CHICAGO — Federal immigration authorities shot a Chicago woman who was trying to impede them in Brighton Park on Saturday morning, Department of Homeland Security officials said.
President Donald Trump’s administration and local pro-immigrant groups immediately shared clashing descriptions of the shooting near the intersection of 39th Street and South Kedzie Avenue. Chicago police said one person was wounded.
In the shooting’s wake, protesters quickly took to the intersection to confront the federal forces. Some threw water bottles as the agents tossed tear gas and flash bang grenades at them on the residential street.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said officers were “forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed US citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds.”
A spokesperson for Mount Sinai Hospital said the wounded woman had been treated and released Saturday afternoon.
It was unclear whether federal authorities arrested the woman after receiving treatment. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the shooting.
The incident began when drivers had “boxed in” and rammed a car carrying federal agents, McLaughlin wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. One of the drivers who rammed agents had a semi-automatic gun at the time, the statement continued.
No federal law enforcement agents were “seriously injured,” McLaughlin said. A gun was recovered at the scene, according to a local law enforcement source.
Authorities did not name the armed individual, but McLaughlin said the woman had appeared in a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol bulletin last week because of online comments she purportedly made. McLaughlin quoted the post as saying: “let’s (expletive) those mother (expletives) up, don’t let them take anyone.”
But alerts shared to “rapid response” volunteers — people tracking agents across the city in an effort to disrupt their actions by warning of their presence and filming arrests — shared a far different initial summary.
“Our understanding of part of the incident this morning is that ICE’s car collided with a civilian car and then agents shot five bullets,” said Brandon Lee, a spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
At least one person was arrested at the scene, according to bystanders. Elizabeth Ruiz, 51, said federal agents rammed the back of a car driven by her son, Anthony Ruiz, after the shooting. The mother said the agents then detained her son, a 21-year-old U.S. citizen, and confiscated the car.
“They turned it all around,” she said of the Trump administration’s description of what happened.
Ruiz said she was on the phone with her son when the shooting began.
When she arrived at the scene, agents took him into custody. They later told her he could be released Monday, she said.
“It was one of your guys that rammed my son, why are you arresting him?” she recalled telling the agents after they detained him.
A spokesperson for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to immediately comment on the shooting. The Chicago Police Department confirmed the shooting in a statement and said officers responded to the scene to document the shooting and control traffic, but declined to detail what happened.
“CPD is not involved in the incident or its investigation. Federal authorities are investigating this shooting, and all further inquiries regarding the circumstances of this shooting should be referred to the appropriate federal authorities,” the statement said.
McLaughlin accused CPD of “leaving the shooting scene” and refusing to assist federal agents in her social media post. In an internal CPD message obtained by the Tribune, Chief of Patrol Jon Hein sent a message to police directing them to not respond to a call for service from armed border patrol agents surrounded by a crowd.
However, roughly two dozen police and several police commanders joined Garien Gatewood, Johnson’s deputy mayor for community safety, at the scene. Federal investigators were also present.
The Brighton Park intersection quickly attracted dozens of protesters, who stretched a block along Kedzie Avenue early Saturday afternoon. That crowd grew to nearly 100 people. The tense standoff between federal agents and protesters remained mostly peaceful, but escalated as many of the agents left.
Residents initially heckled the agents with a steady stream of criticism and antagonism. One man mockingly asked a Border Patrol agent if he practices his gun skills by using the Call of Duty video series. Although the protesters were peaceful at the time, the agents began putting on their gas masks in what residents called an escalation.
Another man held up a poster with a Bible verse declaring, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me in.” A woman held up a sign declaring, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Chicago attorney and former aldermanic candidate Berto Aguayo urged residents to stay behind the line and remain peaceful. “Don’t take the bait,” he said, while leading the crowd in a “el Pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido,” which translates to “the people united will never be defeated.”
Carlos Fernandez, who lives less than a mile away, came out to witness the standoff and saw the final confrontation between federal officials and the community. As Chicago police arrived to take over the scene, the federal agents began moving and what had been a tense but largely peaceful encounter escalated.
A young man was pushed to the ground by a federal agent, causing protesters to shout and tensions to rise.
“He stepped into the street and the federal agent shoved him back in the most brutal manner possible,” Fernandez said.
Agents began throwing tear gas canisters into the crowd. One person tried to grab a canister and the agents jumped on top of the individual.
“People were clearly angry but posed no threat,” Fernandez said. “The federal agents put both the Chicago Police Department and all those people in danger when they didn’t have to. They put people in danger.”
As many of the agents quickly drove off, protesters threw more water bottles and even street signs at their cars. The crowd then dissipated.
ICIRR, a leading pro-immigrant advocacy group coordinating responses to Trump’s deportation efforts across the city, shared an alert warning that tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “is now an extremely high risk of arrest/detention and of personal physical safety.”
“They are now shooting at cars,” ICIRR wrote. “These agents are 100% out of control.”
The office of Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros quickly condemned the woman’s actions that it said “placed officer life and safety at risk.”
“This Department of Justice does not tolerate assaults and obstruction of our brave men and women in federal law enforcement. We will investigate and prosecute all,” the statement said.
McLaughin’s statement included several apparent errors. It referred to the location of the incident as “Broadview,” where protesters have for weeks demonstrated outside an ICE processing facility, instead of Brighton Park.
It also referred to the police department as being controlled by Pritzker, though it is controlled by Johnson.
The shooting marks the second time federal authorities have fired their weapons at civilians since Operation Midway Blitz launched last month.
Agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez as he fled in his car during an attempted arrest. DHS officials immediately claimed an agent had been dragged by the man’s car. But in body camera footage later obtained by the Tribune and other news organizations, the agent referred to his own injuries as “nothing major” moments after he shot and killed the man.
“DHS and ICE are known to lie about the nature of their operations, and their statement today does not line up with our observations in the community,” ICIRR’s Lee said.
