Illinois Probes Chicago South Shore Landlord After ICE Raid

Illinois is investigating possible housing discrimination by the landlord of a Chicago South Shore apartment complex that became ground zero for a high-profile immigration raid last year, alleging the owners may have coordinated with federal agents to intimidate tenants and force them out.

The Illinois Department of Human Rights said late Wednesday that it filed a formal charge against the owners and managers of the 130-unit building at 7500 South Shore Drive. They include 7500 Shore A, Wisconsin-based investor Trinity Flood and property manager Strength in Management, according to the agency. The New York Times reported that the probe centers on claims that the landlords alerted federal authorities to Venezuelan immigrants living in the building in an effort to coerce Black and Hispanic residents — including U.S. citizens — into leaving.

Gov. JB Pritzker called the allegations “deeply troubling,” saying state law bars not only direct discrimination, but also conduct that aids or abets efforts to interfere with housing and civil rights, as first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Illinois will not tolerate conduct that puts anyone in Illinois at risk of discrimination or harm,” Pritzker said in a statement.

The case stems from a Sept. 30 raid that left the building in chaos and drew national attention. Federal agents arrested at least 37 people, most of them Venezuelan nationals, during what witnesses described as a sweeping operation that included detaining U.S. citizens for hours and separating children from their parents. Residents told the Sun-Times some tenants hid neighbors inside their apartments to avoid arrest.

At the time, officials with the Trump administration said the raid targeted unauthorized immigrants, some with alleged ties to criminal gangs. But the scale of the operation — and its focus on a distressed building in a predominantly Black neighborhood — raised questions about why the property was singled out.

According to the state, the new investigation will examine whether the landlords’ actions amounted to an illegal attempt to clear the building of tenants. In the year leading up to the raid, management filed 25 eviction cases against tenants and squatters, more than the total filed over the previous four years combined, according to the Sun-Times. Most residents were paying rent of between $900 and $1,050 a month.

The property’s troubles didn’t end with the raid. Last month, the remaining residents were forced out after the building was foreclosed on, along with two other South Side properties tied to Flood. Strength in Management and Flood did not respond to requests for comment.

“The conduct alleged in this matter reflects more than isolated harm,” Illinois Department of Human Rights Director Jim Bennett told the Sun-Times. “It describes a pattern of intimidation that reverberates through our communities.”

— Eric Weilbacher