The People Of Chicago Are Pushing Back Against ICE

Look, if the details of “Operation Midway Blitz” — the ICE raid in Chicago that had federal gents rappelling down from Black Hawk helicopters onto a residential building, terrorizing its occupants — isn’t enough to convince you that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is more about cruelty to brown people than it is about keeping the borders secure and America safe, your denial is more out of control than President Donald Trump falsely claims crime is.

These masked agents are just out here pouncing on anyone who looks like they could be an undocumented migrant, with no observable concern for whether or not they are criminals or even actually undocumented. Of course, these agents also appear to be running into an issue they might not have been expecting: the people of Chicago just aren’t having it.

Take, for example, an incident in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, where a woman accused of chasing down Border Patrol agents in her vehicle was reportedly shot by an agent, who, according to the woman’s attorney, shouted “Do something, b*tch,” before shooting her.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, 30-year-old Marimar Martinez and 21-year-old Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz have both been charged with felony assault of a federal officer after being accused of driving separate vehicles in a “convoy” that was following agents, disobeying traffic signals, and driving “aggressively” to chase the federal vehicles, prompting a Border Patrol agent to open fire on Martinez, who survived the shooting.

From the Sun-Times:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Hennessy told the judge that Martinez had been following agents for 30 minutes, and Ruiz had been following agents for 20 minutes before the shooting. As she drove, Martinez was broadcasting on Facebook Live for more than 2 minutes, Hennessy said. Video captures her repeatedly sounding her horn and following the vehicles, Hennessy said.

In the charges filed Sunday, prosecutors notably did not mention a loaded gun in Martinez’s car that was referenced in a previous statement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. But in court Monday, Hennessy said Martinez had a loaded firearm on the passenger side of her car but never brandished it. Martinez’s attorney, Parente, said she has a valid firearm and concealed-carry license.

Christopher Parente, Martinez’s attorney, offered to play an agent’s body-camera video, claiming that the footage contradicts Border Patrol’s version of events. Parente said the video shows an agent turning a federal vehicle left into Martinez’s vehicle, after which an agent says, “Do something b*tch” before exiting the vehicle and shooting at Martinez, who is a U.S. citizen, as is Ruiz. U.S. District Judge Heather McShain denied a request by the federal government to keep Martinez and Ruiz in custody pending trial. The judge remarked that it “is a miracle to me that no one was more seriously injured,” but “she said the defendants’ lack of criminal history and extensive family and community ties compelled her to release them pending trial,” the Times reported.

At any rate, the shooting led to a heated confrontation between federal agents and nearly 100 protesters.

Next, let’s take a look at a viral video that shows what appears to be federal immigration agents confronting and attempting to detain a man in the West Lawn neighborhood on the Southwest Side. The man in question refused to go with the men willingly, which, normally, would result in a resisting arrest charge in addition to whatever the civilian was being arrested for in the first place. However, in this case, the scene ended with the men who appeared to be officers appearing to give up on arresting the man altogether and leaving the man alone after being confronted by angry bystanders.

Bootlickers, of course, claimed it was an example of ICE being harassed just for doing their jobs, but those at the scene, including the man who recorded the video, said it was an example of the neighborhood stepping in to defend a human being from the Trump administration’s Gestapo.

From CBS News Chicago:

Saturday morning, two men appearing to be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped in the middle of the street, blocking traffic near 63rd and Kostner, and approached a white car. What happened next was all caught on video.

Sam Hassan, owner of Maxcare Auto Shield, recorded cell phone video showing two men grabbing another man from behind a car and taking him to the ground

“The first thing I saw was they were pinning him against the car. Both of the guys were struggling to subdue him and try to take him to the ground,” Hassan said.

Within seconds, the scene grows louder, with neighbors rushing out, yelling for agents to stop.

“The whole neighborhood came out to support this guy, or to stop what was going on,” Hassan said.

At one point, the man the agents grabbed appeared to be on all fours and an agent wound up on his back. The man appeared to grab one of the agent’s radios and throw it toward a bystander.

Moments later, an agent tried to zip-tie his hands, but the man tossed those away.

“I yelled, ‘Let him go,’ I mean, because there’s certain ways and proper ways of conducting what you’re doing, but you’re dealing with another human being,” Hassan said. “Everything happened so quick, and he looked very scared.”

So, later in the video, the masked men are seen suddenly releasing the man they tried and failed to detain before driving away. According to CBS, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security declined to explain why agents were trying to detain the man in the first place. They left the scene without taking him into custody to respond to a call for help from other agents in the same area, which happened to be the same Brighton Park neighborhood where the incident involving Martinez and Ruiz took place.

So, it was a legitimate arrest, but the agents simply left to respond to another call, huh? That’s what we’re supposed to believe? Sure, Klan — I mean, Jan.

Finally, let’s take a look at another incident featuring a Black ICE agent who was caught on camera treating an anti-ICE protester the way police officers tend to treat Black civilians.

(And, again, just ignore the MAGA-fied bootlicker caption.)

The video was reportedly taken outside the ICE detention center in Broadview, a mostly Black suburb near Chicago that has become a staging ground for protests against ICE raids, especially since the execution of “Operation Midway Blitz.” Witnesses said the protester was accused of blocking a federal vehicle, but what we see in the video is a protester approaching the agent, who can be heard ordering him to “step back,” and when the protester doesn’t immediately comply, telling the agent, “It’s a public street,” the armed agent is seen grabbing him by the neck and taking him to the ground as other agents step in to help, and bystanders complain that the protester was “not doing anything.”

The moral of the story here is simple, folks: ICE agents have more than proven that they are willing to treat civilians however the hell they want in pursuit of Trump and the federal government’s anti-immigrant agenda, but they can’t force the people of Chicago to just take it lying down and allow their neighborhoods to be terrorized by those purporting to be protecting it.

If no one else will push back on this rogue, MAGA-controlled government, the people will!

SEE ALSO:

ICE In Chicago: What Is Operation Midway Blitz?

‘Operation Midway Blitz’: ICE Begins Targeting Immigrants In Chicago

Feds Rappel From Black Hawk In Chicago ICE Raid