Illinois sues over Trump administration’s dangerous use of force

Gov. JB Pritzker and the state of Illinois on Monday sued the Trump administration over what they say is the Department of Homeland Security’s “dangerous use of force” and “coordinated campaign of violence and intimidation” disguised as legitimate immigration law enforcement.

“The Trump administration has unleashed an organized bombardment against the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago, causing unrest and imposing a climate of fear,” the report stated. lawsuit alleges. “Although the defendants describe this assault as ‘immigration enforcement,’ the reality is that uniformed, military-trained personnel, carrying semi-automatic firearms and military-grade weaponry, have rampaged through Chicago and its surrounding areas for months, illegally detaining, interrogating and arresting residents, and attacking them with chemical weapons.”

Additionally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, supervised by Border Patrol official Greg Bovino and DHS Secretary Krisiti Noem, are part of an “occupation” in Chicago and its suburbs that ultimately aims to “coerce” state officials into abandoning their own immigration policies, the lawsuit alleges.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

In recent months, Chicago has seen The Trump administration is sending immigration agents to raid apartment complexes, deploy chemical agents near schools, and even handcuff a Chicago City Council member in a hospital. At least two people have been shot by officers, and more than 1,000 immigrants have been arrested since the crackdown began in September.

It’s also part of a broader pattern of immigration crackdowns across the country: The Illinois lawsuit comes the same day the state of Minnesota sued the administration to stop an increase in ICE enforcement following the shooting death of Renee Good.

AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato

Trump issued an executive order in April that created a list of national sanctuary cities, including Chicago. The order directed Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi to evaluate whether so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” were in compliance with the administration’s federal immigration operations. The Justice Department then sued Illinois and Cook County, alleging “interference” in federal affairs. In July, a judge had dismissed the administration’s claim, finding that the state’s immigration policies were protected by the Tenth Amendment.

The Trump administration also attempted to withhold federal funds from Illinois unless it accepted federal immigration enforcement tactics rather than upholding its own laws, such as the Trust Act of 2017 or the Way Forward Act. The Trust Act prohibits state agents from arresting people solely based on their immigration status; The Way Forward Act expanded the limits on how state and local law enforcement assist in federal immigration operations.

after a judge ruled In September, Trump attacked that the administration’s withholding of federal funds was a violation of the Constitution (Congress controls the money, not the president, the judge concluded).

Pritzker’s attorneys recounted the incident in Monday’s lawsuit.

First, an “angry” Trump threatened to “unleash a military assault” on Chicago, the lawsuit notes, by posting an AI-generated image of himself dressed as a military officer from the movie “Apocalypse Now.” Trump changed his name “Chipocalypse now”, referring to Chicago, and wrote in the post: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning” and “Chicago is about to learn why it is called the WAR Department.”

Trump federalized the Illinois National Guard over Pritzker’s objections and deployed troops in October, claiming Chicago was awash in violence against federal immigration agents. At the time, Pritzker criticized the president for manufacturing a crisis where none existed and sued to stop the troop deployment.

A judge temporarily blocked the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago and Trump went to the Supreme Court for help, without success. The judges ruled in December that the temporary restraining order would remain in effect and that “the Government has not identified a source of authority that allows the military to execute the laws in Illinois.”

Despite those rulings, Pritzker alleges that now, Border Patrol agents who are not qualified to conduct deportation operations have flooded into Illinois to scare and intimidate residents.

Among the many tactics deployed by these “quasi-military” federal forces are masked patrols along the Chicago River, where personnel in tactical gear carry rifles and question residents about their immigration status, the lawsuit claims. These agents gather in large numbers and brandish military equipment and weapons throughout downtown Chicago, and have conducted “military-style raids” on Chicago apartment buildings, capturing residents and searching the premises.

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“Officers rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter into an apartment building on Chicago’s South Shore and arrested and detained without warrant dozens of people, including several U.S. citizens, some of whom were children. Officers pulled people from their beds in the middle of the night, tied their hands, and detained them in buses or vans. Officers also ransacked residents’ apartments, breaking down doors, emptying bookshelves, and overturning mattresses,” the lawsuit states.

Illinois says residents’ biometric data is also being taken without their consent and civilians are being indiscriminately attacked with tear gas as raids are conducted near courthouses, domestic violence shelters, hospitals and schools.

Parents have been arrested and separated from their children, teachers have been dragged from their classrooms and people have died needlessly, the lawsuit emphasizes.

“The chaos and violence that Border Patrol tactics have unleashed on plaintiffs has resulted in two shootings by immigration agents, one of them fatal,” the state’s attorneys wrote.

An ICE officer shot and killed a 38-year-old father of two. Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, in September, after dropping her 3-year-old son off at daycare.

in a statement After the shooting, DHS accused Villegas-González of refusing to follow law enforcement orders and said he “drove his car toward law enforcement officers.”

“One of the ICE officers was struck by the car and dragged a significant distance. Fearing for his own life, the officer fired his weapon,” the statement said.

In a description eerily reminiscent of the shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis last week, attorneys for the state and Pritzker noted that “videos of the incident did not corroborate DHS’s claim that the officer who fired the shot was ‘seriously injured.’”

Chicago resident and U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez was shot five times in October by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum and killed. reportedly He was found to be bragging about it to his co-workers in a Signal group text, according to WTTW Chicago Public Media.

“I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book guys,” Exum allegedly wrote.

“Federal authorities initially claimed that Exum opened fire on Ms. Martinez only after she crashed into his vehicle, but the federal criminal case against Ms. Martinez was dismissed after body camera footage captured another CBP agent with his hands on his assault rifle, saying ‘Do something, bitch,’ just before Exum fired five shots at Ms. Martinez,” the lawsuit states.

Pritzker and the state of Illinois have asked a judge to issue an order that would prevent Customs and Border Protection agents from conducting civil immigration checks in the state, as well as an order stopping what they describe as roving patrols, non-consensual biometric scans, warrantless arrests, tear gassing citizens, trespassing and concealing identifying information such as license plates of official Trump administration vehicles.