In West Chicago, two teenage brothers have turned their fall into a rolling stakeout, shadowing federal immigration enforcers tied to Operation Midway Blitz. Armed with a body camera and a cellphone, 16-year-old Sam Luhmann and his 17-year-old brother, Ben, say they’re out to build a public record of agents’ stops, detentions, and courthouse interactions. Their curbside vigil has at times put them within arm’s reach of federal officers — and squarely in the middle of some tense confrontations.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the homeschooled brothers — raised by their mother, Audrey Luhmann — began patrolling around Sept. 15, amid stepped-up activity in heavily Latino suburbs. On Nov. 7 in Elgin, agents pulled them over and surrounded their car; an agent seized Sam’s phone and pushed him against the vehicle, the paper reported. The Tribune also notes that Sam sometimes wears a body camera, while Ben is a high school senior with plans to study music.
Operation Midway Blitz and why they patrol
Their routine runs alongside a months-long federal campaign in Chicago known as Operation Midway Blitz, launched in September and credited with hundreds of arrests — and plenty of legal blowback. As WBEZ reported, advocates and attorneys say the Broadview processing center has functioned as a longer-term detention site, with crowded conditions and limited access to counsel…