Politics
Illinois State Rep. Says Border Patrol Agent Pointed a Gun as He Was Warning Residents About Immigration Raids
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent pointed a gun at state Rep. Hoan Huynh while he warned North Side residents that immigration agents were conducting enforcement operations, Huynh said.
Huynh, a Vietnamese refugee and candidate to represent Illinois’ 9th District in Congress, said he was near Montrose and Kimball avenues at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday after receiving reports that Department of Homeland Security agents were in Albany Park.
As Huynh honked his car’s horn and yelled to warn residents about the presence of the agents, “six armed CBP agents blocked the front and back of the vehicle, sandwiching it on the street, and approached the car with a gun drawn, which the officer pressed against the window of the car and tried to bash the car windows in,” according to the statement released by his congressional campaign.
The video shared by Huynh’s campaign does not show the agent pointing the gun at Huynh, but it does show one agent photographing Huynh during the tense exchange.
The agents that surrounded Huynh’s car blocked him from following another car of federal agents, according to the statement. As members of Huynh’s staff began filming and narrating the interaction, Huynh repeatedly identified himself as a state representative, according to the statement.
Eventually, Huynh was allowed to leave the area and was not detained, according to the statement.
“This was federal agents using violent intimidation trying to silence us,” Huynh said. “If they can pull a gun on an elected official and try to bash in my window, there’s no end to the terror they will continue reigning on our communities. We must fight back against this fascist regime that has no place in America.”
In a statement to WTTW News, representatives of the Border Patrol did not deny that agents pointed a gun at Huynh.
“Rep. Huynh was stopped, not once but, twice (Tuesday) for stalking law enforcement and attempting to interfere with operations,” according to a statement from a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. “He was given a warning the first time he was stopped, and he ignored that warning forcing agents to get out of their car a second time to assess if he was a threat. This behavior is unbecoming of a public servant and is just another example of sanctuary politicians putting our officers at risk.”
The spokesperson said he could not tell WTTW News whether the agents who stopped Huynh had activated the body-worn cameras that the video captured affixed to their camouflage uniforms.
The video shared by Huynh shows the light that flashes when the cameras are recording was not activated.
Huynh told WTTW News Wednesday morning the statement from the Border Patrol spokesperson was false and an “an attempt to distract from the real danger: a (Border Patrol) agent pulled a gun on someone who posed no threat, whose only ‘weapon’ was his voice and a car horn. If they cared about the truth, they would have already released the body cam footage of the officer pointing a gun at my head.”
What happened to him should “terrify every American,” Huynh said.
“To be clear: informing the public and documenting ICE presence is not ‘stalking law enforcement,’” Huynh said. “{Border Patrol’s) attempt to twist that into a threat is a continuation of a disturbing pattern of this administration trying to turn our resistance into a crime. Chicago is the testing ground for these tactics, and what’s happening here is a harbinger of what’s going to come for the rest of the country.”
U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis ordered all federal agents who are conducting immigration enforcement actions and who have body cameras to have them on while interacting with members of the public.
Teams of masked immigration enforcement agents fanned out across the city’s North Side on Tuesday, prompting community groups to activate emergency response plans. Community organizations have been working to identify the location of federal agents in Chicago neighborhoods to warn undocumented immigrants of their presence. Groups have distributed whistles and created text and phone networks to sound the alarm.
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd Ward), who skipped a budget hearing at City Hall to help the response effort, said she was confronted by masked agents in an alley near Avers and Leland avenues approximately before the incident involving Huynh.
While Rodriguez-Sanchez recorded the incident, three federal agents wearing camouflage uniforms and masks told her “911 is going to be notified” and “I’m giving you your warning, OK?”
When Rodriguez-Sanchez asked why she was being warned, the agent said she was “impeding in our operation.”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
