An Elgin, Illinois, man who was born in the United States said he was handcuffed, questioned and placed in a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol vehicle before dawn, part of a blitz of immigration enforcement activity reported in the Chicago area early Tuesday.
Joe Botello, 37, recalled being jolted awake before 6 a.m. by his home shaking and the sounds of yelling upstairs on the main floor.
He said masked and armed agents were calling out the name of another man in Spanish and had forcibly entered his house in the 900 block of Chippewa Drive, destroying a front door and glass patio door in the process.
“I’m just blessed that I’m still alive,” Botello said. “I’ve been hearing it and seeing it through social media. But it never crossed my mind that it was going to happen here at the house… where I live.”
Federal authorities did not immediately return Tribune requests for comment on the incident. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a video on social media of four men — including Botello — being handcuffed and taken away from the home.
Noem also appears to hop on a truck at the end of the clip. Neither the video nor Noem’s message explain that Botello is a U.S. citizen and was later released.
“I was on the ground in Chicago today to make clear we are not backing down,” Noem wrote on X as she shared a video of herself in Elgin. “Just this morning, DHS took violent offenders off the streets with arrests for assault, DUI, and felony stalking. Our work is only beginning.”
But Gregory Bovino, an official with U.S. Customs and Border Protection who led immigration operations in Los Angeles this summer, posted on social media early Tuesday announcing that his agency had “arrived” in the Chicago area.
Often using confrontational tactics that critics and posting in-your-face messages on social media, Bovino put out a short video on Instagram with a montage of images from just outside of O’Hare International Airport and the Joliet area, as well as the Centennial Wheel at Navy Pier and Tribune Tower.”Operation At Large is here to continue the mission we started in Los Angeles – to make the city safer by targeting and arresting criminal illegal aliens,” he wrote on the post.
The song “End of Beginning” by artist Djo played in the background of the video clip, which features the lyrics, “You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man…And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it. Another version of me, I was in it. Oh, I wave goodbye to the end of beginning.”
Matt Hill, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, chided Bovino on “X” Tuesday morning, pointing out, among other things, the federal government’s lack of communication with the governor while mocking the Border Patrol official’s video announcing his Chicago-area operation.
“As a federal law enforcement operation gets underway, they don’t pick up the phone to call the Governor but do have the time to create a TikTok video showing off beautiful Chicago scenery,” Hill wrote. “He’s not a serious individual but a wannabe social media star.”
This prompted a flippant response from Bovino, who wrote back, “Tik Tok , tik tok, time is up!! We’ve already arrested several criminals this morning. Much more to come, so stay tuned my friend,” followed by an American flag and several other emojis.
It’s unclear if the ongoing operation is separate from “Operation Midway Blitz,” which was announced specifically for the Chicago area by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week.
Bovino led Trump’s deportation missions in the Los Angeles area at a time when the Trump Administration has made the region a top priority. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies, said authorities have made over 5,000 arrests since early June as part of those efforts, which have prompted protests and the deployment of the Marines and National Guard.
As for the apparent raid at the Elgin home, Botello said agents had him put his hands behind his head and back up slowly through the patio door, telling him to be careful because the frame was filled with shards of glass. He said that he and five male roommates were handcuffed outside and placed into a vehicle that said U.S. Customs and Border Patrol on the side. Botello added that he was never told why he was handcuffed or read his rights.
According to Botello, one agent asked him how he was able to speak English so well and Botello said he replied that he was a United States citizen and had been born in Texas.
After checking Botello’s identification, the agents released him and one of his roommates Botello said the agents took the other four roommates away in vehicles and didn’t say where they were going or why they were detained.
“They were about to take me without explaining to me where I was going to go or what was going on. And then I showed them my ID. I told them it was in my wallet,” Botello said. “I’m glad I was able to grab my wallet in order to have some type of identification.”
The father of five said his first thought was that he would be late for work. Then he was grateful his children who he has on weekends weren’t with him at the time because the scene would have terrified them. Botello spent the rest of the morning calling his daughter, patching the two empty door frames with plywood and scrambling to contact the loved ones of his roommates, in the hopes of tracking down their location.
“I’m still a little bit in shock. I’m just glad that I’m OK,” he added. “I recommend that everyone always have their documentation — their passport if they can, and any type of ID that would identify them…. Stay safe.”
State Sen. Cristina Castro said she was alerted by community members in the largely Latino northwest suburb of more than 100,000 people that law enforcement went to the home around 5 a.m. “in full military gear” and “SWAT-like vehicles,” and established their presence with the use of flash-bang grenades.
Castro, a Democrat who grew up in Elgin, said “different sources” she spoke to were “pretty confident” that the officers on scene were U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents, though she didn’t know if anyone was removed from the home. While she didn’t want to elaborate on her sources’ level of knowledge, Castro also said local authorities were not running any operations of that scale Tuesday morning.
“I think we should brace ourselves, not only just in Elgin, but in other parts of this state and the city, (to hear of) more of these operations taking place,” Castro told the Tribune. “I think it’s unnerving. It’s unsettling. People are afraid. They’ve been afraid even to celebrate Mexican Independence Day weekend. But this is just going to put more fear in hard-working people who really just are here to have a better life.”
In Chicago, state Rep. Edgar Gonzalez said he’s been alerted to possible sightings of ICE or other immigration enforcement agents on Tuesday in the vicinity of 47th Street and South California Avenue, which is right on the edge of his Southwest Side legislative district. And there’s been word of more federal immigration activity in the last couple days near 26th Street and Springfield Avenue in his heavily-Latino Little Village community.
Gonzalez said volunteers and nonprofits have been working with people in Little Village and surrounding communities to keep tabs the best they can on any sightings of immigration enforcement activity, and to make sure undocumented individuals in the area know their rights if confronted by agents.
“In Little Village and Pilsen, especially the Southwest Side of Chicago, there’s a huge infrastructure for dealing with ICE sightings,” he said. “People are still on edge.”
Delani Hernandez, a volunteer immigration advocate, said she witnessed another apparent raid in Elgin early Tuesday.
Near the Gail Borden Public Library on Illinois Route 31, she said she saw three unmarked vehicles with flashing blue and red lights pull over another car. Agents in ICE vests then questioned the driver, handcuffed him and took him away in one of the unmarked vehicles, leaving the driver’s car by the side of the road, Hernandez said.
“And he was just saying that he’s not a criminal, he has a family and that he’s going to work,” she said.
Hernandez, 27, said she and other volunteers patrol the Elgin area every day starting at 4 a.m. to try and spot immigration enforcement activity.
“A lot of people feel helpless. I feel defeated,” she said. “But I’m not going to give up.”
© 2025 Chicago Tribune.
Visit chicagotribune.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
