Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Tuesday joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a “targeted operation,” according to a release from the Department of Homeland Security.
The department stated that the operation was to “serve a felony arrest warrant for a criminal illegal alien in the Chicago area.”
The release said several men, all of whom it described as “criminal illegal aliens,” were arrested as a result of the raid. Noem also posted footage of the raid on X.
However, two of the men caught up in the operation were actually U.S. citizens, according to CBS News. The outlet noted that the two individuals were able to prove their citizenship and have since been released.
One of them, 37-year-old Joe Botello, recounted the incident in detail to the Chicago Tribune. Botello, who was born in the U.S., told the Tribune that masked officers entered his home by force, destroying his front door, and that he was handcuffed and questioned inside a Customs and Border Protection vehicle. Botello does not appear on the list of men featured in the DHS press release on the raid.
