ICE Agents Tear Gas Chicago Police Officers

The National Guard was deployed to Chicago on Saturday to address what President Donald Trump claimed was “out-of-control crime” amid clashes between ICE agents and protesters.

Chicago has been viewed as a vital battleground state in America’s push against ICE and the abolition of the Fifth Amendment (the right to due process). Protests in Chicago over immigration enforcement have risen since the summer, and don’t show signs of slowing as protesters become radicalized by the fashion that law enforcement and ICE respond to their demonstrations.

On Saturday, at least five officers were left incapacitated and struggling against the effects of a tear gas canister that was “recklessly” thrown from a moving SUV by ICE agents. Bystanders spoke to reporters about the drive-by attack, claiming they had to run from the gas. Not everyone affected was a part of the protest, according to CBS.

Broadview City Police Chief Thomas Mills says this is not the first time that poorly trained ICE agents have tear-gassed his officers. He also cited an incident in September where he was verbally assaulted by an ICE agent, claiming that in his 37 years on the force, he had never seen Federal agents behave so violently and unprofessionally.

“I was offended … 37 years working … I’ve worked with a lot of federal agencies on criminal investigations, and that has never happened. We might not always see eye-to-eye, but we find a way to work it out.”

President Donald Trump stated he aimed to double the number of ICE agents by the end of 2025. Training to become an ICE agent used to be a five-month folly, where candidates were instilled with the letter of the law and the Constitution. ICE’s administration once took pride in being experts in diffusion and humane arrest practices.

Since the Trump administration took over the agency, the training has been reduced to just 47 days, according to The Atlantic. ICE’s upper management has been continually shaken and stirred, as the agency fails to meet the lofty deportation targets set by Trump’s administration.

What has resulted is an agency run by what some call a group of unqualified ideologists, with California Representative Robert Garcia stating that “It is deeply concerning that DHS may be allowing a temporary appointee to function as a senior executive without proper appointment.”

ICE currently has more than 6,000 deportation officers, and the Trump administration aims to add another 8,000 by the end of 2025. ICE is offering signing bonuses of up to $ 50,000 USD and has dropped all of its age restrictions. Before August 2025, ICE agents had to be at least 21 and no older than 40; those restrictions have now been dropped. Currently, the minimum age required to become an ICE agent is 18.

The requirements to qualify are also minimal: pass a background check and meet basic fitness and medical standards; that’s it. ICE does not require applicants to have any experience in law enforcement, and within 50 days, it feels comfortable arming and deploying its trainees onto the streets.

Tensions between ICE and protesters came to a head on Thursday after multiple protesters rammed and blocked in ICE Agents vehicles. One woman, a U.S. citizen, was hospitalized after being shot five times by a US Customs and Border Protection officer after ramming her car into the officer’s vehicle.

At least ten vehicles were actively attempting to impede the Federal Agents; no officers were injured by those protesters.

Tensions between ICE and protesters came to a head on Thursday after multiple protesters rammed and blocked in ICE Agents vehicles. One woman, a U.S. citizen, was hospitalized after being shot five times by a US Customs and Border Protection officer after ramming her car into the officer’s vehicle.

At least ten vehicles were actively attempting to impede the Federal Agents; no officers were injured by those protesters.

Law enforcement has not confirmed whether the victim was armed or not, contrary to DHS’s statement.

After the incident on Thursday, President Trump announced on Saturday that he would deploy 300 National Guard troops to Illinois to aid the “out-of-control crime.”

Trump doubled down on that statement on Monday, threatening an additional 400 troops from Texas’s National Guard.

The state of Illinois and the City of Chicago filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, claiming he planned to “use American soldiers to punish his political enemies,” and this was only the most recent example in “months of threats by Trump, …Kristi Noam, and others in the Trump administration,”

The lawsuit continued to call Trump’s deployment of troops “patently unlawful” and calls on the court to “halt the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the National Guard.”

The lawsuit cites Illinois’ right to self-governance and claims that the government’s actions will only cause more unrest in the City of Chicago.  

Protesters have focused their demonstrations at the Broadview ICE facility, just outside Chicago, shutting down the Northbound exit of Beach Street onto Lexington Street for weeks.

Protesters have been active at this location for an extended period. ICE has now set up three-foot-tall concrete barricades on either side of the street to control the crowd.

More than 1000 people have been detained by Immigration Enforcement in Chicago in 2025, including more than 900 during ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz.”