Federal Agents Raided His Home Without a Warrant. Speaking Up Cost Him His Job.

Leo Feler was out of town for work when Customs and Border Protection officers came onto his Chicago property without a warrant, chased four construction workers across it, and tear-gassed the street on the way out. They allegedly caused $30,000 in damages and speaking up cost him his job.

Leo Feler owns a three-unit building in Lakeview. He was travelling for work when masked federal agents scaled the fence around his home, chased four construction workers across his property, arrested one in his garage and threw tear gas at his neighbors on the way out. The government has conceded it had no warrant. Ten months on, no agency will tell him who the officers were.

Leo Feler was having his house re-sided.

Leo Feler owns a three-unit building in Lakeview, on the north side of Chicago. He lives in it. His family lives in it. Two tenants rent the other units.

The building was mid-renovation that fall, siding and windows, with a ladder against the second-story balcony and materials stacked in the yard.

Four subcontractors were eating lunch. Three sat on the public sidewalk. One sat inside the front gate, on Feler's stoop.

Feler wasn't home.

What the cameras caught

Two unmarked cars came the wrong way down North Lakewood Avenue, his one-way street.

What happened over the next several minutes is recorded on Feler's home security cameras and described in the complaint he later filed in federal court.

Masked federal agents went over the five-foot spiked fence around the property. One worker reached the house through a back door and was not followed inside. A second climbed the ladder to the balcony, and an officer climbed up after him. A third ran into the detached garage.

His tenant was the only person home. She ordered them off the property and demanded to see a warrant, repeatedly. She was ignored.

Feler watched all of it from another city.

He told the officers they were trespassing and to leave. Security footage shows that at least one of them heard him.

In the garage, the third worker told the officer he had no authority to be there. He said it more than once, in Spanish. *"Prohibido."*

According to the complaint, the officer answered:

"I will fucking [pepper] spray you right now. You want sprayed? You want fucking sprayed?"

The worker was arrested.

The escape

With the worker in custody, the officers went to leave and found the front gate locked. They tried to break the lock.

Feler's tenant unlocked it for them. She did it when it looked like they were preparing to lift the handcuffed man over the spiked fence.

One of the men who made it into the house had been cut badly enough to leave puddles of blood on the floors. By this time, neighbors had gathered in front of Feler's home.

The crashing and ruckus of the chase had brought out the residents of this Lakeview neighborhood, and they were starting to ask questions of the federal agents.

The agents got in their vehicles. Before leaving, officers threw two tear gas canisters out of a window at the group standing in the street.

Body camera footage from the raid shows one officer urging another to throw the gas "for fun."

The gas swirled back onto the officers, and they left their vehicles, with the man in custody still inside.

The 4th Amendment

Three weeks later, the government admitted its agents had scaled the private property's fence "without a warrant."

The 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures" without a warrant.

*"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."*

In Oliver v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the ground immediately around a home, what the law calls curtilage, is "part of the home itself for Fourth Amendment purposes."

Federal immigration agents are not immune to this restriction. They have the power to arrest an individual when they have a "reason to believe" that a person is likely to escape before a warrant can be acquired.

However, federal law still requires a warrant for "dwellings," which includes the yards of private residences.

What the government has told Feler

Despite his attempts, no agency has told Feler anything, nor has it made any public statement about the raid.

He tried the ordinary doors first. He went to a local police station to file a report and the station refused to take one. He went to a second station and that department told him it would not investigate.

On December 20, 2025 he filed administrative claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act. He filed the same claim three times, with CBP, with ICE and with the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE asked for more documents in January. On February 2, 2026 it wrote to say the claim involved CBP employees and that it was transferring the file.

That was the last thing any of the three agencies sent him.

What it cost him

Feler was never arrested. He has never been charged with anything. He was not in the state. One of the workers was transported out of state and detained by ICE. The other three got away.

Agents damaged his fences, gates, air conditioner, and the construction materials in the yard during the chase.

The Institute for Justice, which now represents him, alleges that the total damages to his home were about $30,000.

Leo stopped the renovation for months, because he was afraid that hiring another crew would bring the officers back. He no longer allows workers on the property unless he is home. He cancelled his Thanksgiving travel because he could not stand to leave the house empty.

The tenant who was inside during the raid moved back in with her parents and asked to end her lease early.

Speaking out also cost him his job.

According to his complaint, after Leo spoke to reporters about what happened, his employer asked him to stop saying anything, out of concern that criticism would bring retaliation. He had to leave his position in order to continue speaking out.

Where it stands

On July 28, 2026, Feler sued the United States in the Northern District of Illinois.

He is bringing claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a claim directly under the Fourth Amendment, a claim under the Westfall Act and claims under Illinois law. He has asked for a jury.

As of August 15, 2026 the government has not filed a response.

It has not answered his tort claim or his record request.

Leo Feler cleaned the blood off his own floors.