A US border patrol chase that began with a suspected illegal immigrant ramming into a federal patrol car ended in a crash — sparking a tense standoff between residents and law enforcement in Chicago Tuesday, according to reports and authorities.
A red SUV driven by a person suspected to be in the country illegally rammed into a Border Patrol vehicle before attempting to flee the scene in the city’s Southeast Side, Department of Homeland Security officials said.
Agents used an “authorized precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver,” causing the Red SUV to fly backwards through an intersection before slamming into another vehicle, CNN reported.
Two people stumbled out of the vehicle as it moved and began to run as federal agents in a white SUV continued to chase after them.
Border Patrol agents eventually caught and cuffed the two individuals, but the crowd turned “hostile,” DHS told the outlet.
As police supervisors responded to the scene around 11 a.m. to de-escalate the situation and federal authorities began to leave, people in the crowd began to hurl objects at federal agents, the Chicago Police Department said, according to the outlet.
Federal agents then deployed tear gas canisters at the angered residents, causing plumes of white smoke to fill the air.
Thirteen police officers were also exposed to the chemical agent, cops said.
Photos from the scene also captured agents aiming crowd control weapons directly at members of the crowd in close range.
Two US citizens, A 16-year-old and a 19-year-old, were reportedly detained by federal agents during the melee despite allegedly not throwing any objects, a witness told WGNTV.
“As the tear gas was thrown into the community members, we all ran. They attacked two people that I know because they were close,” she told the outlet.
Mother Juanita Garnica was at work when she got a call that Border Patrol agents had detained her 16-year-old son, the outlet reported.
“They said, ‘Juanita you have an emergency. ICE took your son. They beat him up. They body-slammed him,’” Garnica told reporters.
Her son was allegedly held for five hours in the garage of a federal building without being charged or allowed a call or an attorney, the outlet reported.
Nineteen-year-old Warren King was also grabbed by one agent and slammed to the ground as his friend screamed at officers that he was a US citizen, according to the publication.
King was reportedly transported downtown and then brought to Calumet Park. His family, who had been tracking his location, arrived with his birth certificate to prove he is a citizen, the outlet reported.
The number of individuals who clashed with federal agents is not immediately clear.
DHS and the Chicago Police Department did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday called federal agents’ treatment of protesters “abominable,” saying they’ve been hit with tear gas, pepper pellets, and rubber bullets “just when they’re holding signs and expressing themselves.”
Several violent clashes have occurred between federal agents and angry protestors since US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month launched “Operation Midway Blitz” in the Windy City.
The initiative aims to “target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor [JB] Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the department announced in an X post.
With Post wires.
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