These are the sights and sounds of Trump's immigration crackdown in Chicago

For nearly two months, federal agents have been carrying out surprise raids in Chicago in pursuit of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, emerging from unmarked vehicles in neighborhoods throughout the city to confront and detain stunned members of the public.

The arrests have been aggressive and even violent, with agents striking restrained people, deploying tear gas outside of schools, and pointing pepper spray at brazen onlookers who inevitably gather to decry what’s happening.

A culture of fear has taken hold, with some people too scared to leave home, especially in the city's predominantly Latino communities. In social media posts and interviews, many have expressed shock at the agents' use of force.

Since it began in early September, “Operation Midway Blitz” has resulted in more than 3,300 arrests, according to attorneys for detainees. In addition to people who were in the country illegally, many U.S. citizens have been swept up in the crackdown.

The operations have been dizzyingly random. Agents have targeted both high- and low-income neighborhoods. They’ve made stops at schools, workplaces and grocery stores. Even Millennium Park, the site of Cloud Gate — the sculpture lovingly known as “The Bean” — has seen arrests.

The crackdown has galvanized Chicagoans, who have banded together to protect their neighbors. They have borne witness the best way they could: by pulling out their phones to document what was happening.

The Associated Press has gathered some of these videos. For this story, some of the details of the people involved in the arrests, including their names, ages and immigration statuses, were gleaned from interviews, local news reports and court records.

The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn't respond to emails sent Friday seeking further information and comment about the actions taken by agents seen in the footage. But Trump administration officials have previously routinely defended agents' actions.

On Oct. 14 in the East Side neighborhood on Chicago’s far South Side, Jose Aguilar had just heard from family that federal agents were in the area when he spotted four in uniform following two people into a nearby pharmacy.

“That guy just ran inside a Walgreens,” Aguilar said while shooting cellphone video from his car. “Here comes the other one.”

“God, please protect our people,” he said.

Seconds later, an agent chased a Black teen coming out of the store and tackled him to the ground as onlookers gathered and began yelling at the agents.

“What is wrong with you? He’s a citizen!” one girl yelled.

“You don’t know what’s going on, so get the f—- back!” the agent barked as he sat atop the teenager.

He was detained for hours before his eventual release, according to local news reports.

On Oct. 24 in Lakeview, blocks from iconic Wrigley Field, where the Cubs play, federal agents deployed tear gas on a street lined with multimillion dollar homes.

Skip Yates was in his home office when he heard screams and the shrill whistles Chicagoans have been blowing to signal immigration agents are nearby. He peered from his veranda to see large vehicles and tear gas wafting down the street.

Yates shut the door as he began coughing, his eyes burning.

“Skip,” a woman’s voice said sternly from inside the house. “Do not go outside.”

Down the street, construction workers in red shirts were taking a break from replacing windows on a home when a white SUV pulled up. Before the agents even sprang from the car, the contractors knew what was coming and took off in every direction.

Within seconds, the peaceful street dissolved into chaos. One worker eating lunch on the stoop scrambled back from the scene, watching from the front porch as the agents chased the contractors amid yelling and popping sounds.

A woman emerged from inside the home to witness the scene unfolding.

“Excuse me, you don’t have a warrant,” she told the agents in her yard. They were not deterred.

The next morning in Old Irving Park, a neighborhood a few miles (kilometers) west, Uriel Villegas and his older brother were doing construction work on a home when federal agents pulled up in a car and asked if they had papers.

Villegas did, but his brother, Luis, didn’t. He didn’t want to get caught, so he ran. Four agents chased him.

“Chill! That’s my brother!” Villegas yelled as he ran after them. When he caught up to them, he saw the agents pinning his brother to the ground on someone’s lawn.

“Get off of me!” he said, his voice breaking as agents pushed him back from his brother.

In the background, a resident told agents to get off his private property as members of the public flocked to the scene and began recording the agents.

“Don’t get away, don’t get away,” Villegas pleaded, pushing past people to watch the agents put his brother into a white SUV.

The scene intensified as the crowd grew, the agents becoming more aggressive with onlookers. Villegas captured two more arrests on video showing agents restraining two people flat on the ground. One was a 70-year-old man who was out for a run and whose ribs were broken by agents kneeling on his chest, according to the man's running club, which posted about the incident on social media.

Villegas’s brother is now in Michigan, awaiting a Dec. 6 immigration hearing.

On Oct. 31 in Evanston, the suburb just north of Chicago that's home to Northwestern University, witnesses captured video of how a collision with a Border Patrol vehicle escalated. Agents began making arrests, and people screamed as an agent punched a man’s head even though he was restrained on the ground.

“You’re punching him! You’re punching him!” one woman repeatedly yelled.

As agents pushed onlookers back and pointed pepper spray at the crowd, dozens of people began chanting and encircling the agents' vehicle.

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” they chanted over and over.

Associated Press video journalist Laura Bargfeld contributed to this report.

People walk along the street where federal immigration agents arrested three people in an October incident, including one of three brothers doing construction in the area and another 70-year-old man, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in the Old Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Uriel Villegas, top left, and his brother Julian work at the construction site where their older brother was taken by federal immigration agents in October, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Uriel Villegas, who recorded cell phone video of the incident involving his older brother and as agents arrested two others in October, works at the construction site where his older brother was taken last month by federal immigration agents, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Skip Yates, who witnessed federal immigration agents deploy tear gas on his street in Lakeview in October, stands in front of his home, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Jose Aguilar, who recorded cell phone video of federal agents chasing and tackling a Black teen in the East Side neighborhood in October, stands outside his family's business Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones blasted apartment buildings and the power grid in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in his country's eventual victory in the nearly four-year war against its neighbor.

Four apartment buildings were damaged in the Odesa bombardment, according to regional military administration head Oleh Kiper. The DTEK power provider said two of its energy facilities had significant damage. The company said 10 substations that distribute electricity in the region have been damaged in December.

Russia has escalated attacks on urban areas of Ukraine. As its invasion approaches a four-year milestone in February, it has also intensified targeting of energy infrastructure, seeking to deny Ukrainians heat and running water in the bitter winter months.

Between January and November, more than 2,300 Ukrainian civilians were killed and more than 11,000 were injured, the United Nations said earlier in December. That was 26% higher than in the same period in 2024 and 70% higher than in 2023, it said.

There are renewed diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting.

U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday and announced that a settlement is “closer than ever before." The Ukrainian leader is due to hold talks next week with European leaders supporting his efforts to secure acceptable terms.

Despite progress in peace negotiations, which he didn't mention, Putin reaffirmed his belief in Russia’s eventual success in its invasion during his traditional New Year’s address.

He gave special praise to Russian troops deployed in Ukraine, describing them as heroes “fighting for your native land, truth and justice.”

“We believe in you and our victory,” Putin said, as cited by Russian state news agency Tass.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 86 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russian regions, the Black Sea and the illegally annexed Crimea peninsula.

Russia’s Defense Ministry released a video of a downed drone that it said was one of 91 Ukrainian drones involved in an alleged attack this week on a Putin residence in northwestern Russia, a claim Kyiv has denied as a “lie.”

The nighttime video showed a man in camouflage, a helmet and a Kevlar vest standing near a damaged drone lying in snow. The man, his face covered, talks about the drone. Neither the man nor the Defense Ministry provided any location or date.

The video and claims could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian officials have denied the allegations of an attack on Putin’s lakeside country residence and called them a ruse to derail progress in peace negotiations.

Maj. Gen. Alexander Romanenkov of the Russian air force claimed that the drones took off from Ukraine’s Sumy and Chernihiv regions. At a briefing where no questions were allowed, he presented a map showing the drone flight routes before they allegedly were downed by Russian air defenses over the Bryansk, Tver, Smolensk and Novgorod regions.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, called the Russian allegations “a deliberate distraction” from peace talks.

Zelenskyy said Romania and Croatia are the latest countries to join a fund that buys weapons for Ukraine from the United States.

The financial arrangement, known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, pools contributions from NATO members, except the United States, to purchase U.S. weapons, munitions and equipment.

Since it was established in August, 24 countries are now contributing to the fund, according to Zelenskyy. The fund has received $4.3 billion, with almost $1.5 billion coming in December, he said on social media.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Security Service carried out a drone strike on a major Russian fuel storage facility in the northwestern Yaroslavl region early Tuesday, according to a Ukrainian security official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Long-range drones struck the Temp oil depot in the city of Rybinsk, part of Russia’s state fuel reserve system, the official told The Associated Press. Rybinsk is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

A previous version of this story was corrected to give the timing of the alleged attack on Putin's residence as late Sunday and early Monday.

Katie Marie Davies in Leicester, England, contributed to this story.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This image made from undated video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, shows a downed drone at an undisclosed location that it said was one of the Ukrainian drones involved in an alleged attack on a residence of President Vladimir Putin this week – a claim Kyiv has denied as a "lie". (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

This image made from undated video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, shows a downed drone at an undisclosed location that it said was one of the Ukrainian drones involved in an alleged attack on a residence of President Vladimir Putin this week – a claim Kyiv has denied as a "lie". (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

This image made from undated video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, shows a man in camouflage standing by a downed drone at an undisclosed location that it said was one of the Ukrainian drones involved in an alleged attack on a residence of President Vladimir Putin this week – a claim Kyiv has denied as a "lie". (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this image made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, a Russian Army soldier fires from D-30 howitzer towards Ukrainian positions in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)