A North Side man on Tuesday announced he is suing the federal government over an allegedly warrantless Oct. 24 immigration raid that targeted construction workers on his property at the height of Operation Midway Blitz.
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It has been nearly nine months since a group of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents pulled up on Leo Feler’s leafy Lakeview block, chased a group of laborers who were working on his house and detained one of them before leaving clouds of tear gas in their wake.
Feler’s lawsuit, filed in the Northern District Court of Illinois, names the U.S. government itself as a defendant, in its capacity as the agents’ employer, and the agents themselves. The complaint, which accuses the agents of trespassing and negligence, mainly seeks compensation for property damage and a declaration that Feler’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated during the raid.
It does not name the agents. Representatives with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Feler does not want his property to be invaded by masked federal agents chasing individuals who are not reasonably suspected of committing any crimes,” the complaint reads. “He wants those he invites onto his property to feel safe, just as he wants to feel safe on his own property.”
The lawsuit is seeking about $30,000, mostly accounting for damage to Feler’s property and construction materials, including an air conditioner, two fences, a lock on the front gate and blood throughout the house. Feler, who was traveling in Canada at the time, said he watched it all unfold through his home’s Ring doorbell.
But Feler, speaking Tuesday in front of the gray clapboard house on Lakewood Avenue, said he was bringing the case just as much on principle as he was for actual damages: “Out of a respect, admiration and duty to my country, to our Constitution” as well as his tenants and neighbors, who witnessed the raid and gathered on the block to tell agents they weren’t welcome.
“At the very end of the raid, when these federal agents were backing up without anyone blocking them from backing up, you could hear them yelling, throw the tear gas just for fun,” Feler said. “And that gives them a sense of what this raid was all about — this raid was just for fun for them, but it was traumatic for me.”
The complaint states that the raid made Feler so fearful about leaving his home unattended that he canceled travel plans. He delayed work on the house for several months after the raid, the complaint continued, and no longer lets day laborers do work there if he isn’t home. The complaint also details his difficulties sleeping since the raid, which became so severe that he sought out medication.
Feler said at a news conference that he left a “lucrative private sector job” because his former employer was concerned about potential ramifications from his speaking out about the raid.
Before he started the process of filing a federal lawsuit, Feler said he tried to file a police report, but was ultimately told that police supervisors nixed an investigation into his criminal damage to property report. A Chicago Police Department spokesperson said in October that Feler had been given a victim information notice.
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But Feler said he felt “powerless” in the wake of the raid and his attempts to get authorities to investigate the agents.
“How do we get some attempt at even seeing if there needs to be accountability if we can’t even have the beginnings of an investigation?” he asked.
Dylan Moore, an attorney with the public-interest law firm representing Feler in the case, said Feler didn’t immediately rush to sue the government in the days and months after the raid.
“There were steps he tried to take to get some investigation, some accountability before feeling he had to file a lawsuit,” Moore said. “I think it’s difficult when the only way to actually have the serious conversation about what actually happened here is in the context of federal litigation.”
It was not immediately clear Tuesday when the case would have its first hearing.