RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesA Lake View man sued the federal government Tuesday alleging that immigration agents entered his home without a warrant and arrested a construction worker he’d hired at the height of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign last fall.
Leo Feler was traveling for work on the morning of Oct. 24 when he turned on his Ring camera and saw masked federal agents descending on his home in the 3300 block of North Lakewood Avenue, according to the federal lawsuit. They were chasing a group of workers Feler had hired to repair windows.
Using the camera’s microphone, Feler told the agents they were trespassing and demanded they get off his property, according to the lawsuit. A tenant, who was home at the time, also demanded a warrant but was ignored.
One worker was arrested by federal agents, and dozens of Feler’s neighbors were tear-gassed while protesting. Feler returned home to find several “puddles of blood” and tens of thousands of dollars in damage to his property, according to the lawsuit.
He’s seeking damages from the federal government and all individual agents involved.
“There was no reason for this raid to be happening on my property,” Feler told reporters at a news conference Tuesday outside his home. “There was nothing illegal that had been happening on my property. It was just workers doing construction.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had already torn through several other North Side neighborhoods that morning.
Then they sped the wrong way down Feler’s quiet Lake View block and spotted four workers “peacefully eating lunch” outside his home, according to the lawsuit. Agents poured out of two vans and began chasing the workers, who ran behind Feler’s 6-foot fence and closed the gate.
Unable to break the gate’s lock, agents began scaling the fence and chasing the workers through Feler’s property, entering his backyard, balcony and detached garage, the lawsuit says. One of the four workers was followed into the garage and detained.
When agents brought the worker back to the front, dozens of neighbors had gathered outside protesting the arrest and demanding to see a warrant. As agents continued down the street, they launched at least two canisters of tear gas into the group of neighbors. Witnesses reported hearing no warning before the gas was deployed.
“At the very end of the raid, when these federal agents were backing up, without anyone blocking them from backing up, you could hear them yelling, ‘Throw the tear gas just for fun,’” Feler said.
“That gives you a sense of what this raid was all about,” he added. “This was just for fun for them, but it was traumatic for me.”
After the raid, the government admitted it didn’t have a warrant or any reason to believe that any criminal activity was happening on or near Feler’s property, according to the lawsuit. Feler began working with an immigration attorney to provide support to the worker who’d been detained. He later learned the worker had no criminal history and had been paying taxes. The worker was ordered released from federal custody three weeks after the arrest.
Feler previously attempted to file a report with Chicago police but said he was essentially turned away at the station — twice. One station allowed him to file a report for criminal damage to property but later called to inform him that police would not pursue the case.
“So here I am now,” Feler said. “And I’m bringing this case out of respect, admiration and duty to my country, to our Constitution, to my neighbors who were tear-gassed as they were trying to defend my home, to my tenants who had to endure the raid … to my family and to myself.”
Related
Lake View man wants the Chicago police to investigate feds who entered his property during raid
Feds make arrests across North and Near West sides, deploy tear gas on residential street in Lake View
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