Tear gas used by federal immigration agents following East Side traffic crash, neighborhood uprising

Federal agents deployed multiple canisters of tear gas in a residential block of the East Side neighborhood Tuesday to quell a clash with residents who demanded the enforcement officers leave the neighborhood.

At least 100 neighbors flocked late Tuesday morning to 105th Street and Avenue N following a vehicle crash involving at least one U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle. At least three people were detained in the chase and confrontation that followed.

The Department of Homeland Security alleged in a statement issued Tuesday that the chase, subsequent crash and confrontation began when “a vehicle, driven by an illegal alien, rammed a Border Patrol vehicle and attempted to flee the scene.”

“Border Patrol pursued the vehicle and was eventually able to stop it utilizing an authorized precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver,” the statement said. “Once the vehicle was stopped, the suspects, who are both illegal aliens, attempted to flee on foot. As Border Patrol arrested the subjects and attempted to secure the scene a crowd began to form and eventually turned hostile and eventually crowd control measures were used.”

Security video from one area residence captured the SUV containing the agents striking another SUV and spinning it into a parked car, but not any initial ramming, which could have occurred out of the frame of the fixed camera. The DHS statement called the incident part of a growing trend of immigration targets violently resisting arrests.

Residents of the East Side neighborhood — a working class, mostly Latino enclave — hurled insults at the federal agents who milled in the intersection while tow trucks cleared the crash scene.

Several men from the neighborhood targeted agents who they believed to be of Latino descent.

“You came to the wrong community, chico,” one of the men yelled.

“This ain’t your hood! Let’s go!” another man said as he stood at the corner. Most, but not all of agents were wearing gas masks.

About a dozen Chicago police officers were on hand and later created a barrier for the agents to return to their vehicles and leave.

By 12:30 p.m., hundreds of people crowded the intersection of 105th Street and Avenue N, shouting insults.

Just before 12:40 p.m., someone threw a large rock at the windshield of a vehicle, striking it. Agents then fired multiple canisters of tear gas and other chemical crowd controls, largely dispersing the crowd.

Several bricks could be seen being thrown into the intersection before tear gas started to rise in the street, scattering the crowd as agents sped away. Sierra Lane said agents told onlookers that “once they leave, they’re going to make everybody cry” in what she thought was a reference to the tear gas.

Lane, 21, said her friend’s boyfriend was one of the people detained for throwing things.

Ald. Peter Chico, 10th, said at the scene that he had come straight from City Hall and was still gathering information about the clash but encouraged people to peacefully voice their opposition to federal presence in Chicago neighborhoods.

Beatriz Ponce de Leon, deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, stood at Chico’s side as neighbors surrounded the sobbing mother of one of the detained teenagers.

“There’s absolutely no reason to have this kind of chaos happening in our communities, putting people at risk, putting people in harm’s way,” Ponce de Leon said. “This type of escalation is what is going to cause harm.”

Neighbors regrouping in the wake of the gas deployment said community patrols had been out since about 10 a.m. Tuesday, warning people to stay inside and for business owners in the U.S. without legal permission to close.

Andrea Pedroza said her car was one of the parked vehicles damaged in the crash. The airbags on the vehicle the agents had been driving deployed during the crash, she said.

A white Chevy Tahoe could be seen getting towed out of the neighborhood shortly before agents left the scene in a cloud of gas. A few minutes later, cars tore through the intersection with horns blaring and calls of “(expletive) ICE!” as residents yelled back and forth and paced the street.

One man gingerly carried a spent can of chemical crowd control in a baseball hat, saying he was a high school science teacher and planned to use it in a lesson for his students.

Pedroza, 35, and her daughter stood on their front steps reconnecting with teary neighbors and waiting for a friend with a tow truck. They pored over their security footage, which showed the white SUV hitting the middle of a red SUV as it appeared to attempt to go in reverse.

The red SUV then can be seen spinning across the intersection as the white SUV stops short of it.

“I’ve only watched this on the news,” Pedroza said. “I’ve seen (Broadview) and 26th Street and it gets you, but I didn’t think it was going to happen right here in front of my house.”

Tuesday’s confrontation marked the third time in recent weeks that federal authorities have deployed tear gas in the city — and at least the second time CPD officers were subjected to the chemical substance.

On Oct. 4, federal agents shot a woman in Brighton Park after she allegedly used a vehicle to “box in” immigration authorities. Agents deployed tear gas then to quell a crowd and city police officers were also affected.

The woman shot has since been federally charged with using a dangerous weapon to interfere with federal officers in the course of their official duties.

A day earlier, in Logan Square, federal agents tossed tear gas canisters at hecklers who were standing near an elementary school.

A few dozen people remained at the intersection after the agents left the area. Spent canisters of tear gas were scattered in the intersection along with canisters marked “muzzle blast CS powder dispersion rounds.”

One woman, Lucy, an area resident for 14 years who only wanted to be identified by her first name, told the Tribune that it was “scary” and “a little unsettling” to see news reporters wearing riot gear in her neighborhood, but she was heartened by the community’s response.

“I’m proud that my people are out here, I’m proud that they’re out here and resisting,” she said. “I love to see community together. You’re not taking our people like this.”

The Police Department issued a statement after the incident that said officers responded to the 10500 block of South Avenue N just after 11 a.m. for a call of an auto accident involving federal authorities.

“CPD was not involved in any of the federal operations occurring at that location,” police said, adding officers documented the crash with additional supervisors present because of federal involvement. “Individuals then began throwing objects at the federal agents, at which point the federal agents deployed tear gas into the street.”

Thirteen officers were exposed to tear gas, the statement said, necessitating post-exposure documentation.

Police personnel were directed to have their helmets and gas masks available until further notice in a citywide communication sent Tuesday afternoon from First Deputy Superintendent Yolanda Talley’s office, police sources said.

(An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the law enforcement officers as agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)