Video shows immigration agent punching restrained man after car
collision turns into confrontation
[November 03, 2025]
By REBECCA BOONE
Police in a Chicago suburb are collecting videos and other evidence to
send to the Illinois attorney general’s office after a car crash
involving a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle led to a violent arrest caught on
video showing an agent repeatedly punching a man in the head while
pinned to the ground.
Immigration agents arrested three people after a sedan collided with the
rear of the U.S. Border Patrol vehicle around noon Friday in the city of
Evanston. The episode drew a crowd of onlookers and quickly escalated.
Videos posted to social media show some in the crowd appearing to try to
interfere with the arrests. Federal agents are seen at times deploying
pepper spray, punching a man who approaches the officers, and pointing a
gun in the direction of another woman who opened the agents' vehicle
door, where a detainee had been placed.
Federal agents have been spreading throughout Evanston in recent days as
part of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement activities in
the Chicago region. In response some Evanston community members have set
up “rapid response” teams, organizing to warn residents when federal
agents are spotted and working to slow the agents as they travel through
the region.
One agent who was restraining a man on the ground Friday appeared to
punch him in the head as it was pressed against the asphalt. The
Department of Homeland Security later said the officer delivered
“defensive strikes” after the man “grabbed the agent’s genitals and
squeezed.”
Some witnesses claimed online that the agents caused the crash by
suddenly braking in front of the sedan, though federal officials
disputed that account. City leaders swiftly condemned the agents’
actions.
In a news conference shortly after the episode, Mayor Daniel Biss said
immigration agents had “beaten people up” and “abducted them."
"It is an outrage,” Biss said. “Our message for ICE is simple: Get the
hell out of Evanston.”
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The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the
agents were being “aggressively tailgated” and the sedan hit them as
they tried to make a U-turn.
“A hostile crowd then surrounded agents and their vehicle, verbally
abusing and spitting on them,” the agency said. “One physically
assaulted a Border Patrol agent and kicked an agent. As he was being
arrested, he grabbed the agent’s genitals and squeezed them. The
agent delivered several defensive strikes to free himself.”
The mayor has urged more people to join the rapid response team, and
city officials have passed ordinances declaring city property to be
“No ICE Zones.” This week the Evanston Police Department began
sending a supervisor to any reported immigration enforcement scene
to document what happens and collect evidence for the Illinois
attorney general’s Civil Rights Division, Police Cmdr. Ryan Glew
said.
Glew said officers received calls from both federal agents and
bystanders. A supervisor arrived after the arrests were made, and
several people were treated by paramedics for exposure to pepper
spray.
“When we responded those efforts were focused on stabilizing the
situation and preventing further conflict between ICE agents and
community members,” he said.
Allie Harned, a social worker at Chute Middle School, was part of
the crowd that formed after the collision.
“This was awful. There were ICE agents and CBP agents pointing guns
at community members, spraying pepper spray in the face of community
members,” she said at the news conference.
“This was terrifying to community members,” Harned said. “It was
horrifying to a student who happened to be in a car and witnessed
it. It is not OK.”
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