Photo: Alamy
Two men living in the U.S. illegally attempted to ram Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with their vehicles in separate incidents in the Chicago suburbs this week, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.
The agency said the attacks, which occurred Tuesday during enforcement operations tied to Operation Midway Blitz, were influenced by anti-ICE rhetoric from Illinois Democratic leaders.
The first incident took place in Norridge, where officials said Miguel Escareno De Loera, a Mexican national, struck an ICE vehicle twice before losing control and crashing into a stop sign. He was taken into custody.
In Bensenville, Widman Osberto Lopez-Funes of Guatemala allegedly drove his car into ICE officers before fleeing into his home. Agents arrested him without further incident, according to DHS.
“Thankfully none of our law enforcement was killed because of these deranged criminals’ attacks,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “This is exactly what happens when Governor Pritzker, Mayor Johnson, and other sanctuary politicians demonize ICE and encourage illegal aliens to resist law enforcement.”
McLaughlin said assaults on ICE officers have surged by more than 1,000 percent, with vehicles increasingly used as weapons. She added that the department will pursue charges.
“[DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem has been clear: anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McLaughlin said.
Both Escareno De Loera and Lopez-Funes remain in federal custody pending removal proceedings. DHS said additional charges for assaulting federal officers are being prepared.
Officials stressed that ICE officers regularly face such threats while carrying out removals. “These back-to-back attacks underscore the dangers ICE law enforcement officers face every day as they remove criminal illegal aliens from American neighborhoods,” the department said in a statement. “DHS will restore law and order and continue to protect American communities from criminal illegal aliens who choose violence.”
The two incidents are the latest in a string of vehicle assaults against federal agents. In September, ICE said agents in Franklin Park, Illinois, shot and killed Mexican national Silverio Villegas-González after he allegedly used his car to drag an officer. Weeks earlier, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, two suspects attempted to ram ICE agents during a raid in the Black Forest area, prompting an officer to open fire. Both suspects were later arrested.