Cinematographer and photographer Carlos Javier Ortiz had been working on a film about Chicago’s recent influx of immigrants — how these newcomers are making a home for themselves in difficult circumstances — when Operation Midway Blitz began here this fall. With hundreds of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents arriving in Chicago, detaining people, and clashing with residents, Ortiz did what any good documentarian would do: He grabbed his camera.

Ortiz managed to capture some of the deployment’s most dramatic moments: the aftermath of a raid on a South Shore apartment building, a tense confrontation between federal agents and East Side residents, clashes between protesters and officers outside the Broadview processing center. We asked Ortiz to share with us selects stills and clips, along with his impressions. The shots are breathtaking and otherworldly — images of what would once have seemed unfathomable here. 

“People like myself and others I know feel like there’s a better way of doing this,” Ortiz says of the crackdown. “It’s almost cruel on purpose.” But Ortiz, who was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in Chicago, is heartened by the response from people across the city. “They’re out protesting. They’re organizing communally. Chicago gets this reputation of the most segregated city, so it’s amazing seeing other Chicagoans standing up.”