As violent escalations of force and unconstitutional tactics increase, Americans are faced with the reality of living under siege.
In January of this year, The Free Thought Project sounded the alarm on how Trump’s immigration crackdown empowers the police state. In that article, we highlighted the ways in which Donald Trump’s illegal day one executive orders targeted millions of Americans including tens of thousands of American-born children and attacked the legal immigration process, making the administration’s xenophobic agenda blatantly clear.
We further documented how, from the very beginning, the raids raised a series of civil liberty concerns, illustrating that numerous American citizens had been detained or had their rights violated by ICE officers. We also highlighted how the Trump administration—following in the footsteps of its predecessors—continues to scapegoat the manufactured “immigration crisis” as a false pretext to erode constitutional protections within the United States and to erect a biometric surveillance panopticon.
Needless to say, in the ten months since that report, Trump has essentially declared an everywhere war against large swathes of the American people and the Constitution as a whole, despite the fact that data shows crime had been steadily declining in every city Trump threatened with police takeover. While the wannabe dictator uses federal troops to invade American cities and threaten to arrest any official who dares resist his authoritarianism, ICE operates as a modern-day Gestapo, given carte blanche to use excessive force however they please.
While Trump opines about using American cities as training grounds for the US military, federal agents already readily employ military hardware and tactics on American streets.
As documented by ABC7 Chicago, in the late-night hours of September 30th, 2025, residents of Chicago’s South Shore apartment complex awoke to the sound of rumbling rotor blades as a Black Hawk helicopter descended upon the building. Agents clad in military-style gear rappelled from above and stormed the floors below. In a coordinated tactical siege, agents raided the building, destroying property, blowing doors off their hinges, clearing rooms with flash bangs, and forcibly detaining all residents for several hours—the vast majority of whom were American citizens, including the elderly and children.
The raid has left the community reeling, with residents feeling unsafe, as if living in an active combat zone. Speaking at a press conference along with victims of the incident, Representative Delia Ramirez responded to comments made by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that the “Department of War was coming to Chicago”, stating that the administration has effectively declared war on an American city, which she characterized as an act of treason.
Several other egregious and unlawful uses of force are increasing with unsettling regularity as Chicago becomes a frontline battleground.
One frequent area of contention has been an ICE detention facility in the West Chicago suburb area of Broadview. A number of incidents have taken place outside of the facility in which demonstrators protesting the unlawful actions of ICE have been the victims of numerous violent escalations.
One such incident went viral after 26 year old US House candidate for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District Kat Abughazaleh was violently thrown to the ground by agents amid a protest.
The congressional candidate was not the only public official targeted by the agents. As Axios reports, Evanston mayor Daniel Biss, himself a 9th District congressional candidate, was also among many targeted by tear gas during demonstrations outside of the facility.
A demonstrator is taken into custody by federal law enforcement agents as tear gas fills the air during a protest outside of an immigration processing center in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19.Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Others wounded by the agents indiscriminate acts of violence include local pastor Rev. David Black, the minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, who was directly targeted and shot with multiple pepper ball rounds to the head and torso while in a gesture of prayer.
Protesters gathered outside of the suburban Chicago ICE Detention Center in Broadview treat injuries sustained from repeated chemical weapons deployed by federal agents on Sept. 19. | Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images
Further demonstrating the agents’ lawlessness, CBS News reporter Asal Rezaei was the victim of an unprovoked attack on a separate occasion. While driving past the Broadview facility—at a time when no protests were taking place—her vehicle was struck with pepper balls. One of the chemical projectiles was fired directly through her driver’s side window, filling the interior with gas and leaving her incapacitated and vomiting on the side of the road. The incident resulted in Broadview police launching a criminal investigation which has yet to be resolved.
The use of chemical agents has been a frequent tactic of ICE officials throughout their nationwide crackdown, particularly in Chicago. One recently published damning video shows agents callously deploying canisters of tear gas on a crowded public street in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, surrounded by innocent bystanders as agents attempt to gain access to the parking lot of the Rico Fresh grocery store.
The chemical attack resulted in multiple civilians inhaling the toxic substance and suffering from its effects.
These incidents in Chicago are but a microcosm of the macrocosm that is the larger threat of these rogue agents sweeping their way across the country acting in contravention of the United States constitution, backed by federal impunity. Abuses like this are occurring throughout numerous major cities including Portland and beyond.
In California, several resident citizens have filed multi-million dollar lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security for damages incurred due to the reckless behavior of ICE agents.
In September, 79 year old Rafie Ollah Shouhed, the owner of Valley Car Wash in Van Nuys, California, was the victim of a brutal assault when ICE agents descended upon his place of business in an attempt to apprehend his employees. Without presenting a warrant and while completely disregarding constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure, when Shouhed confronted the masked intruders he would be violently slammed to the ground and injured in the process, before ultimately being detained for up to 12 hours.
In July, 56 year old Jaime Alanís Garcia was fatally injured during an ICE raid on a cannabis farm on the outskirts of Camarillo, California — injuries caused by the excessive force of immigration agents which resulted in Garcia falling 30 feet from a greenhouse roof onto a concrete floor. The fall caused blunt force head and neck injuries which ultimately resulted in his death.
Throughout the summer, independent journalists at The Intercept released a report documenting over a dozen instances of excessive force and violence by immigration officials in Los Angeles alone; ranging from physical assaults, to tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and stun grenades employed against American citizens during raids and protests.
Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles are only the beginning. While not as numerous as in these aforementioned cities, acts of violence such as these documented here are already steadily on the rise in neighborhoods across the United States. As these operations expand further throughout the country the threat of violence against American citizens only increases in light of this administration’s blatant disregard for due process of law.
Here at The Free Thought Project we have long warned against the militarization of police on both the state and federal level building the standing army that our founding fathers warned of. The time for warnings is beyond us. The standing army is here.