Journalism of Courage
The US Department of Homeland Security has said that Border Patrol agents shot an armed woman in Chicago on Saturday amid scores of protesters demonstrating against federal immigration agents on the city’s southwest side. The incident took place in Chicago’s suburb of Broadview, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility’s office is situated.
A statement by the homeland department’s spokesperson said that no law enforcement officials were seriously injured in the incident. The incident involved a group of protesters, including the woman ramming cars into vehicles used by US ICE. The statement added that the agents were allegedly “boxed in by 10 cars”.
The condition of the woman who was shot wasn’t immediately known. ICE agents fired pepper spray and loaded rubber bullets as part of the confrontation with the protesters in Chicago. US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, in a post on X, wrote that she was sending additional special operations to control the situation in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood.
Noem wrote, “Today in Chicago, members of our brave law enforcement were attacked, rammed and boxed in by ten vehicles, including an attacker with a semi-automatic weapon.”
Illinois’ Democrat Governor JB Pritzker said that he has been given an ultimatum by President Donald Trump to deploy the state’s National Guard. “It is absolutely outrageous and unAmerican to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Pritzker said.
The DHS said the agents weren’t able to move their vehicles after being boxed in by protesters cars and one of the DHS officials said that a driver of the protesters’ cars boxing them had a semi-automatic gun. DHS said the agents opened fire that struck the driver, who they said was a woman, CBS News reported.
People in Chicago have staged multiple protests against the increased presence of federal officers in the city.
(with inputs from Reuters)
