Border Patrol Agent Allegedly Pepper-Sprays Baby In Chicago
Border Patrol Agents Accused Of Pepper-Spraying 1-Year-Old Baby In Chicago
It seems like not a single day goes by without a fresh story about ICE and/or Border Patrol agents in Chicago being absolute menaces to the communities they and the Trump administration claim they are protecting and serving by ridding them of the worst of the worst of “criminal illegal aliens.” And really, who should any community fear most, these violent criminals who we hear plenty about from the government but never seem to see, or masked agents who drag teachers out of preschools, abduct brown people who turned out to be U.S. citizens, ruin Halloween parades for children with tear gas, rappel down from helicopters to drag people out of their apartments in the middle of the night, and beat up on blind people?
OK, how about Border Patrol cops who pepper-spray 1-year-olds? Can we be more afraid of them than we are of dangerous criminals, who, at this point, appear to be largely fictitious?
According to CBS News, a family has accused immigration agents of deploying pepper-spray into their car as they were leaving a Cicero Sam’s Club parking lot in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood on Saturday. In fact, video footage appears to show the moment when an agent sprayed into the car driven by Rafael Veraza, who was with his wife and infant daughter, who was in the back seat.
So, a Hispanic family was minding their own business and leaving a parking lot when they were spotted by an agent who decided to attack them for no discernible reason. Whether the agent who sprayed the vehicle actually saw the child in the back or not is irrelevant. They pepper-sprayed a baby. That’s who they are, and that’s who the community should and does fear.
From Fox 32:
Veraza said he felt the effects of the spray. His wife then shouted “Our daughter! Our daughter!” because their 1-year-old girl had been hit with the spray.
Veraza said the spray got into his eye and ear. He added that he experienced face numbness, an exceedingly high heart rate and couldn’t relax for hours after the fact. He also said he has asthma.
A second video edited together shows the aftermath when the family was parked near the Sam’s Club and the baby could be heard crying. Veraza said he pulled over to flush out their eyes using water bottles he had in his car.
“Are you OK mama?” a man can be heard asking the child.
Another person can be heard saying, “This is what ICE does. This is what these terrorists do to babies.”
Matt DeMateo, the CEO of New Life Centers of Chicagoland, said he happened to be passing by the Sam’s Club when he saw the family pulled over. He got out to help them.
“All four were struggling to breathe, their faces burning from pepper spray,” DeMateo said. “We helped them flush their eyes and I took them to the clinic for medical treatment.”
De Mateo added the family was “not protesting, not chasing ICE vehicles, not fighting, not doing anything wrong, just shopping. In fact, they didn’t even make it to shopping.”
“I didn’t even look at them,” Veraza told Fox 32. “I’m just minding my own business.”
Chicago Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd Ward) said once he learned of the incident, he joined rapid responders in the neighborhood who were alerting locals to what was happening
“Residents from throughout our area, from throughout Chicago yesterday, were looking forward to a day of peace and tranquility,” Rodriguez said. “They were looking forward to a day of shopping, a day of chess, a day of celebration, but that tranquility, that peace, was broken yesterday.”
Rodriguez also said agents “took a brother…right in front of our eyes,” and recalled that a flash grenade was used without any warning about a foot away from him and near a 6-year-old child.
“Yesterday was a day of terror. It follows an agenda of terror by this president,” he said. “I think we stand here today sick, sick and tired of what’s happening here, not just in our country, and not just in our city, but in our neighborhood and on our streets.”
“I’ve never felt less safe in my life than I have over the last couple of months in this reign of terror,” Rodriguez went on to say after noting that crime rates are down in Little Village.
As usual, the Department of Homeland Security had a different take on the incident, claiming that after a series of events in Little Village — including one in which the government claims agents were shot at — federal agents were followed into the Sam’s Club parking lot, and an agent’s car was hit. DHS said the border patrol agents were “conducting immigration enforcement operations” near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue when a man driving a black Jeep fired shots. The department also claimed people nearby threw a paint can and bricks at the agents’ vehicles.
Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino, who has been admonished numerous times by federal Judge Sara L. Ellis for allowing his agents to violate her previous order limiting their use of tear gas, and also lying about the violations, was also on the scene when the alleged chaos took place.
Of course, we’d have to take the government’s word for it that the shooting and other attacks on agents actually happened. The pepper-spraying of a baby, however, is on camera. Interestingly enough, the government has offered no comment on that.
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