ICE HELICOPTERS, FLASHBANGS AND FAA NO-FLY ORDERS: MILITARIZED RAIDS HIT CHICAGO AND L.A.

Federal immigration agencies are deploying military-style hardware and tactics in urban operations, including helicopter insertions, armored vehicles, flashbang grenades and Predator drones. A pre-dawn ICE raid in Chicago left an apartment complex in ruins and residents traumatized, while FAA restrictions created a wide no-drone zone that limited independent observation. Lawsuits from journalists and civil liberties groups and inquiries from Democratic lawmakers challenge DHS to justify tactics and produce warrants and arrest figures. Experts warn the militarization blurs lines between military and policing and heightens constitutional and public-safety risks.