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Immigration agents are 'attacking people,' Evanston mayor alleges after viral videos
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss has been speaking out after graphic and violent altercations between federal immigration agents and protesters in his community last Friday.
EVANSTON, Ill. - Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss has been speaking out after graphic and violent altercations between federal immigration agents and protesters in his community last Friday.
Some of the viral videos show agents striking and pointing guns at onlookers.
What we know:
Biss said Evanston police are in the early stages of investigating what happened on Halloween.
When the videos showed agents violently beating a U.S. citizen after a car crash at the intersection of Oakton and Asbury in Evanston, the Department of Homeland Security laid the blame on protesters and onlookers. DHS said agents detained three U.S. citizens and five undocumented immigrants during operations in Evanston and neighboring Skokie on Friday.
But Biss said he believes the federal agents were out to terrorize the community and instill fear.
"The videos that have been circulating tell a very clear picture," Biss said. "Federal agents, masked, armed agents in military-style uniforms are attacking people, violently going after them, punching someone in the head, pointing guns at people because people had the guts to stand up and say we don’t like this."
He added, "One side is armed with guns and pepper spray and tear gas. The other side is armed with whistles, and a conscience and the constitution."
DHS said the red vehicle in the video crashed into federal agents’ vehicle, but witnesses and Biss said the agents slammed on the breaks when the red car was tailing them to cause the crash. Such a tactic, known as break checking, is illegal.
A DHS spokesperson also said the man being beaten by the agent was grabbing the officer’s genitals, but video evidence publicly available does not seem to corroborate that. Biss said Evanston is looking for any more video that would tell the full story of what took place.
"It seems like the federal agents jammed on the breaks intentionally so as to precipitate and accident and it worked. They got rear-ended and in the moments that followed, they wound up beating people up, punching someone whose head was on the ground, pointing guns at people for committing the horrible crime of saying mean things to ICE agents. It was violent. It was brutal. It was unnecessary. It’s really all about them trying to do what they can to intimidate people out of resisting these outrages."
Biss is also running for Congress in the Illinois 9th Congressional District as a Democrat in 2026.