A month after tenants of the troubled South Shore apartment building raided by immigration agents last fall faced court-ordered eviction, a former resident of the complex has been reported missing, according to Chicago police.
Samantha Stamps, 56, was last seen Jan. 2 headed to catch the Pink Line from the Central Park CTA station in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side, police said in a missing-persons alert just before noon Wednesday.
According to police, Stamps previously lived at 7500 South Shore Drive, which was the site of a military-style federal immigration raid that made international headlines nearly four months ago. The report of Stamps missing was first reported by Block Club Chicago.
Three weeks into Operation Midway Blitz — the Trump administration’s local mass deportation campaign last fall and early winter — agents dressed for combat rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of the apartment building. They broke through windows and stormed inside, where they crashed through doors and placed residents in zip ties and on buses or in the back of box trucks. Many Venezuelan migrants lived in the building and were taken in the raid.
While the operation became one of the most infamous moments of the Blitz, it also exacerbated a housing complex already in crisis, as deteriorating living conditions had plagued the building long before the arrival of the agents. Two months later, the Circuit Court of Cook County granted an order mandating any tenants remaining — who formed a union in the wake of the raid — to vacate the building by early December.
Despite a last-minute plea for more time, residents were forced to pack.
In December, at a news conference outside the building organized by the residents’ union, Stamps spoke.
“I have never been through nothing like this in my life,” Stamps said between tears.
“This is bad,” she said. “I can’t even have my grandkids over and they was here with me every weekend.”
Police said Stamps had been homeless since the building was vacated. She is known to frequent areas around the 2100 block of South Spaulding Avenue in Little Village, police said.
Police are asking anyone with information on Stamps’ whereabouts to call detectives at 312-747-8274 or 911.
Chicago Tribune’s Laura Turbay contributed.
