Mayor Brandon Johnson orders CPD to investigate federal immigration agents for potential prosecution
Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Saturday ordering Chicago police to investigate alleged abuses by federal immigration agents for potential felony prosecution.
Johnson’s Ice on Notice directive calls for the police department to document federal activity, including with body-worn cameras, and identify federal supervisors at scenes where enforcement could cross the line into criminality.
The order also calls for CPD to file reports on potential violations by federal agents and refer cases to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for prosecution.
The police department will publicly share “aggregated data on documented legal violations,” according to Johnson’s office, which touted the order as making Chicago “the first city in the nation to leverage local authority to pursue legal accountability for misconduct by federal immigration agents.”
“These federal agents are undermining the trust in law enforcement that we have been working really hard to rebuild over the past three years,” Johnson said at a City Hall news conference. “If the federal government will not hold these rogue actors accountable, then Chicago will do everything in our power to bring these agents to justice.”
His order comes as officials in Chicago and beyond grapple with how to hold accountable the federal agents who have been documented in numerous videos stretching the bounds of constitutional law enforcement, especially in the wake of the fatal shooting last weekend of unarmed nurse Alex Pretti.
Silverio Villegas González was shot dead by ICE agents conducting a September traffic stop in Franklin Park after the Trump administration brought its enhanced deportation campaign to the Chicago area. Officials with the Homeland Security department said González, who had just dropped off his child at school, had dragged one of the officers with his car. Suburban police body-camera video showed the officer saying his injury was “nothing major.” No charges have emerged from an FBI investigation.
One ICE officer is facing a misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly shoving an activist at a Brookfield gas station while off duty.
In an email, a spokesperson for State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said her office “remains committed to protecting public safety, ensuring accountability and upholding the rule of law alongside our law enforcement partners. We look forward to reviewing the Mayor’s Executive Order now that we have received it.”
Johnson said Burke was "in complete support" of his order, but she later released a statement saying that her office hadn't been briefed. "We do not provide legal approval of any matter until we’ve reviewed it. On such a critical issue, it’s important we get it right," Burke said.
The Illinois Accountability Commission, convened last year by Gov. JB Pritzker, is soliciting video evidence and testimony from residents about alleged federal abuses. The state panel held its second public meeting Friday. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot is spearheading a separate effort to document federal misconduct.
At least 2,800 people were arrested in Illinois in Operation Midway Blitz between mid-September through mid-October, primarily in the Chicago area, according to ICE data obtained by the Data Deportation Project and statements about Border Patrol arrests made by the Justice Department in court.
The operation slowed down in mid-November, but sources have told the Sun-Times that federal agents could come back in even greater numbers this spring.
The police department is expected to issue guidance and procedures for implementing Johnson’s order within 30 days.