Lauren FitzPatrick
@bylaurenfitz.bsky.social
Reporter! Still watchdogging for the Chicago Sun-Times. Happy grower of: some food, bee buffets, #TheHeir. Same @bylaurenfitz over on Instagram, too. Read my work: https://chicago.suntimes.com/authors/lauren-fitzpatrick Haters will be blocked.
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Sen. Durbin sent a scathing letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking for info about U.S. citizens who have been caught in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement “dragnet.”
Noem had claimed that no citizens were arrested in Operation Midway Blitz.
tinyurl.com/472y24j7
Noem had claimed that no citizens were arrested in Operation Midway Blitz.
tinyurl.com/472y24j7
Sen. Durbin presses Kristi Noem about U.S. citizens arrested during feds’ immigration ‘dragnet’
Durbin said nationwide immigration enforcement operations have led to the wrongful detention of at least 170 people during President Trump's second term, including at least 40 who were arrested in Ill...
tinyurl.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Sen. Durbin sent a scathing letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking for info about U.S. citizens who have been caught in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement “dragnet.”
Noem had claimed that no citizens were arrested in Operation Midway Blitz.
tinyurl.com/472y24j7
Noem had claimed that no citizens were arrested in Operation Midway Blitz.
tinyurl.com/472y24j7
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Body cam shows an immigration agent asking ChatGPT for help writing a report:
“During surveillance in the area, I observed a male subject loitering while seated in a vehicle. Based on his behavior, I approached and initiated a consensual encounter.”
ICYMI:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/28/b...
“During surveillance in the area, I observed a male subject loitering while seated in a vehicle. Based on his behavior, I approached and initiated a consensual encounter.”
ICYMI:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/28/b...
Bodycam footage from Operation Midway Blitz released: ‘It’s all about arresting people’
The group of videos made public through the Loevy & Loevy law firm includes footage from agents who responded to controversial arrest operations in the Little Village and Irving Park neighborho…
www.chicagotribune.com
December 1, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Body cam shows an immigration agent asking ChatGPT for help writing a report:
“During surveillance in the area, I observed a male subject loitering while seated in a vehicle. Based on his behavior, I approached and initiated a consensual encounter.”
ICYMI:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/28/b...
“During surveillance in the area, I observed a male subject loitering while seated in a vehicle. Based on his behavior, I approached and initiated a consensual encounter.”
ICYMI:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/28/b...
#ICYMI: Wowza and hoo boy from @estheryjkang.bsky.social and @amyqin.bsky.social about a glibly named landlord that has collected millions in federal rent subsidies as tenants cite history of poor maintenance and deplorable conditions about chicago.suntimes.com/real-estate/...
What happened when Sausage King of Chicago bought a South Side housing complex?
The landlord has gotten millions in federal rent subsidies even as tenants complain about years of poor maintenance and deplorable conditions.
chicago.suntimes.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:41 PM
#ICYMI: Wowza and hoo boy from @estheryjkang.bsky.social and @amyqin.bsky.social about a glibly named landlord that has collected millions in federal rent subsidies as tenants cite history of poor maintenance and deplorable conditions about chicago.suntimes.com/real-estate/...
Probably should eat something today? Phone won't stop ringing.
November 14, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Probably should eat something today? Phone won't stop ringing.
Talk about team coverage -->> Tear gas, car crashes, rubber bullets: Risky tactics have driven Trump’s Chicago deportation ‘blitz’ chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
Tear gas, car crashes, rubber bullets: Risky tactics have driven Trump’s Chicago deportation ‘blitz’
Law enforcement experts say federal agents have displayed a lack of training and restraint. “They’re out of control,” ex-police Supt. Garry McCarthy says.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Talk about team coverage -->> Tear gas, car crashes, rubber bullets: Risky tactics have driven Trump’s Chicago deportation ‘blitz’ chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
What a read. A very personal deportation story. chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2... by @vanessalop.bsky.social
He worked hard to give me a home. ICE took his: How I lost my father to deportation
Deportation has taken away the father I once knew and given me back a person I no longer recognize.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:50 PM
What a read. A very personal deportation story. chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2... by @vanessalop.bsky.social
Literally watch the clips // Nader Issa reports: Watch how government 'propaganda' techniques portray Chicago as a city at war with the feds chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Watch how government ‘propaganda’ techniques portray Chicago as a city at war with the feds
The government’s social media storytelling doesn’t always match what’s happening across the city and suburbs. The diverging sources of information are creating “parallel universes," Professor Nick Cul...
chicago.suntimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Literally watch the clips // Nader Issa reports: Watch how government 'propaganda' techniques portray Chicago as a city at war with the feds chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Ellis: [Bovino] admitted that he lied about whether a rock hit him before he deployed tear gas in Little Village."
November 6, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Ellis: [Bovino] admitted that he lied about whether a rock hit him before he deployed tear gas in Little Village."
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Ellis turns to the testimony of U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino. How he denied using force against a man he tackled and said he didn't see the Rev. David Black hit by pepperballs.
"More telling," she says, "defendant Bovino admitted that he lied."
"More telling," she says, "defendant Bovino admitted that he lied."
November 6, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Ellis turns to the testimony of U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino. How he denied using force against a man he tackled and said he didn't see the Rev. David Black hit by pepperballs.
"More telling," she says, "defendant Bovino admitted that he lied."
"More telling," she says, "defendant Bovino admitted that he lied."
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Ellis: "The government would have people believe, instead, that the Chicagoland area is in a vice hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators. That simply is untrue. And the government's own evidence in this case belies that assertion."
November 6, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Ellis: "The government would have people believe, instead, that the Chicagoland area is in a vice hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators. That simply is untrue. And the government's own evidence in this case belies that assertion."
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Ellis begins by quoting from Carl Sandburg's "Chicago": www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Chicago
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 6, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Ellis begins by quoting from Carl Sandburg's "Chicago": www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis just took the bench. She's expected to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction governing the use of force by federal agents in Chicago.
Good morning. Back in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who is expected to rule in 20 minutes on the use of force by federal agents against protesters and journalists in Chicago.
'It's a disgrace': Chicagoans describe jarring encounters with feds as judge prepares to rule on 'blitz'
From @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
From @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
November 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis just took the bench. She's expected to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction governing the use of force by federal agents in Chicago.
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Gettleman: "I'm going to rule on the record that I have. And it's a disturbing record. I think everybody can admit that we don't want to treat people the way that I heard people are being treated today."
November 4, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Gettleman: "I'm going to rule on the record that I have. And it's a disturbing record. I think everybody can admit that we don't want to treat people the way that I heard people are being treated today."
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
U.S. Robert Gettleman is now giving his thoughts. He says, "I think the evidence has been pretty strong that this facility is no longer just a temporary holding facility. …
"It has really become a prison."
"It has really become a prison."
DOJ's Jana Brady steps up next but says she'll largely "rest on our brief that we filed."
She wants any TRO to not "interfere with the executive branch."
She wants any TRO to not "interfere with the executive branch."
November 4, 2025 at 10:01 PM
U.S. Robert Gettleman is now giving his thoughts. He says, "I think the evidence has been pretty strong that this facility is no longer just a temporary holding facility. …
"It has really become a prison."
"It has really become a prison."
Trump administration says SNAP will be partially funded after judges’ rulings. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. chicago.suntimes.com/nation-world...
Trump administration says SNAP will be partially funded after judges’ rulings
The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Trump administration says SNAP will be partially funded after judges’ rulings. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. chicago.suntimes.com/nation-world...
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
It comes less than three weeks after federal agents tear gassed the neighborhood and took a person (while another was freed by community members) just blocks away.
Feds deploy tear gas in Albany Park as neighbors respond to them detaining people. One person was taken, though another was freed.
“I was afraid to go over there. I got braver the more people came out. I know my neighbors have my back, and I have their back."
“I was afraid to go over there. I got braver the more people came out. I know my neighbors have my back, and I have their back."
Feds deploy tear gas in another Chicago neighborhood: 'We chased federal agents out of Albany Park today'
A federal judge’s temporary restraining order requires federal agents to issue two warnings before using riot control weapons such as tear gas. Witnesses says they didn't get any warning.
chicago.suntimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:51 PM
It comes less than three weeks after federal agents tear gassed the neighborhood and took a person (while another was freed by community members) just blocks away.
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Feds deploy tear gas in Albany Park as neighbors respond to them detaining people. One person was taken, though another was freed.
“I was afraid to go over there. I got braver the more people came out. I know my neighbors have my back, and I have their back."
“I was afraid to go over there. I got braver the more people came out. I know my neighbors have my back, and I have their back."
Feds deploy tear gas in another Chicago neighborhood: 'We chased federal agents out of Albany Park today'
A federal judge’s temporary restraining order requires federal agents to issue two warnings before using riot control weapons such as tear gas. Witnesses says they didn't get any warning.
chicago.suntimes.com
October 12, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Feds deploy tear gas in Albany Park as neighbors respond to them detaining people. One person was taken, though another was freed.
“I was afraid to go over there. I got braver the more people came out. I know my neighbors have my back, and I have their back."
“I was afraid to go over there. I got braver the more people came out. I know my neighbors have my back, and I have their back."
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
A federal judge seemed skeptical of the Trump’s administration’s argument that SNAP benefits could be suspended for the first time in the food aid program’s history because of the government shutdown. news.wttw.com/2025/10/30/j...
Judge Questions the Trump Administration’s Plan to Suspend SNAP Benefits for Millions
“You are not going to make everyone drop dead because it’s a political game someplace,” U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in court.
news.wttw.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:04 PM
A federal judge seemed skeptical of the Trump’s administration’s argument that SNAP benefits could be suspended for the first time in the food aid program’s history because of the government shutdown. news.wttw.com/2025/10/30/j...
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
The changes would fall disproportionately on some of Trump’s most loyal supporters in red states who have, for decades, toiled in physically grueling jobs, including coal mining, logging, and factory and construction work
www.propublica.org/article/soci...
www.propublica.org/article/soci...
Red State Workers Could Lose Out on Disability Benefits as Trump Administration Rewrites Eligibility Rules
Planned changes to Social Security’s disability program could leave hundreds of thousands of older blue-collar workers ineligible for aid. These changes would fall disproportionately on some of Presid...
www.propublica.org
October 31, 2025 at 3:46 PM
The changes would fall disproportionately on some of Trump’s most loyal supporters in red states who have, for decades, toiled in physically grueling jobs, including coal mining, logging, and factory and construction work
www.propublica.org/article/soci...
www.propublica.org/article/soci...
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
Broadview ICE facility a ‘black box’ where immigrants denied access to lawyers, medicine: lawsuit
Story by @bylaurenfitz.bsky.social: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Story by @bylaurenfitz.bsky.social: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Broadview ICE facility a ‘black box’ where immigrants denied access to lawyers, medicine: lawsuit
The ACLU of Illinois and others ask a federal judge to intervene against ‘inhumane’ conditions. Federal immigration officials have said the facility follows its rules.
chicago.suntimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Broadview ICE facility a ‘black box’ where immigrants denied access to lawyers, medicine: lawsuit
Story by @bylaurenfitz.bsky.social: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Story by @bylaurenfitz.bsky.social: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
It's hard to read the numbers when officers are wearing them- funky colors, in different spots from officer to officer, handwritten, UPSIDE DOWN. Incredible @chicago.suntimes.com photogs @ashleerezin.bsky.social and Anthony Vazquez have been accumulating photographs these many weeks...
A judge ordered agents involved in the Chicago deportation blitz to have "visible identification … prominently displayed."
But they've been missing in dozens of @chicago.suntimes.com photographs.
From @bylaurenfitz.bsky.social, Anthony Vazquez and Ashlee Rezin: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
But they've been missing in dozens of @chicago.suntimes.com photographs.
From @bylaurenfitz.bsky.social, Anthony Vazquez and Ashlee Rezin: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
IDs are mismatched, illegible or still missing 3 weeks after judge’s order to immigration officers
In dozens of photographs at four locations, Chicago Sun-Times photojournalists documented federal officers failing to wear the “visible identification” needed to hold individuals accountable during th...
chicago.suntimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:57 PM
It's hard to read the numbers when officers are wearing them- funky colors, in different spots from officer to officer, handwritten, UPSIDE DOWN. Incredible @chicago.suntimes.com photogs @ashleerezin.bsky.social and Anthony Vazquez have been accumulating photographs these many weeks...
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
MORE NEWS: The Justice Department seeks an "immediate administrative stay" to prevent the requirement that U.S. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino appear daily in the courtroom of Judge Sara Ellis.
October 29, 2025 at 7:57 PM
MORE NEWS: The Justice Department seeks an "immediate administrative stay" to prevent the requirement that U.S. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino appear daily in the courtroom of Judge Sara Ellis.
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
#BREAKING The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts a hold on Judge Sara Ellis’ order requiring U.S. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino to appear in court daily.
October 29, 2025 at 8:55 PM
#BREAKING The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts a hold on Judge Sara Ellis’ order requiring U.S. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino to appear in court daily.
Reposted by Lauren FitzPatrick
'Political Opposition is not Rebellion'
Today's @chicago.suntimes.com front page story on Thursday's ruling from the federal appeals court in Chicago.
National Guard deployment still blocked in Illinois: chicago.suntimes.com/donald-trump...
Today's @chicago.suntimes.com front page story on Thursday's ruling from the federal appeals court in Chicago.
National Guard deployment still blocked in Illinois: chicago.suntimes.com/donald-trump...
October 17, 2025 at 1:14 PM
'Political Opposition is not Rebellion'
Today's @chicago.suntimes.com front page story on Thursday's ruling from the federal appeals court in Chicago.
National Guard deployment still blocked in Illinois: chicago.suntimes.com/donald-trump...
Today's @chicago.suntimes.com front page story on Thursday's ruling from the federal appeals court in Chicago.
National Guard deployment still blocked in Illinois: chicago.suntimes.com/donald-trump...
Chicago-area Head Start programs spared from government shutdown — until December. But advocates say children enrolled in this federal early childhood education could be harmed by other funding cutoffs taking effect Saturday, including to SNAP food assistance. chicago.suntimes.com/education/20...
Chicago-area Head Start programs spared from government shutdown — until December
But advocates say children enrolled in this federal early childhood education could be harmed by other funding cutoffs taking effect Saturday, including to SNAP food assistance.
chicago.suntimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Chicago-area Head Start programs spared from government shutdown — until December. But advocates say children enrolled in this federal early childhood education could be harmed by other funding cutoffs taking effect Saturday, including to SNAP food assistance. chicago.suntimes.com/education/20...