Max Herman/Borderless Magazine. Screenshots from video courtesy of Illinois State Rep. HoanIn the latest incident in a string of aggressive immigration enforcement, Illinois State Rep. Hoan Huynh alleged that federal agents pointed a gun at him and a staffer in Chicago’s North Side while they were warning the community of ICE presence.
Illinois State Rep. Hoan Huynh alleges federal agents pointed a gun at him and a staffer Tuesday in Irving Park during ICE’s enforcement targeting Chicago’s North Side — the latest example of aggressive tactics carried out by the Department of Homeland Security.
Huynh, who is a Vietnamese refugee, was a passenger as a staffer drove through the Irving Park and Albany Park neighborhoods, honking his horn to alert residents of ICE presence in his district when he was surrounded by half a dozen Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents, according to the state rep who is running for U.S Congress.
The incident is one of the latest in a continued escalation against elected officials by Trump and ICE agents.
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Earlier this month, Ald. Jesse Fuentes (26th) was handcuffed and escorted out of a hospital when asking federal agents if they had a judicial warrant to detain a constituent who was hospitalized. President Trump also called for Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson to be put in jail “for failing to protect ICE officers.”
In a video shared with Borderless Magazine, ICE officers can be seen surrounding and filming Huynh and a staffer in a vehicle at the intersection of Pensacola and Kimball avenues. Huynh can be seen with his hands in the air and repeating that he’s an elected official. A staffer for Huynh narrates the encounter and says an agent pointed a gun at them.
Huynh alleges their vehicle was tailed and then boxed in by two CBP vehicles, who surrounded them and banged on their windows, threatening to break them. Huynh also said one agent pointed a gun at his passenger side window and told him to identify himself. They were given no prior warning before the encounter, he said.
The video doesn’t show the moment the agent pointed his gun, but his office said the agent put the gun away as soon as a staffer started recording.
Huynh said federal agents were using “violent intimidation trying to silence us.”
After the recorded encounter, Huynh said they continued to follow the CBP car ahead of them, to ensure “anyone they were going to try to pick up was going to be safe,” but they were stopped and intimidated again. After the second confrontation, the pair chose to head back to the office, he said.
“It’s been very personal to me as someone who’s a refugee, to make sure that we support and protect our neighbors,” said Huynh. “We should be able to live in peace.”
Nearby Ald. Rossana Rodriguez (33rd) and her chief of staff were also stopped and confronted by ICE officers on Tuesday while warning neighbors of ICE in Albany Park, prompting a masked agent to issue a warning for “impeding an operation.”
Since launching “Operation Midway Blitz,” ICE has:
- killed a man in Franklin Park;
- shot a woman five times in Brighton Park;
- raided a South Shore apartment and zip-tied residents, including small children;
- teargassed and shot pepper bullets at protesters and journalists at Broadview Detention Facility;
- indiscriminately targeted Latino immigrants across the city; and
- caused multiple car crashes after pepper-spraying a man and detaining U.S. citizens in Little Village.
The Department of Homeland Security has claimed to target the “worst of the worst,” but videos posted on social media and shared with reporters have shown masked agents sweeping through neighborhoods, taking street vendors, day laborers, and flea market vendors in Back of the Yards.
Meanwhile, more than 70% of individuals currently in ICE detention do not have criminal records, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. More than 170 U.S. citizens have also been detained, many describing being dragged, kicked and held for days by ICE, according to a report from ProPublica.
U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino previously told WBEZ that agents considered a person’s appearance before taking them into custody.
Advocates and legal experts have been raising alarms over ICE’s aggressive tactics across the country, stating they are “different in scale” than previous operations.
“We’re seeing a much more coordinated approach from DHS to ICE and CBP on specific locations and to ensure they’re heavily-armed,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University. “One of the things that is coming to light is just how quickly DHS officers are to deploy violent force of one kind or another, which is not something we’re used to seeing.”
In four separate lawsuits, federal judges have ruled against DHS, calling into question federal agents’ tactics. One judge recently ruled that federal agents who aren’t undercover are required to carry visible identification in Chicago and the surrounding areas. Federal agents are also required to wear body cams when available and can’t make warrantless arrests.
Before Tuesday’s encounter with ICE, Huynh was canvassing local businesses to inform them of their rights if immigration agents came to their shops.
“If they can pull a gun on an elected official and try to bash in my window, there’s no end to the terror they will continue reigning on our communities,” Huynh said. “We must fight back against this fascist regime that has no place in America.”
During the encounter with Huynh, ICE agents can be seen wearing body cameras, but it’s unclear whether those cameras were on when they approached State Rep. Huynh.
DHS didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We know that this has been an ongoing issue in Chicago,” said Huynh. “ICE agents are coming to our cities, racially profiling our neighbors. Immigrants and refugees are being targeted.”
Huynh, alongside other elected officials and local organizations, will be advocating in Springfield for new legislation and protections for immigrant rights in Illinois next week.
Mauricio Peña is Borderless Magazine’s chief of staff. Email Mauricio at [email protected].
Camilla Forte is a CatchLight fellow and Report for America Corps Member covering immigrant communities for Borderless Magazine. Email Camilla at [email protected].
Tara Mobasher is Borderless Magazine’s newsletter writer and reporter. Email Tara at [email protected].
