A woman has been shot by US border patrol agents in Chicago amid an aggressive immigration and militarized enforcement operation in the city that has outraged local civic groups and been opposed by local Democrats.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the shooting happened after patrolling agents felt threatened by approaching vehicles and that the gunfire had been “defensive”.
The exact circumstances of the incident and the health of the woman who was shot were unclear.
The shooting comes after federal immigration agents last month shot and killed a Mexican immigrant in a Chicago suburb after he allegedly attempted to flee a traffic stop and struck an officer with his car.
Chicago is one of a slew of US cities were Donald Trump has deployed or threatened to deploy the national guard and other troops in order to help police the immigration crackdown – or, in some cases, to respond to inflated claims about crime levels.
On Saturday, the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said that the US president will soon federalize 300 national guard troops in the state, over the governor’s firm opposition.
“This morning, the Trump administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
He added: “They will pull hardworking Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance – not a serious effort the protect public safety. For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.
“This demand follows unprecedented escalations of aggression against Illinois citizens and residents.”
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, a border patrol sector chief, visited the Broadview Ice facility in suburban Chicago on Friday, which has become the site of escalations by federal agents against protesters and journalists.
The Trump administration targeted Chicago with federal law enforcement starting in August, falsely claiming there had been a rise in crime in the city in recent years.
Since then, there have been reports of increasingly aggressive Ice enforcement in communities, including helicopters hovering over apartment raids and arrests of local officials and candidates for office who protest against the operations.
