Community leaders from the city’s East Side neighborhood gathered Wednesday morning to denounce the actions of federal agents who deployed tear gas canisters on a residential street after a pursuit and vehicle crash.
Less than 24 hours earlier, agents from Customs and Border Protection unleashed tear gas on hundreds of residents who gathered at 105th Street and Avenue N. The gas deployment came after angry people in the neighborhood started throwing rocks at agents’ vehicles, and at least three people were detained.
Olga Bautista, vice president of the Chicago Board of Education, said she was “furious” but “unafraid” after Tuesday’s confrontation.
Federal agents, Bautista said, “stormed into the Southeast Side, one of the oldest immigrant and working-class communities in Chicago and unleashed violence on our families.”
“This is not about safety,” Bautista added, “This is about control, fear and silencing communities that have always resisted injustice.”
Oscar Sanchez, the co-executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, pointed out that the tear gas was deployed in a community that, for decades, has borne the brunt of poor air quality caused by nearby industrial facilities.
“The struggle for immigrant justice is inseparable from the fight for environmental justice,” Sanchez said. “For decades, our community has been treated as a dumping ground.”
“The people standing up today are the same families who lived for generations near factories and landfills where asthma rates are among the highest in the state,” he added.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged in a statement issued Tuesday that the chase, subsequent crash and confrontation began when “a vehicle, driven by an illegal alien, rammed a Border Patrol vehicle and attempted to flee the scene.”
“Border Patrol pursued the vehicle and was eventually able to stop it utilizing an authorized precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver,” the statement said. “Once the vehicle was stopped, the suspects, who are both illegal aliens, attempted to flee on foot. As Border Patrol arrested the subjects and attempted to secure the scene a crowd began to form and eventually turned hostile and eventually crowd control measures were used.”
Security camera footage made public Tuesday did not capture that version of events, only the agents striking and spinning an SUV in the neighborhood.
One of those detained was a 15-year-old whose family has brought in lawyers from Romanucci and Blandin, who said they are investigating what happened.
“A 15-year-old American citizen was detained by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents today in a manner reminiscent of authoritarian regimes, holding him incommunicado in a federal building garage for five hours without informing his family, stating any charges, or allowing him to call an attorney,” the statement read. “The teenager, who is Hispanic and African American, was grabbed off a Chicago East Side street at approximately 12:30 p.m. CST slammed to the ground, kneed in the back, and zip-tied by CBP agents. He was then transported to a federal law enforcement facility not affiliated with CBP or ICE, where CBP agents held him, handcuffed, in the back of a vehicle in a garage—never booking him, never reading him his rights, never stating why he was detained, and never allowing him to contact his mother.”
Oscar Franco, an immigration attorney for Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, said the conduct by federal agents the day before was “appalling and disgusting,” and he encouraged East Side community members to — safely — continue documenting federal agents’ activity.
“You all have rights in the United States, regardless of your legal status,” Franco said. “You have the right to record ICE. You have the right to share that information with your loved ones and members of your communities.”
Franco also advised that residents with legal status carry copies or photos of any documents confirming their citizenship.
“Make sure that you make copies of your documentation proving your legal status, he added. “Take pictures of your passports, your naturalization certificates, of your birth certificates. Keep those copies on you if you can.”
Tuesday’s confrontation marked the third time in recent weeks that federal authorities have deployed tear gas in the city — and at least the second time CPD officers were subjected to the chemical substance.
On Oct. 4, federal agents shot a woman in Brighton Park after she allegedly used a vehicle to “box in” immigration authorities. Agents deployed tear gas then to quell a crowd and city police officers were also affected.
The woman shot has since been federally charged with using a dangerous weapon to interfere with federal officers in the course of their official duties.
A day earlier, in Logan Square, federal agents tossed tear gas canisters at hecklers who were standing near an elementary school.
