Illinois commission recommends investigating federal immigration agents for misconduct and criminal charges
Illinois commission recommends investigating federal immigration agents for misconduct and criminal charges
Daniella SilvaThu, April 30, 2026 at 10:36 PM UTC
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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has harshly criticized the federal government's deployment of immigration agents in Chicago. (Angelina Katsanis / AP file) (Angelina Katsanis)
An Illinois commission tasked with investigating the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation in the state last year said it had identified multiple incidents in which federal agents should be investigated for misconduct and potential criminal charges.
Members of the Illinois Accountability Commission, an independent board of nine members that includes a former federal judge and attorneys appointed by Gov. JB Pritzker, recommended in a final report Thursday that law enforcement agencies and prosecutors investigate the conduct of federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz, the immigration deportation operation the Trump administration launched last year in Chicago.
“Our communities and our people were subjected to an unprecedented campaign of harassment, intimidation and brutality,” Pritzker, who created the commission in response to Operation Midway Blitz, said at a news conference Thursday. “They deployed tear gas and smoke grenades against peaceful protesters and peaceful crowds and in peaceful neighborhoods. They committed flagrant and egregious abuses of power and force that went unchecked.”
Patricia Brown Holmes, the vice chair of the commission and a former state court judge, said the group’s report identified incidents in which it determined there was “reasonable cause to believe that federal agents should be formally investigated” by law enforcement agencies for “possible violations of agency policy, state and federal criminal law and individual constitutional rights.”
The commission said this week that it interviewed more than 60 witnesses and reviewed about 100 hours of body-worn camera video from ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers. It also reviewed hundreds of hours of video from surveillance cameras, personal devices and social media and held listening sessions in different neighborhoods.
The commission’s report found that “federal immigration agents engaged in dangerous high-speed vehicular pursuits, extreme physical force, indiscriminate use of chemical agents, shootings, beatings, and other violent acts, amounting to unconstitutional uses of force.”
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement that it can press charges against someone only if a local law enforcement agency reviews evidence and presents it to the state’s attorney’s office, per state law. Thus far, it has not received a request from law enforcement to review any investigation related to on-duty conduct of a federal immigration agent, the statement said. The state’s attorney’s office said it can issue a voluntary request for a federal agent to appear in a court case, but the Justice Department decides whether the agent needs to comply.
It commended “the bravery of every witness who testified about their harrowing experiences before the Illinois Accountability Commission. There is no doubt that Operation Midway Blitz has traumatized and harmed our communities.”
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The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the commission’s findings or the specific incidents detailed in it. A DHS spokesperson said in a statement in response to two hearings the commission held this week, “Governor Pritzker continues to refuse to do his job to protect his citizens from illegal alien crime and instead chooses to smear our law enforcement.”
Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, told NBC News in response to the report, “If JB Pritzker spent this much time and energy addressing crime and supporting the arrest of criminal illegal aliens instead of providing them with sanctuary, Illinois residents would be much safer.”
The commission had invited ICE agents and officials from the Trump administration to testify in hearings about their findings this week, but it did not have the subpoena power to force them to appear. No federal officials or agents volunteered.
Commission highlights specific use-of-force examples
The use of force by federal immigration authorities during the Chicago-area operation — including two shootings and the use of tear gas, pepper balls and violence against protesters and in residential neighborhoods — drew national headlines and outrage. The Trump administration has defended its actions and said officers were responding to agitators or threats to their safety.
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Two of the incidents highlighted by the commission included the fatal shooting in September of Mexican immigrant Silverio Villegas González during a traffic stop by federal agents and an incident in October in which Marimar Martinez, U.S. citizen, was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago and survived.
The commission said in its final report that it had determined that there was reasonable cause to believe that federal agents shot and killed Villegas González “without apparent justification as he drove away from them and for tactics employed during the traffic stop that increased the risk of physical harm.”
The agency has defended its action in the incident, saying agents acted appropriately.
In the shooting of Martinez, the commission said it had found there was reasonable cause to believe that Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum “shot an unarmed civilian without apparent justification,” that agents used chemical agents “indiscriminately in a residential neighborhood without warning” after the shooting and that evidence in the case was intentionally tampered with and destroyed.
Martinez had been accused of using her car to assault and impede federal law enforcement before the charges were dismissed in November. The charges were dropped after federal prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss their own case.
Martinez’s lawyer has said the U.S. attorney’s office in South Bend, Indiana, was investigating Exum, but on Thursday a spokesperson for the office told Reuters she could not confirm that there was an open investigation. Exum has not been charged in relation to the incident.
The report also named other federal agents it accused of potential misconduct, including Border Patrol Agent Timothy Donahue, whom it accused of using “excessive force multiple times in a span of four weeks during Operation Midway Blitz.” Those incidents involved tackling and arresting a journalist, slamming a man to the ground, spraying people with pepper spray, punching a bystander and pointing his firearm at bystanders, according to the report. No charges have been brought against Donahue relating to his conduct as an agent.
The commission said DHS and White House officials “routinely lied to the public” about the operation and “concealed and distorted key facts about events involving federal immigration agents.” The report also said Trump administration officials “enabled and encouraged” misconduct by ICE and Customs and Border Protection personnel during the operation. The White House declined to comment on those findings.
Pritzker said Thursday that he will work with local and federal partners to advocate for the committee’s recommendations to investigate agent conduct during Operation Midway Blitz. As of Thursday afternoon, the Chicago Police Department, the Evanston Police Department in Illinois and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office had not responded to NBC News about the possibility of charges against any federal agents.
The commission said it hoped putting the evidence out there would make it easier for witnesses to come forward in court in the future and for law enforcement agencies to start investigations.
“Accountability is the very basis of our democracy. We have laws for a reason, and when those laws have been broken, the perpetrators must face consequences,” Pritzker said. “Without accountability, without justice, our laws are merely suggestions.”
The report also included policy recommendations for DHS, such as ending roving patrols, prohibiting federal agents from carrying tear gas and pepper spray as a regular course of practice and equipping all agents with body cameras. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said he would like all agents to have cameras, although a Biden-era policy requiring them for all federal agents remains on hold under the current administration.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
