CHICAGO (NewsNation) — Federal immigration officers deployed what is believed to be tear gas outside a Chicago grocery store after a chase was blocked by local activists, surveillance video obtained by NewsNation shows.
Kyle Jones, a longtime resident of Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, told NewsNation he was driving by Rico Fresh market when tear gas poured into his vehicle after a silver canister was thrown from a black pickup truck with flashing lights.
Demian Kogan, who works with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told NewsNation that ICE officers arrived in the neighborhood attempting to conduct an operation, which led local residents to indicate ICE officers were in the area.
Kogan said that ICE officers apparently got agitated by being identified, threw what appeared to be tear gas canisters. He said no one was detained by ICE to his knowledge. Kogan said he arrived after the incident and witnessed a man vomiting, and another person was having water applied to their eyes. Witnesses Kogan spoke to who were hit by tear gas displayed visibly and agitated and red eyes.
A Chicago Police Department spokesman told NewsNation that a 42-year-old woman who was walking in the area with a 2-year-old child inhaled an unknown chemical agent. Police said that at this time, it is unknown who released the agent into the air.
Both the woman and child received medical treatment at the scene and the investigation into the incident remains ongoing, police said.
„This is yet another example of ICE’s escalation of violence on our communities,“ Kogan told NewsNation. „No one in the city of Chicago or anywhere where ICE is presence is safer because of them.“
A local Chicago Public School, Funston Elementary, held recess indoors for students on Friday afternoon „out of an abundance“ after school officials were alerted of the presence of federal officers, according to a letter obtained by NewsNation.
„I want to emphasize that school is the best and safest place for our students,“ the school’s principal, Sarah Trevino-Terronez, wrote, „Our staff is well-versed in the proper protocols for keeping our students and school community safe in case federal law enforcement representatives attempt to enter school property or interact with students or staff.“
An ICE spokesperson did not immediately respond to a NewsNation request for comment on Friday about the activity in the popular northwest side neighborhood.
Residents in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood say they are outraged.
The incident occurred after another Logan Square resident said she witnessed six masked and armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers emerge from an unmarked white SUV and detain a man at a nearby intersection.
Alisha Garlow works as part of a local rapid response team that reacts to the presence of federal officers, who arrived by the hundreds before Operation Midway Blitz began on Sept. 8. Garlow said that helicopters hovered over her neighborhood Friday morning before she witnessed ICE officers positioned outside of a local Home Depot store.
She said that the officers made their way to a local Rico Fresh grocery store, which was the same location where Jones said his vehicle became filled with tear gas.
She described the actions of ICE and other federal immigration enforcement agencies as “outrageous, enraging and f–– wild.”
“This is the most inhumane thing I think I’ve ever seen,” Garlow told NewsNation. “I’m just so flabbergasted that this is happening, and I’m scared for where we’re going to go next.”
Jones told NewsNation that the tear gas that seeped into his vehicle on Friday caused his ears, nose and mouth to run. Jones has lived in the neighborhood since he was a young boy and cannot recall anything like this happening before.
Anti-ICE protests continued over increased federal presence
The raids in Logan Square took place just days after federal agencies raided an apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood early Tuesday morning. The ICE operations in Logan Square took place on the same day as continued protesting at the ICE processing center in suburban Broadview, where five people were arrested on Friday.
Community leaders and activists have continued to speak out about the increased federal presence, which has included protesters, clergy members, local elected officials and journalists saying that they have been targeted by federal officers and agents.
In some neighborhoods, residents have heeded Gov. JB Pritzker’s call to capture the actions of federal officers on video and to alert local media. In Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, community organizers have handed out whistles for residents to use when they see ICE or other federal immigration officers in the area.
During the South Shore operation, Federal militarized vehicles, including vehicles and large trucks and drones descended on the apartment building, where hundreds of federal officers were part of the raid.
Department of Homeland Security officials said that 37 people were arrested in the South Shore operation, including suspected members of the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan prison gang. However, residents in the area told Block Club Chicago that the raid left their apartments heavily damaged.
Jones, along with Garlow, says he is tired of the way federal officers and agents are conducting their business.
“They need to stop doing that to people. They’re terrorizing us and we ain’t did nothing wrong,” Jones told NewsNation, adding, “They just come out of here out of control thinking they can do anything to us.”
