For months, the Trump administration has justified its dramatic midnight raid on a Chicago apartment complex by saying that it had intelligence that the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. But officials have provided no evidence to back up the claim.
Now, new documents confirm in the government’s own words that what prompted the raid was more pedestrian: allegations that immigrants were squatting in the complex. And the landlord had given federal officials, who were already targeting immigrants in Chicago, the blessing to search the building.
Of course the piece of shit landlord gave permission.
My first thought, too. Then I looked at this Trinity Flood, who is either a person (unlikely) or a property developer/investment company. That’s a murky fucking pit. It has a history of not paying on loans and declaring bankruptcy - the trump model of business. Is it a shell company?
Meanwhile, Corey Oliver, the property manager, has been in cahoots with a PAC that appears to be bribing Chicago aldermen. It’s all a giant shitshow of corruption and sleazy business dealings.
So, SOP for Chicago?
In all seriousness, I remember Adam Davidson saying that he was looking into the Trump real estate shenanigans with the Russian oligarchs. When he talked to a prosecutor about why the obvious corruption wasn’t being pursued the response was that basically all major construction in every American city was at least partially a vehicle for money laundering. I would be truly stunned if that criminality didn’t flow into the landlord business.
Wasn’t the owner of the building underwater on it and it all needed asbestos remediation and after the raid it became an insurance write off. That’s what I have heard anyway.
I didn’t see anything that specifically mentioned asbestos, but yes to being underwater, which can be advantageous in shady property developments. Trinity Flood seems to have a long history of slumlord behavior in its Illinois, Georgia, and Arizona properties, and while the insurance angle isn’t apparent, there’s certainly a pattern resembling exploitation and scammy business practices.
Any vacant property should be considered a liability and the landlord should be charged with negligence and endangering the community. If a landlord can’t get enough tenants to occupy their property, and report on ongoing conditions, then they should be required to hire full-time (40 hrs/week) human community members to monitor and occupy a reasonable number of units, while providing daily reports on ongoing conditions.
Waived rent and utility costs would be an acceptable form of payment.
Does landlord permission to enter the property override tenant’s rights? You’d still need a judicial warrant to break in to an apartment and drag the tenants out.
this exactly. That allows them to go into the building and the common areas and heck even the off limits areas. but when residences are rented out they are the private residences of the people renting it and either needs their permission or a warrant for the specific residence. I hate the way the news is covering it. They include a line that all who were detained were deported but from what I can tell there are a half dozen or so fighting it in the us and of course we know ice has again and again deported people wrongly but they say it like its true and there is no nuanse. The place had well over a hundred units that were all broken into and tossed with private property stolen, destroyed, and/or thrown outside. Then also they zip tied a whole bunch out front which I guess they don’t include as detaining from their one statement. Sounds like its actually arrested and as I said even that was a lie.
There was no need to rapel from helicopters to detain squatters either. We paid for illegal evictions, essentially, followed by deportations thst definitely violated due process.