海角大神

Yvette Moyo knows what it鈥檚 like to live where she鈥檚 not wanted. Her family moved into the Chicago neighborhood of South Shore in 1964, a time when an influx of Black families was meeting resistance from the white residents who had long dominated the community. She recalls stern warnings to avoid white-only areas, like the nearby Lake Michigan beach. She remembers when her brother got his nose busted in a city park.

And so last month, when hundreds of masked and armed federal agents stormed an apartment building not far from where she lives, Ms. Moyo felt the weight of history. With a Black Hawk helicopter thumping overhead, agents dragged residents out into the late September night, among them scores of Venezuelan migrants, but also Black U.S. citizens.

鈥淭here is a sense of identification with the people who are in our neighborhood and are experiencing some trauma because people do not want them there,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat is something I definitely understand.鈥�

The raid in Chicago鈥檚 South Shore neighborhood, during which federal agents detained 37 migrants, was the biggest and most widely publicized action yet in what the Trump administration has dubbed 鈥淥peration Midway Blitz.鈥� The U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched the campaign in early September to arrest 鈥渃riminal illegal aliens鈥� in and around Chicago. But the department鈥檚 tactics, including the use of tear gas on protesters, the detention of U.S. citizens, and the of an unauthorized immigrant, have drawn angry protests, legal challenges, and sharp opposition from local political leaders. On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official leading the immigration crackdown in Chicago, to wear a body camera and provide daily incident reports.聽The order was paused Wednesday by a federal聽appeals court.聽

Within South Shore, the mostly Black neighborhood that hugs Lake Michigan, the apartment raid threw into sharp relief the mixed and often complicated views of the migrants that poured into Chicago starting in 2022. Over 51,000 people 鈥渟eeking asylum鈥� arrived between 2022 and 2024, the city, including 30,000 that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott鈥檚 office says he there. The influx overwhelmed Chicago, which struggled to house them. It also angered many Black residents, who felt that the city was spending precious resources on the new arrivals while overlooking unmet needs in their communities, many of them struggling with poverty, crime, and high rates of incarceration. These and other concerns still resonate in South Shore.

Richard Mertens

Arlivia Williamson cleans outside the Windsor Park Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Shore, Oct. 24, 2025. She was shocked by the raid that took place last month at an apartment building a few blocks from the church. She worries that the raid and others like it, which have at times caught up Black U.S. citizens, portend the wider mistreatment of Blacks in the United States.

Ten months into President Donald Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown, polls suggest that a of voters back strong border control and deporting people who are in the United States illegally. At the same time, Americans want to see a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants who are law-abiding and have lived in the country a long time. And approval is g for the kind of aggressive tactics used to apprehend migrants in South Shore and beyond.

鈥淚 really sympathize with them,鈥� says Stephanie Stinson, a South Shore resident who lives on a block of brick bungalows and trees still decorated with faded banners from last spring鈥檚 Juneteenth holiday. 鈥淭hey have children. They ran away from an oppressive situation and now they are getting their necks stepped on.鈥� She adds, 鈥淚鈥檓 all for justice and keeping us safe. But I鈥檓 not for bullying tactics.鈥�

But not everyone feels this way. 鈥淭hey caused a lot of ruckus 鈥� music late at night,鈥� says a man who lives across the street from where the raid took place and gives his name only as Mark. Federal agents, he says, 鈥渄id what they were supposed to do.鈥�

Changes in South Shore

The raid, which took place in the early morning hours of Sept. 30, stood out not only for its magnitude, with a helicopter and many federal agents, but also for its location. It happened not in one of Chicago鈥檚 long-established Latino neighborhoods, as many raids have, but in a Black neighborhood. South Shore has been historically middle class (former first lady Michelle Obama grew up here) but has grappled in recent years with poverty, gangs, shuttered businesses, and boarded-up apartment buildings.

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Tensions over the influx of migrants into South Shore arose long before last month鈥檚 raid. More than two years ago, the city of Chicago tried to turn a closed South Shore high school into a migrant shelter. Residents pushed back, saying they had not been consulted. Many did not want a large group of migrants housed among them.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want it to turn into a hangout spot,鈥� says Larry Petway, a forklift driver who lives across the street from the school.

The shelter never opened. But over the ensuing months, migrants began moving into apartment buildings throughout South Shore, assisted by housing vouchers and other help from the city. They enrolled their children in local schools. They looked for work, bought 鈥� and repaired 鈥� old cars, and rubbed elbows with Black residents in local stores and at job sites. They stood in line each Tuesday and Saturday with other low-income residents to receive food at the Windsor Park Evangelical Lutheran Church, which stands just a few blocks from the building that was raided.

The numbers alarmed some people. And the level of support for the migrants from Chicago officials angered even many otherwise sympathetic South Shore residents. Chicago spent on its 鈥淣ew Arrivals Mission鈥� to resettle asylum seekers between 2022 and 2025.

Richard Mertens

Joyce Gittens (right) works at the food pantry at the Windsor Park Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Shore, Oct. 25, 2025. Ms. Gittens, who manages the pantry, says it has served substantial numbers of Venezuelan migrants over the past two years, though their numbers have dropped recently during the federal immigration campaign.

鈥淧eople were not happy,鈥� says Joyce Gittens, who manages the food pantry at the Windsor Park church and is herself an immigrant from Liberia. She empathizes with the migrants. 鈥淭he United States is still a nation of immigrants,鈥� she says. But, she adds, 鈥淲e felt our needs should have been met. We have homeless people living under bridges, in vacant lots.鈥�

Ms. Moyo, who is the founder of Real Men Charities, Inc., and a prominent figure in South Shore, says: 鈥淚t鈥檚 unfortunate that people tend to be pitted against each other for resources. It鈥檚 valid that Black people need more resources, and that people who are seeking a better life and are delivered to our doorstep need to be empathized with.鈥� She argues, 鈥淲e can do both at the same time.鈥�

Dimitri Lewis is a young carpenter in South Shore. He began working on jobs with migrants early on, communicating with hand gestures and cellphone translation apps.

鈥淭hey never did anything wrong,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here was never a time when they were trying to bully us.鈥� He feels a sense of commonality with the migrants. 鈥淭heir fight is deportation,鈥� he says. 鈥淥ur fight is injustice.鈥�

Some residents see an echo of their own families鈥� journeys to Chicago in search of a better life. 鈥淏ecause my family migrated from the South to the North after World War II, I understand the whole concept,鈥� says Arlivia Williamson, a volunteer at the Windsor Park church. 鈥淓veryone came from someplace else.鈥�

At the same time, the scale of last month鈥檚 raid, the militarylike show of force, and the ramping up of aggressive tactics throughout the Chicago region have recalled for some the darker moments of the Black American experience.

鈥淲e are descendants of people who had to deal with the KKK and cross burning and lynching,鈥� says State Sen. Robert Peters, whose district includes South Shore. 鈥淲e鈥檙e never going to be OK with masked agents of the government abducting people.鈥�

Indeed, it鈥檚 not just the echoes of their own history that have troubled some Black residents in South Shore. The raids have made many uneasy about their future.

鈥淚 think a lot of people feel as though it鈥檚 going to get worse, that it鈥檚 just a prelude to what they鈥檙e going to do with African Americans,鈥� says Ms. Williamson. 鈥淲hen they get done with migrants, they鈥檒l come after African Americans. It鈥檚 part of the whole 鈥楳ake America White Again.鈥欌��

Tension over jobs, community

When migrants first began moving into the big building at 7500 South Shore Drive early this year, many neighbors weren鈥檛 happy about it, says James Warren, who manages an apartment complex down the street. 鈥淭hey felt the Venezuelans were going to take jobs and take over the community,鈥� he says.

But it didn鈥檛 turn out that way. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not as bad as we thought,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 even gave some of them work, cleaning up things. They didn鈥檛 bother anyone. They just wanted work.鈥�

Still, there was plenty of trouble. A nearby beach became a hot spot on the weekend, with blaring music and sometimes violence, as local gang members confronted the newcomers. 鈥淚t was chaos,鈥� says Mr. Warren, whose apartment complex stands next to the beach. Meanwhile, drug dealing at the building, a problem long before the migrants arrived, continued, he says, with some migrants taking part. A Venezuelan man was shot and killed in the building in June.

鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 exactly melt into the community,鈥� says Charles Szymanski, a South Shore resident who lives a block from the building. 鈥淭hey were the loudest group in the neighborhood.鈥�

Still, he says the raid troubled him. 鈥淵ou can sit and read about things and look at pictures, and you become accustomed to it, because it鈥檚 over there. When you鈥檙e seeing it happening firsthand, all of a sudden it hits. These are real people. This is a real situation. The migrants [aggravated] me the past couple summers. But I don鈥檛 think anyone wanted this to happen.鈥�

The raid was 鈥渕ore like an insurrection than an arrest,鈥� says Mr. Warren. He was especially offended by the sight of children being pulled from the building. 鈥淭hey were crying,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey were traumatized. They were screaming for their parents.鈥�

A view from inside the apartment raid

Tenille Lewis lives on the third floor of the building at 7500 South Shore Drive. She remembers how empty and derelict the building felt before the migrants arrived, with mice and garbage and strangers wandering through. The new residents made the building 鈥渓ively.鈥� She didn鈥檛 make friends with any of them, but she greeted them in the halls and in the elevator. She tried to help, answering their questions as best she could. It reassured her that the building had so many residents. There weren鈥檛 so many strangers around.

Richard Mertens

Tenille Lewis lives in a third-floor apartment at 7500 South Shore Drive. She said most of the migrants who lived in the building were 鈥済ood people.鈥� She sits outside the apartment building in a bus shelter with a friend, Oct. 24, 2025.

While the situation was far from perfect, most of the migrants were 鈥済ood people,鈥� she says.

鈥淚 have a pretty good sense of people. I didn鈥檛 feel any bad vibes with most of them. ... Some of the younger guys seemed like the other younger guys in the neighborhood. I didn鈥檛 feel any more of a threat from them than from the other guys around here.鈥�

On Sept. 30, the bang of a flash grenade across the hall woke her. Agents busted open her door and demanded to know who was living there. Ms. Lewis uses a wheelchair, and they didn鈥檛 force her outside, as they did so many others. But she thought the raid was wrong. It took her neighbors.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e already here,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e human beings.鈥�