OLD IRVING PARK – Federal agents unleashed chemical irritants on Chicago-area residents for the fourth day in a row Saturday morning, according to witnesses and news reports.
Agents deployed tear gas on civilians Saturday morning at two separate locations on the Northwest Side, in Old Irving Park and Avondale, according to social media posts and rapid responders.
A little before 10 a.m., near the intersection of Kildare Avenue and Grace Street in Old Irving Park, federal agents tear-gassed neighbors responding to the scene of an arrest, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The first of those detained on Kildare Avenue was 35-year-old father and construction worker Luis Villegas, who was working on a personal project when agents chased him down and arrested him, his family told ABC-7. Two individuals arrested were a woman and an elderly man, according to neighbors.
During the encounter, a 67-year-old woman was “knocked to the ground” by masked agents, a rapid responder told Block Club. The clash occurred just before the Old Irving Park Association Halloween Parade was set to march down the street, disrupting the event, neighbors said in a local rapid response chat.
“These actions are harmful, traumatic, illegal and uncalled for,” said State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, in a Facebook post.
Acting “with force and aggression,” ICE “tackled neighbors and area landscape workers, detained what we believe to be four people (including a U.S. Citizen area resident, and a U.S. citizen cyclist) and deployed tear gas,” LaPointe said in the post.
About 10:30 a.m., near the intersection of Harding Avenue and Roscoe Street in Avondale, agents threw out tear gas at neighbors responding to another arrest, according to a rapid responder. Details surrounding the arrest remained unclear.
Neighbors saw at least one person detained during the Avondale confrontation, according to a rapid responder who tried to follow an unmarked federal vehicle away from the scene.
The two instances of tear gas deployment Saturday follow several instances of tear gas use throughout the week as part of federal actions in Operation Midway Blitz and Operation At Large. On Wednesday, Federal agents used pepper spray on neighbors near a grocery store in Cicero; on Thursday, agents tear gassed dozens of residents – including several high school students – near Little Village’s Discount Mall; and on Friday, roughly 50 Lakeview neighbors were tear-gassed near a residential construction site.
Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino is being accused of violating a federal judge’s order for tear-gassing a crowd in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood during the Thursday standoff in Little Village.
A Homeland Security Department representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Saturday’s operations.
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