Clashes Between ICE And Protesters Escalate In Chicago

In today’s episode of Everybody Haaaaaates ICE (you were supposed to read that in the tune of Everybody Hates Chris), the ongoing situation in Chicago — where Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents keep running wild like rabid dogs off their leashes, and residents keep responding by, well, not having it at all — seems to be getting worse as clashes intensify between agents, protesters and, often, people who were just trying to get to work or school.

As we’ve noted previously, while the Trump administration has claimed repeatedly that its immigration crackdown is about ridding America of the worst kinds of “criminal illegal aliens,” we’re not seeing evidence that hardened criminals represent the bulk of who is being accosted by agents, arrested, and disappeared to who knows where. Instead, immigration officers seem to be going after any and everyone who they think looks wrong, and subsequently arresting workers and people raising families, who may or may not have all their paperwork in order, and they seem to be dumbfounded by the lack of support they’re getting from the community, including the protesters they seem to be attacking first and vilifying as agitators later.

For example, according to the Chicago Sun-Times,  a Halloween costume parade for children that was supposed to take place on a usually quiet residential block has been canceled because just hours before it was scheduled to begin, tear gas had been deployed by agents moved to detain Luis Villegas, a construction worker who agents chased down the 3700 block of North Kildare Avenue and tackled on a lawn. It was reportedly the first of two incidents in the same area where agents deployed tear gas, purportedly to defend themselves against enraged bystanders who took issue with ICE agents behaving more like criminals than the “criminal illegal aliens” they claim to be arresting.

From the Sun-Times:

Ald. Ruth Cruz (30th) called the two uses of tear gas in her ward “unprovoked and deeply troubling attacks on our communities.” She said Villegas has been in the United States since he was 4 years old. The Department of Homeland Security said he had been accused and arrested — not convicted — of assault.

“This is home for him,” Cruz told the Sun-Times Sunday. “He has built his education, his family and his life here in Chicago.”

Brian Kolp, a former prosecutor with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and counsel for the city of Chicago who once defended Chicago police officers in lawsuits, was watching news about a temporary restraining order issued against federal agents when agents pursuing Villegas subdued and detained him on Kolp’s front lawn.

Kolp was barefoot and wearing Blackhawks pajama pants as he stepped from his front door to yell “Nazi” and “Gestapo” at the agents who dragged Villegas to a vehicle. Kolp said the agents pulled his 70-year-old neighbor out of his vehicle and slammed him to the ground as he arrived home. He saw another person on a bicycle also get detained.

Of course, the Department of Homeland Security is claiming agents were “boxed in by agitators,” a claim the department has made about previous incidents, only for witnesses and video footage to contradict the narrative.

“These weren’t activists, these weren’t paid protesters, these were literally my neighbors coming out of their homes at 10 o’clock in the morning because they saw lawless agents acting in violent ways,” Kolp said, claiming the people officers deployed tear gas on were mostly neighbors who had stepped out of their homes to film and shout at agents. “There are only so many ways we can hold these folks accountable. If the courts can’t do it, Congress can’t do it, then it’s up to the community to do it.”

Erin Sarris, a resident who has lived in the neighborhood for eight years, said she was on her way to the Halloween parade with her two 8-year-old daughters and 6-year-old son when she saw the cloud of tear gas from down the street.

“It’s impossible to explain the concept of this to school-age kids like that and make them feel OK about it, because it’s not OK,” Sarris said. “It shatters their worldview of what’s right, fair, and appropriate in witnessing this.”

Again, this was only the first incident involving ICE agents seemingly ignoring a federal judge’s previous order limiting their use of tear gas near schools and residential areas.

More from the Sun-Times:

Less than a mile away and around the same time Saturday, at Roscoe Street and Harding Avenue, federal agents again deployed tear gas as residents shouted at them.

Two of Cruz’s staffers were hit by the tear gas as they responded, though she said they had recovered and were “more eager than ever to ask what more they can do to protect their communities.”

She said her staffers witnessed a woman thrown to the ground by agents, but they said no one was detained.

“Seeing it in person really emphasized there’s nothing calculated or organized about it,” one resident who witnessed the tear-gas deployment said of the ICE agents’ tactics. “It’s obvious what they’re doing is just evil.”

These clashes between citizens and border cops are not limited to Chicago, of course. In large cities across the country, video footage of federal agents swarming citizens and non-citizens alike as angry onlookers heckle them and, sometimes, get themselves personally involved is being shared across social media on a daily basis.

Recently, rumors have been swirling, especially in the world of right-wing media — including bootlicking op-ed writers who believe the “thin blue line” is something that needs to be protected — that the Chicago Police Department has been ordering its officers not to respond to calls about ICE agents needing their help while under attack by protesters. And while the CPD has denied these allegations, honestly, could you blame the department if it were true? After all, we’re talking about a city where officials had already made it explicitly clear that federal officers are neither wanted nor needed. (Also, leave it to ICE to have me ready to side with Chicago police.)

Again, tensions between agents and citizens only seem to be getting worse and more volatile. Where does it end? Because it sure doesn’t seem to end with actual dangerous criminals being on the receiving end of the feds’ aggression.

So, what’s really going on?

Halloween Parade Canceled In Chicago Because ICE Is Still Deploying Tear Gas And Running Wild was originally published on newsone.com