CHICAGO -- Dozens of people were arrested Tuesday night during a raid in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, but it was how the raid was carried out that's got residents fuming.

Images: March Through Little Village Discuss: What Do You Think? Video: Feds Respond Video: Protesters March Read: Criminal Complaint Read: Immigration Raid News Release

The U.S. attorney said the raid was not about making immigrants fearful, but instead to arrest a group of people who run a lucrative fake-ID business that puts the security of our country at risk.

Police said the bustling counterfeit identification document business generated profits in the millions each year in and around the Little Village Discount Mall at 26th and Albany, saying it had become "competitive and violent."

Police said the organization made and sold as many as 50 to 100 fake IDs every day, and federal officials said the ringleader has already killed one person and was planning more slayings.

But it was the show of force that has immigrant rights groups upset.

Police raided the mall on Tuesday, sparking an impromptu protest that went well into the night. And on Wednesday, protesters planned another rally downtown as a precursor to a larger immigration march next Tuesday. U.S. attorney's office spokesman Randall Samborn said agents made arrests and conducted searches in the neighborhood.

Witnesses said dozens of undocumented immigrants were apprehended.

Federal authorities said Wednesday that 22 people have been charged with participating in a conspiracy to make false identification documents.

The organization allegedly recruits illegal aliens to come to Chicago and sell false documents on street corners in the Little Village neighborhood, where individuals solicit business for the organization overtly, a U.S. Attorney's Office release said. These individuals sell all sorts of false identification documents -– such as driver’s licenses purportedly issued by a variety of states, immigration documents such as Resident Alien Cards (Green Cards), and other purportedly government-issued documents, the complaint alleges.

In just one location in the area of Albany and 26th Street, there are as many as 15 to 20 illegal aliens at any one time selling false documents, according to charges. When these sellers locate a customer, they allegedly obtain a photo and personal information and send that information to a document production facility where the false documents are made.

The release said approximately eight to 10 street vendors are employed per shift in the parking lot of and inside the Discount Mall, with two shifts per day.

Feds Make 'Significant' Arrest

On Tuesday, federal agents led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Oak Lawn resident Julio Leija-Sanchez, 31, the alleged Chicago cell leader of the organization in Little Village, on federal charges for allegedly paying $3,000 and conspiring with, among others, fugitive co-defendant Gerardo Salazar-Rodriguez, to kill two of the fledgling competitors of their business, known as Montes and Bruno, according to the release.

Salazar-Rodriguez allegedly discussed the execution of Montes in Mexico between March 31 and April 3, a complaint alleging Sanchez said, “You know what would be good, to catch him around where you got Montes, kidnap him, and take him over by Pachuca, far away ... And then you take him to Nabor, so that he can cut him up in pieces.”

In all, 22 defendants, including Julio Leija-Sanchez and Salazar-Rodriguez, were charged in the same criminal complaint with participating in a 4 year conspiracy to illegally produce ID documents, authentication features and false identification documents, the release said. On Tuesday, 12 of the defendants were arrested in Chicago, while 10 others are fugitives, the release said.

According to ICE, a basement apartment at 5366 South Campbell allegedly served as the primary office, where they seized two computer towers, printers, scanners, a cutting board, hundreds of blank identification cards, including Social Security cards and approximately $1,300 cash.

The fraudulent document organization originated in Mexico and also is thought to be active in Los Angeles and Denver, and officials said they believe the organization generates millions of dollars in illegal proceeds each year in Chicago.

Federal agents are saying the bust marks a significant setback to these kinds of operations.

"Criminals and even terrorists can use fraudulent documents to conceal themselves in our society, which poses a major homeland security vulnerability," said Elissa Brown, Special Agent-in-Charge of the ICE office in Chicago.

Neighborhood Convenes To March In Protest

The neighborhood responded to the raid with a march through the streets. Dozens of residents linked arm-in-arm and marched through the neighborhood. Police cars at the front and rear of the gathering drove slowly along with the marchers.

The protesters began at 26th and Albany and marched through the neighborhood to a church, Our Lady Of Tepeyac, at 22nd and Whipple streets. A prayer vigil was held there Tuesday night.

One federal official added that the raid had nothing to do with the raging immigration debate engaging the nation.

Many area residents and at least two aldermen -- Luis Gutierrez and Ricardo Munoz -- do not agree.

Gutierrez said he feels the raid was meant to "frighten and intimidate" the community, and many in the neighborhood echoed that sentiment.

Munoz (22nd) told the newspaper his father's photo store was among those entered in the operation. He said his father was "visibly upset" but wasn't charged or arrested. "It was way overboard," Munoz told reporters. "They had machine guns, shotguns and bulletproof vests."

"Soldiers bombarded our neighborhood," said Baltazar Enriquez, 30, a lifelong Little Village resident, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "It looked like they were marching into Iraq."

Another witness was incensed by the raid.

"This is discrimination. This is unfair because the United States Of America is made out of immigrants," said area resident Carlota Trevino. "If they don't want Hispanics here, then everybody who has Mexican, German, Irish, Swedish and Dutch (ancestry) all need to leave the country because this is the Indians' country that was stolen from them."

"This is affecting all our people, everybody -- not just Latinos, but all immigrants throughout the country," one man said at the scene Tuesday.

Trying to cool residents' heated tempers, the Rev. Brandon Curran of St. Pius the Fifth Catholic Church in Pilsen led a prayer in the middle of the street.

Federal agents will host a news conference Wednesday morning to discuss the event that took place. Protesters planned another rally at about the same time, and are organizing a mass march on May 1.

The 12 defendants arrested Tuesday were scheduled for initial court appearances beginning at 11 a.m. Wednesday.