ICE Agents Tear Gas Chicago Police Officers

Numerous Chicago Police Department officers were left incapacitated after being ‘accidentally’ tear-gassed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Saturday, Chicago Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security confirms.

Illinois asks the [Trump] administration to halt the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the National Guard

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.

Police Officers tear-gassed

BROADVIEW, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 27: Federal law enforcement agents attack demonstrators protesting outside of an immigrant processing center with a barrage of tear gas and pepper balls on September 27, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois. The demonstrators were protesting a recent surge in ICE apprehensions in the Chicago area, part of a push by the Trump administration dubbed Operation Midway Blitz. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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.

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.

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.

Poorly trained agents

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 4: Demonstrators protest along Kedzie Avenue in the Brighton Park Neighborhood as Federal Agents were investigating a shooting on October 4, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. Federal Agents shot an individual in the area after a confrontation. President Donald Trumps’s administration continues to enforce immigration laws in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs during Operation Midway Blitz. (Photo by Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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.

It is deeply concerning that DHS may be allowing a temporary appointee to function as a senior executive without proper appointment.

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.

Clashes with police this weekend

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 04: A woman is treated for exposure to tear gas after it was used by federal law enforcement agents who were being confronted by community members and activists for reportedly shooting a woman in the Brighton Park neighborhood on October 04, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois. Residents of the city have become increasingly concerned as Operation Midway Blitz continues in the Chicago area, an operation designed to apprehend and deport undocumented immigrants living in the area. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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.

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, posted on X that “Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon.”

She continued by stating that “Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed US citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds.”

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.

Illinois and Chicago Sue

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.

A consistent presence in Broadview

BROADVIEW, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 04: Demonstrators protest outside of an immigrant processing and detention center on October 04, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois. Protests continue to grow as Operation Midway Blitz continues in the Chicago area, an operation designed to apprehend and deport undocumented immigrants living in the area. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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.”