For many Evanstonians, last Halloween will not be remembered for costumes and candy, but as “among the most traumatic days our community has experienced,” according to Mayor Daniel Biss.
Now, Evanston is seeking help to prosecute those responsible.
On Oct. 31, federal agents tore through Chicago’s Northwest Side and neighboring suburbs to conduct immigration enforcement raids that were part of Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s sweeping federal immigration crackdown in Chicago.
“After wreaking havoc in multiple locations, (federal agents) caused a car crash near Oakton and Asbury (in Evanston), beat and pepper-sprayed peaceful bystanders, pointed guns at residents, and detained people for hours,” Biss wrote in a citywide message to residents Aug. 17.
He said the alleged action of agents “was surely a violation of (the Department of Homeland Security’s) use of force policies.”
The city of Evanston seeks to hold those agents accountable, Biss wrote, but the question is who would do that, and how.
More Top Picks Best Routers For Smart Home Devices
“This is a hard problem, because the Trump Administration makes all of the ‘normal’ ways of going about this unworkable,” Biss wrote.
It would never use its own Department of Justice to criminally prosecute federal agents, he wrote, which is why the “state-level criminal justice system is the last option to hold the agents accountable.”
To that end, Biss announced in his Monday letter that Evanston police Chief Schenita Stewart has sent a “formal request for guidance” to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office’s law enforcement review unit, tasked with investigating law enforcement officers accused of criminal offenses to decide whether charges can likely be brought against them.
“We are requesting assistance from LERU to determine the most appropriate path forward,” Biss wrote in his message.
Months of public backlash over the lack of legal action taken against immigration officers accused of acting violently towards civilians prompted Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to circulate a policy in February for how charges can be brought against federal agents.
The document provides an analysis for the thorny legal scenario in which a state prosecutor may pursue charges against a federal agent for alleged misconduct while on duty.
It is meant to act as a guide for officers investigating potential misconduct and for the prosecutors tasked in reviewing these cases.
“No one is above the law — including both ICE agents and prosecutors,” O’Neill Burke said in a news release regarding the policy.
While the Evanston Police Department initially opened an investigation into the alleged illegal use of force by federal agents on Halloween, “the FBI then opened its own investigation with the intent of using EPD’s case materials,” Biss continued.
“It is inconceivable that the FBI was acting in good faith.”
Biss relayed in his letter that the formal request was made to LERU in reference to an April 30 report from Gov. JB Pritzker’s Illinois Accountability Commission, a group formed to investigate the conduct of federal agents and issue policy recommendations in relation to any harms they may have caused.
The commission’s final report “analyzed the Evanston events and described the actions of federal agents Timothy Donahue, Thomas Parsons, and Edward Maxa as a ‘brutal attack … without apparent justification’ and alleged these agents used ‘excessive force,’” Biss wrote.
More Top Picks Best Mig Welders
The report concluded that “there is reasonable cause to believe” federal agents should be “formally investigated for possible violations of agency policy, state and federal criminal laws, and individuals’ constitutional rights,” he said.
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office wrote in a statement that its law enforcement review unit is reviewing Evanston’s materials to determine what support it can provide.
Last year, following the ICE Halloween raid, ICE agents returned to Evanston on Dec. 17, where then-Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino engaged in a heated public dispute with Biss in a Home Depot parking lot during a follow-up immigration enforcement operation.
As Evanston residents remain watchful for a potential return of ICE and Border Patrol agents to the Chicago area, federal officials have continued to push for protections for these agents, including liability insurance and gloves that would deliver electric shocks.