the raid. Jean Carlos had a traffic ticket - I think it was for driving without a license - at some point last year, and that was absolutely everything that we could find.
FADEL: What did the administration say about what your reporting found?
SANCHEZ: I mean, I wish I could tell you that the administration responded to all of our questions, but they responded to none of them. They provided a statement that said that everything they did was following the laws and that the information they have about gang stuff in that building is something they could not tell us more about because it would hurt their sources. But they've said they've done everything the right way.
FADEL: Is that what your reporting showed, though?
SANCHEZ: I mean, not really. We had all of these immigrants, not one that had a criminal record that warrants this kind of action, detained and deported. It's unclear whether the government actually had warrants to enter in the sort of forceful way that they did. And the government just has refused to provide any answers. The fact that nobody has been charged criminally in connection to this just really doesn't seem to be the success story that they have painted it to be.
FADEL: So you took one very splashy raid that the administration did and really followed through on what happened to each individual afterwards. What does this example suggest about the broader immigration crackdowns in Chicago and other American cities?
SANCHEZ: I mean, I think we've seen this with a lot of the examples of the big raids and actions that they've taken. They claim that they're going after the worst of the worst, the most violent criminals. But when you look at it one by one, yes, they might have one or two guys who had committed some crimes, but the vast majority of people are not that. And the government likes to say that everybody is an illegal immigrant. But we know that the vast majority of these people, the Venezuelans in particular, came in and turned themselves in to the government, seeking permission, seeking asylum, and they were in the system in some way. It's just a lot more complicated than the government likes to make it out to be.
FADEL: Melissa Sanchez is a reporter for ProPublica, speaking about her latest investigative piece. Thank you for your time and for your reporting.
SANCHEZ: Thank you.
INSKEEP: You heard her say they reached out to the government. NPR also contacted the Department of Homeland Security about that September 30 raid. A spokesperson said that, in addition to the two Tren de Aragua members, agents arrested people without legal status who also had criminal histories. The government contends the accusations against them include domestic battery, theft and soliciting prostitution, and one with an active warrant perceived as armed and dangerous. DHS says one U.S. citizen had an active warrant for narcotics and was turned over to police. DHS did not say whether anyone has been charged with a crime. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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