Chase involving federal agents led to a crash and angry community response in Chicago

By Cindy Von Quednow, Omar Jimenez, Whitney Wild, Bill Kirkos, CNN

(CNN) — US Border Patrol agents pursued and crashed into a vehicle as part of an immigration enforcement operation, leading to an angry response from community residents and the deployment of tear gas in Chicago’s far southeast side Tuesday.

The tense standoff exemplifies tensions in Chicago over immigration enforcement as the Trump administration is trying to move National Guard troops into the Windy City.

The incident unfolded when a white SUV hit the side of a red SUV, sending it backwards through the intersection before it crashed into another vehicle, video captured by a nearby resident showed.

After the second crash, at least two people can be seen stumbling out of the vehicle while it is still moving and running off as what appeared to be federal agents in the white SUV chase after them.

“All the (federal authorities) just started coming out of nowhere. And so then the neighborhood started coming too because there was too many … agents there,” a witness who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation told CNN.

“They just started tear-gassing”

The red SUV was driven by a person in the country illegally who rammed a Border Patrol vehicle before trying to flee the scene, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to CNN. Agents used “an authorized precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver,” which forces a vehicle to spin out and stop, said DHS.

Border Patrol agents eventually arrested the two individuals and tried to secure the scene as the crowd turned “hostile,” according to DHS. “Eventually crowd control measures were used,” the agency said.

Chicago police officers responded to and documented the crash but were not involved in any federal operations at the location of the crash, the agency told CNN.

Additional police supervisors responded to the scene, and as federal authorities were leaving, officers attempted to deescalate the situation, police said.

People in the crowd began throwing objects at the federal agents, who deployed tear gas into the street, CPD said.

As a crowd began to gather, many in the neighborhood began to verbally confront federal agents on the scene, aerial video from CNN affiliate WLS showed. A separate cell phone video provided to CNN appears to show an agent throw a cell phone that was recording him.

Rocks were being thrown in the melee, WLS reported.

The crowd dispersed after tear gas was deployed, video showed.

Neighbors told CNN they believe three other people were arrested in connection with the gathering that followed the crash.

Anger from the neighborhood wasn’t just due to the presence of federal agents, the witness said, but also from the manner of Tuesday’s arrests.

“We’re angry at them for chasing people in our neighborhood, going full velocity on these streets when, you know, we have children walk around,” the witness said. “These children are going to school, you know? And they’re flying down the streets.”

At one point “they just started tear-gassing,” the witness said. “We were burning, I couldn’t even breathe.”

Thirteen police officers were exposed to the chemical agent, police said.

DHS said the incident “reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement officers.”

Illinois State Sen. Robert Peters and Mayor Brandon Johnson sent members of their staff to the scene to monitor the situation on the ground.

“There’s absolutely no reason to have this type of chaos happening in our communities, putting people at risk, putting people in harm’s way and just exacerbating the fear that people feel right now,” Beatrice Ponce de Leon, deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, told CNN affiliate WBBM. “This type of escalation is what is going to cause harm, it’s not the people of Chicago, but it’s the federal agents.”

Also on Tuesday, police in Providence, Rhode Island, were investigating a vehicle crash involving ICE agents, which city officials say knocked down a utility pole not far from the city center.

City officials did not say what caused the crash or whether anyone was injured. CNN has reached out to ICE for more information.

Yellow caution tape could be seen surrounding the crash site where a black unmarked SUV and a white sedan sit side-by-side with front-end damage, video from CNN affiliate WPRI shows.

Tensions bubble in Chicago

Tensions continue to bubble in the Windy City — long known as a Welcoming City for immigrants — between its residents, city leaders and activists and the Trump administration.

Tuesday’s standoff in Chicago comes the same day as a court deadline to remove a security fence around the Broadview ICE facility, the site of several anti-ICE protests, after a federal judge ruled it must come down following a lawsuit by local officials who called it a public safety hazard.

As of late Tuesday evening, the barrier was seen being removed ahead of the 11:59 p.m. deadline.

Additionally, a US District Court judge less than a week ago granted a temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration’s deployment of soldiers in Illinois for two weeks.

And late last month 37 people were arrested and American children were separated from their parents during an immigration raid at a Chicago apartment complex.

“Federal agents reporting to Secretary Noem have spent weeks snatching up families, scaring law-abiding residents, violating due process rights, and even detaining U.S. citizens,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said earlier this month. “They fail to focus on violent criminals and instead create panic in our communities.”

This story has been updated.

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CNN’s Leonel Mendez, Stephen Samaniego, Amanda Musa and Kara Devlin contributed to this report.