Exposing the paramilitary agents behind Trump’s violent anti-immigration campaign

Early On the morning of September 30, hundreds Federal agents The South Shore Apartments, a beige brick building on Chicago’s South Side, were crowded. As federal soldiers in body armor descended from a Black Hawk helicopter flying overhead, others burst through the building’s doors with battering rams, rounding up residents at gunpoint.

A group of burly, masked agents wearing helmets and bulletproof vests, and carrying silencer-equipped M4 rifles, moved through the corridors in a fast, tightly organized file. Padraic Daniel Berlin, a 34-year-old Michigan native and son of a Detroit firefighter, has been taken into custody YodaHis Belgian Malinois dog, on a leash. David Dubar Jr., a 53-year-old construction worker, followed closely behind. Their team leader, Corey Myers, a former Marine from the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, checked the apartment doors. Paul Delgado Jr., a standout cross-country runner in high school, was the final member of the entry team.

The four men are members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC. Primarily headquartered at Fort Bliss, with at least 11 detachments stationed across the U.S., BORTAC and its sister unit, Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue, or BORSTAR, were dedicated to desert rescues, high-risk search warrant execution, conflicts with armed drug cartels, and pursuits.

But under Donald Trump, they have been sent to the streets of major American cities. The result is the largest known deployment of BORTAC and BORSTAR agents in U.S. history, a fact that is difficult to determine due to government secrecy about their operations. Many agents’ identities remained hidden from the public. The decision to use heavily armed assault paramilitary units to conduct street-level immigration raids in American cities is the first of its kind, and a forerunner of the Trump administration’s project to militarize local law enforcement operations.

Myers, Berlin, Dubar, Delgado and their teammates seemed to be bonding. The intelligence briefing they received claimed the building was under the control of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan street gang designated by the Trump administration — despite evidence to the contrary. Collected by its own intelligence services– As a foreign terrorist organization. Gang members were supposedly occupying the building and storing grenades, handguns and rifles on the second floor, where a suspect with an open warrant for firearms possession lived. This intelligence was never disclosed or substantiated, and Illinois later launched an investigation to find out whether the property owner had sent it Unfounded allegations To the feds. But at that moment, it didn’t matter.

At every door his team approached, Berlin shouted: “The police! Talk to me now or I’ll send the dog in!” In a unit on the second floor, Bortak’s team detained one man. Down the hall, Myers noticed “signs of forced entry” and broke down the door. Tolulope Akinsole, an illegal immigrant from Nigeria, happened to be hiding in the bedroom. Without issuing a warning or verbal command, Berlin let go of Yoda’s leash and the Malinois pounced, sinking her teeth into Akinsolae’s leg as he screamed in pain. Yoda repeatedly bit Akinsole in the leg, hip, and hands before Berlin summoned the dog and his team placed handcuffs on the man. Akinsole, who was not the target of the raid and has no known history of violent crimes or gang affiliation, was treated for his injuries and transported to the Broadview Processing Center to face removal proceedings.

Berlin’s actions that morning were not isolated. He was involved in at least five uses of force during Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s mobilization of hundreds of immigration agents in Chicago and surrounding communities in 2025. Nor were his team’s actions, according to a WIRED analysis of US government records, which appeared to escalate tensions with civilian bystanders rather than calm them. Since last year, BORTAC and BORSTAR have faced numerous U.S. government invasions of their cities, often engaging in almost theatrical uses of force that litter newscasts and social feeds, adding new prominence to the status that the U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Group has styled as ““The tip of the spear.”