Illinois panel's first meeting over federal misconduct focuses on
chemical agents
[December 19, 2025]
By SOPHIA TAREEN
CHICAGO (AP) — A commission formed to document alleged harassment and
abuse by federal agents during an immigration crackdown in the Chicago
area reviewed the wide use of chemical agents in its first public
hearing Thursday.
The immigration operation, which started in September, has been marked
by aggressive tactics widely denounced by judges, elected leaders and a
growing number of residents in the nation’s third-largest city and
surrounding suburbs. Formed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, the commission
is the latest resistance effort by a Democratic-led state to the Trump
administration’s federal intervention, which critics say is
discriminatory and an overreach of executive power.
“It’s going to be impossible to forget,” said Rubén Castillo, a former
federal judge who leads the commission, of the immigration operation.
“The one thing we cannot do is accept this. This cannot be the new
normal.”
The meeting came as a Border Patrol commander — who was the face of the
Chicago operation before leading similar crackdowns in North Carolina
and Louisiana — surprisingly returned to the Chicago area this week.
More than 4,000 people have been arrested in the Chicago area crackdown,
during which there was a fatal shooting by federal agents. The operation
prompted multiple lawsuits and a new law that shields immigrants from
arrests near courthouses, hospitals and schools. Other places where
there's been intensified immigration enforcement have also fought back,
including California, which launched a portal this month for residents
to file complaints against federal agents of alleged misconduct.
There are limitations on what the Illinois commission can do, something
members acknowledged as they played video clips and heard testimony of
well-documented incidents, including an agent pepper spraying a toddler
and her father. The commission cannot compel anyone to testify, bring
charges or force legislation but they’ll issue a report next year with
recommendations.
Members include attorneys, community leaders and retired judges who said
their goal was to also create an accurate historic record of the impact
on the community as the Trump administration's account of what happened
often contradict what was seen and documented by firsthand witnesses.
The Department of Homeland Security has defended its approach as
appropriate in the face of growing threats to federal officers. The
agency has touted efforts to arrest violent criminals, though public
records of their first weeks in Chicago show the majority of arrestees
didn’t have violent criminal records.
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U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, center, looks on after
federal immigration enforcement agents detained an individual
outside a Mobil gas station in Evanston, Ill., Wednesday, Dec. 17,
2025. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
In a statement Thursday, the department's assistant secretary,
Tricia McLaughlin, blasted the commission as Pritzker's way of
continuing “to smear law enforcement."
Community leaders have said the operation has been devastating to
the community.
The hearing Thursday was held near Little Village, a neighborhood
known as the “Mexico of the Midwest” that was among the hardest hit
by immigration agents. Businesses reported slowdowns and schools
noted drops in attendance as many residents have remained on edge.
“The narrative of removing dangerous criminals is simply not true,”
Matt DeMateo, a pastor who leads New Life Centers, testified.
Senior Border Patrol Official Greg Bovino left the Chicago area last
month. His surprise return, amid ongoing operations in New Orleans,
prompted immediately backlash in the Democratic stronghold, with
activists following agents as they patrolled throughout the city and
suburbs. That included a confrontation Wednesday with the mayor of
Evanston, an affluent Chicago suburb that’s home to Northwestern
University.
Bovino posted last month about his conversation with Mayor Daniel
Biss.
“Although he fell back into the divisive talking points that we’ve
heard ad nauseum from politicians in Chicago, I hope it was
enlightening to him,” Bovino said on the social platform X.
Biss, who is running for Congress, had a different take.
“We will not be intimidated,” he said in a statement posted to X
with a picture of the Bovino interaction. “Get the hell out of our
city.”
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