By Emily Schmall
CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) – An independent commission created by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker in the wake of an aggressive immigration crackdown in the Chicago area last year has recommended that local prosecutors investigate federal agents for misconduct.
The Illinois Accountability Commission, led by retired U.S. District Judge Rubén Castillo, issued a report on Thursday documenting what it described as a pattern of “unjustified and excessive force,” and the “indiscriminate use of chemical agents” by federal officers.
The commission, which took witness testimony and reviewed a trove of court evidence and media reports, recommended further investigation by Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, other local prosecutors and police as well as federal law enforcement agencies with the authority to obtain additional evidence.
The report and video footage contained “plenty of stuff that can be prosecuted,” Judge Castillo told a news conference.
The Trump administration’s crackdown, which it dubbed Operation Midway Blitz, led to thousands of arrests and violent confrontations between federal immigration agents and protesters from September until December. Agents shot two people, including one person fatally, and threatened to shoot others, body-cam footage shows.
Agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets at protesters outside an immigration holding center in suburban Broadview, Illinois, repeatedly during near-daily demonstrations and across many Chicago neighborhoods.
“If JB Pritzker spent this much time and energy addressing crime and supporting the arrest of criminal illegal aliens instead of providing them with sanctuary, Illinois residents would be much safer,” said Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, in response to the report.
She referred to the case of a Chicago student who authorities say was fatally shot in March by a Venezuelan migrant, who has pleaded not guilty to the shooting. After the commission’s report was published Thursday, Judge Castillo described the October 4 shooting of Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen and Montessori school teacher in suburban Oak Park, by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum.
“You would think that she was shot by some gang member on the South Side of Chicago. And she was. But guess what? That gang was Customs and Border Patrol. And the person who sent that gang to Illinois and to Chicago? Someone living on Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House,” Castillo said.
Martinez survived the shooting and faced criminal charges by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in one of dozens of cases that were later dropped.
The federal government initially said that Martinez had tried to ram the agents with her car, but later withdrew its case against her. Martinez’s lawyer said that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Bend, Indiana, was investigating Exum for misconduct, but a spokesperson on Thursday said that she could not confirm the existence of an open investigation.
Pritzker, a Democrat and the billionaire heir of the Hyatt fortune, has become an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and accused him of authoritarianism. During the immigration blitz last fall, Trump called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Pritzker, a possible contender for the presidential election in 2028.
“Our hope is that law enforcement agencies will review this evidence and take any steps in their power to deliver justice to Illinoisans impacted by Operation Midway Blitz, including Marimar Martinez and Silverio Villegas Gonzales,” Pritzker said Thursday, referring to a Mexican immigrant who was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent during the operation.“We can’t let people forget the atrocities that happened here in our cities and the erosion of our democracy happening in the United States.”
(Reporting by Emily Schmall; Editing by Mark Porter and Deepa Babington)
