CHICAGO — Fifteen U.S. citizens and legal residents alleging excessive force, wrongful detainment and other harms at the hands of federal immigration agents during last year’s Operation Midway Blitz have taken the first step to sue the Department of Homeland Security, their attorneys announced Thursday.

“Those masked federal agents used our citizens, our clients, as punching bags,” said attorney Antonio Romanucci. “We are holding ICE accountable for the rights that federal agents violated here in Chicago, and we hope these actions lead to not only change here, but systemically across the country.”

Joining attorneys at a news conference announcing the move were three individuals who came face-to-face with DHS agents last fall.

Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Muñoz and Harvard data scientist Kyle Frankovich didn’t know each other before they found themselves cellmates, zip-tied on the ground at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview on Oct. 3, 2025.

The two had both been observing and filming agents from the designated “Free Speech Zone” outside the center, which became a site of repeated clashes between protestors and federal agents last fall.

The two were detained for hours before being loaded into a black van and dropped off at a nearby gas station.

“No charges, no paperwork, no explanations,” Frankovich said. “As a victim and witness of egregious violence by federal agents, I demand accountability.”

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Muñoz, who was thrown to the ground and detained by then-Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, said he repeatedly told agents he was an elected official, hoping they would realize they had made a mistake in detaining him.

“Part of me believed that those words may protect me, where my name made me vulnerable, that they would cause someone to pause, to question, to recognize that something had gone terribly wrong,” he said. “They did not.”

Delayed action

While state and local leaders recently marked the one-year anniversary of Midway Blitz with renewed calls for accountability, no criminal charges have been brought against the agents accused of brutalizing Chicago area residents.

In lieu of prosecutions, plaintiffs are suing agents under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a civil law that allows people sue to federal agencies to recover compensation from property damage, injury, death or emotional distress caused by negligence of federal employees.

Attorneys representing the residents said they are seeking “significant sums of money for each individual,” but declined to provide more specificity as to the amounts.

Federal law enforcement agents are exempt from the law that allow civilians to sue state and local law officials for civil rights violations, leaving torts claims as one of the few pathways to seek accountability — though agents cannot be named individually.

And, torts claims take time. Those hoping to sue must first send an administrative complaint to the agency responsible and give the agency six months to investigate and respond. Only after the agency denies the claim, or fails to respond, can complainants move to file suit.

Attorneys for the residents say they hope the complaints will put pressure on local law enforcement and prosecutors to take criminal action against accused agents and said they expect more filings in the coming weeks.

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This week’s round of complaints follows others submitted earlier this year, including those filed collectively by 18 former residents of a South Shore apartment building who were detained at gunpoint and restrained with zip ties amid a military-style nighttime raid.

Five others who filed torts claims sued in July over agents’ alleged misuse of tear gas and aggressive detention tactics.

Lasting harms

Evanston resident Jennifer Moriarty, herself a Chicago-area trial attorney, was one of the people detained last Halloween after Border Patrol agents allegedly caused a car accident, before engaging in a violent confrontation with bystanders. She also joined attorneys at Thursday’s news conference.

Moriarty previously testified to the Illinois Accountability Commission, a state body tasked with documenting misconduct by federal agents, about how she came upon the scene with the intention of filming agents.

Before she could even pull out her phone, she said, an agent grabbed her by the neck and threw her to the ground, before getting on top of her and struggling to handcuff her.

She was put in an SUV with two other people, including a young man who Moriarty said repeatedly sought medical help for his injuries, which was denied by agents. They were driven around for hours, she said, before being brought to an FBI building.

Like Muñoz and Frankovich, Moriarty and the two others with her were released without charges or given reason for their detention, she said.

“The rage that I have for our government unleashing forces on its own citizens is insurmountable,” Moriarty said. “The rage at the cruelty, and the giddiness that the agents carried out their tactics with, and the rage that they acted with a complete sense of impunity for the crimes that they were actively committing.”

To this day, Moriarty says the sounds of horns honking, helicopters overhead, and whistles blowing still trigger emotional reactions. Sleep, she added, is a luxury she “can no longer afford.”

Muñoz, the son of immigrants, said the fear and uncertainty have stayed with him and his family, and he now carries a copy of his passport wherever he goes. Like Moriarty, he said sleep is a challenge.

“My heart races when I think about what happened and how easily they took my freedom,” Muñoz said. “And I understand even more deeply the fear that generations of immigrant families have carried. I’m tired of carrying what happened that day.”

Human props

When he was forced to the ground by multiple agents, Frankovich said he sustained injuries, including several chipped teeth, a torn muscle in his side, and “significant and lasting” nerve damage in his left arm.

But beyond the physical harm, Frankovich says he endured another exploitation when agents used him and other protestors as “props” for DHS social media and recruiting content.

Frankovich said he observed civilian content creators embedded with agents. Later, they learned that Bovino and then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem were also on site.

“She (Noem) and her entourage paraded past our group of detained protesters in a reverse perp walk, clearly intending to humiliate us,” Frankovich said. “Later, I learned that clearly identifiable photographs of my arrest and detainment were used in official DHS and ICE recruitment materials.”

DHS did not respond to requests for comment by the time this story was published.

Each of the plaintiffs at the conference called for accountability. Muñoz said his determination to bear witness to what he saw at Broadview was strengthened, despite the fear.

“I grew up in rural communities across this country, where immigration raids happened, families disappeared, and what always followed was silence. I remember how painful that silence was,” Muñoz said.

“Today, I’m speaking because we can’t be silent anymore.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.