In the early morning hours of September 30, 2025, hundreds of federal agents converged on the South Shore Apartments, a beige brick building on Chicago's South Side. Agents in body armor rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter overhead while others crashed through the building's doors with battering rams. Among the entry team: four Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents — Padraic Daniel Berlin, David Dubar Jr., Corey Myers, and Paul Delgado Jr. — wearing helmets, bulletproof vests, and carrying suppressor-equipped M4 rifles. What happened inside became the focal point of a sweeping new investigation.
Published April 2, 2026, a WIRED investigation by Ali Winston and Maddy Varner — drawing on Department of Homeland Security documents and body camera footage released through litigation — identifies by name dozens of specialized federal agents who used force against U.S. civilians during Operation Midway Blitz. WIRED describes it as "the largest known deployment of its kind in US history."
That same day, an ABC7 Chicago investigation drawing on government data released through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Deportation Data Project revealed for the first time the full scope of who was actually caught up in the operation: 58 percent of those apprehended had no criminal history whatsoever. More than 2,400 people had already been deported.
What BORTAC Is — and What It Was Not Designed For
BORTAC — the Border Patrol Tactical Unit — was originally designed for desert rescues, high-risk warrants, conflicts with armed drug cartels, and manhunts. Its sister unit, BORSTAR (Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue), is trained for similar specialized scenarios. Both are based primarily out of Fort Bliss, Texas, with at least 11 detachments stationed around the United States, according to WIRED.
Under the second Trump administration, however, BORTAC and BORSTAR have been deployed into the streets of major American cities for street-level immigration enforcement — a first in U.S. history. The WIRED investigation describes this as "a bellwether of the Trump administration's project to militarize domestic law enforcement operations."
The agents were sent to Chicago and also to Los Angeles, North Carolina, Boston, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Sacramento. Their commander for the Chicago operation was Timothy P. Sullivan, head of the Fort Bliss–based Border Patrol's Special Operations Group. BORTAC and BORSTAR also commanded the federal presence at an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon — a site that became a constant target of protests, often resulting in violent clashes.
The South Shore Apartment Raid: What Body Cameras Captured
According to the WIRED investigation, intelligence briefings for the September 30 raid claimed the South Shore Apartments building was controlled by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan street gang the Trump administration had categorized as a foreign terrorist organization — a designation that the administration's own intelligence services had amassed contrary evidence against, according to the reporting. The briefing alleged gang members were storing grenades, handguns, and rifles on the second floor.
That intelligence was never released or independently substantiated. Illinois later launched an investigation into whether the property owner had sent unfounded claims to federal authorities.
At every door his team approached, BORTAC agent Berlin reportedly yelled, "Police! Speak to me now or I'll send the dog!" according to the body camera footage reviewed by WIRED. In one second-floor unit, the team detained one man. Further down the hallway, team leader Myers noticed what he described as signs of forced entry and smashed open the door. Inside was Tolulope Akinsulie, an undocumented immigrant from Nigeria. According to the WIRED account, Berlin released his Belgian Malinois, Yoda, without first issuing a verbal warning or command. The dog bit Akinsulie repeatedly in the leg, hip, and hands. Akinsulie — described in the WIRED report as having no known history of violent crime or gang affiliation — was treated for his injuries and taken to the Broadview Processing Center to face removal proceedings.
Berlin was involved in at least five documented uses of force during Operation Midway Blitz, according to WIRED's analysis of U.S. government records. The WIRED investigation concluded the team's actions "appeared to escalate tensions with civilian onlookers rather than quell them."
The Scale: What FOIA Data Reveals
The ABC7 Chicago I-Team's analysis of government data — provided to the Deportation Data Project after the group filed a lawsuit over an ignored FOIA request submitted to ICE — paints the operation's full scope in numbers for the first time.
In September 2025, the month the operation began, more than 760 people were apprehended in Illinois. In October 2025, that figure climbed to 2,074. In November 2025, it dropped to 811 as agent numbers decreased. Arrests continued through 2026.
The ABC7 I-Team found there were more immigration apprehensions in Illinois during Operation Midway Blitz than in the years 2023 and 2024 combined. More than 90 percent of those detained were concentrated in and around Chicago.
Of those apprehended: 58 percent had no criminal history whatsoever; 23 percent had pending misdemeanor or felony charges; and 18 percent had prior misdemeanor or felony convictions, according to the ICE data.
A total of 162 people under the age of 18 were arrested in Illinois since the operation began — the youngest was two years old. According to ICE records cited by ABC7, that child "voluntarily left" the country.
More than 2,400 people were deported. More than half of those deportees had no criminal history.
Legal Challenges and the Scope of the Operation
According to Wikipedia's documentation of the operation — sourced to multiple outlets including the Associated Press and Chicago Tribune — Operation Midway Blitz was officially announced by DHS on September 8, 2025, as a multi-agency surge targeting "criminal illegal aliens" in Illinois. The operation honored Katie Abraham, a Chicago-area woman killed by an undocumented drunk driver in Urbana, according to DHS.
While announced as a Chicago operation, its jurisdiction covered the entire state of Illinois and neighboring Lake County, Indiana. Participating agencies included ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Illinois National Guard, and Texas Military Forces.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker planned legal action against the operation, and his office stated the Trump administration had not communicated with the governor before launching. Legal experts publicly questioned the operation's legality. Religious organizations in Chicago coordinated to make resources available for immigrants.
On December 31, 2025, the National Guard ceased to be part of the Chicago deployments, according to Wikipedia's sourcing.
At a September 30 meeting with over 800 generals and admirals — the same day as the South Shore raid — President Trump described the deployments as "training grounds for our military" and characterized the situation as a war, saying America is "under invasion from within" and that it was "no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms," according to reporting cited in the Wikipedia entry on the operation.
One Man Who Came Back
ABC7's reporting includes the account of a man identified only as Victor, who was arrested and deported to Honduras before filing a federal court petition seeking due process and returning to Chicago. He described not knowing whether he would see his wife or American-born children again. "It was a terrible feeling," Victor said, according to ABC7. "It was very anguishing."
Victor is described as among the few who have returned. The government data does not indicate how many others have successfully challenged their deportations.
The Larger Picture: A Policy Precedent Being Set in Real Time
The WIRED investigation is notable not only for what it reveals about individual incidents but for what it documents about systemic policy. The decision to deploy BORTAC — an offensive, heavily armed paramilitary unit — for street-level immigration enforcement in American cities had not previously occurred at this scale. Their operations in Chicago, per the WIRED account, add "a new salience" to the Border Patrol Special Operations Group's self-proclaimed status as the "tip of the spear."
The gap between the public messaging ("worst of the worst") and the documented reality (58 percent of detainees with no criminal history) is, as of this writing, a matter of official government record — one that required a federal lawsuit to surface.
BORTAC was built to go after armed cartels in desert terrain. It is now, by design and by order, going door-to-door in American apartment buildings. The body cameras were running. The documents exist. And for the first time, we know some of the names.