Crime & Law
Despite Executive Order, CPD Has Yet to Finalize Policy Allowing Officers to Probe Federal Agents for Actions During Immigration Raids
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent takes part in an early morning operation in Park Ridge, Ill., Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo / Erin Hooley)
Leaders of the Chicago Police Department have yet to finalize a policy that would allow officers to investigate federal agents for their actions during immigration enforcement raids, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
Mayor Brandon Johnson seized the national spotlight on Jan. 31 when he signed an executive order designed to lay “the groundwork to prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents for criminal misconduct.”
Johnson’s executive order gave CPD brass 30 days to develop a policy directing officers to document suspected misconduct or criminal violations by ICE and Border Patrol agents and identify those responsible.
But nearly 50 days after the executive order was signed, those “policies and procedures are currently in draft status,” according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by WTTW News seeking a copy of the policy required by the executive order.
State law allows government agencies to withhold preliminary drafts of policies that officials have not yet finalized or implemented.
Johnson signed the executive order one week after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 in Minneapolis amid widespread protests of aggressive immigration enforcement efforts ordered by the Trump administration as part of the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history.
While targeted immigration enforcement actions have continued in the city and surrounding suburbs, federal agents have not returned in large numbers to Chicago since the end of December. City officials have warned they were preparing for increased enforcement actions once the weather warmed up for good.
The specifics of the policy under development by CPD is particularly important because, in most cases, state and local law enforcement officials are prohibited from charging federal officials for reasonable conduct that occurred during the course of their official duties.
Johnson’s order brought a rebuke from Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, who called it “wholly inappropriate.”
O’Neill Burke, who frequently criticizes Johnson’s approach to public safety issues, blasted the section of the executive order that requires CPD supervisors to preserve evidence of suspected wrongdoing by federal immigration agents and “at the direction of the mayor’s office, make a referral of felony matters to the Cook County State’s Attorney.”
O’Neill Burke’s office took no action after federal agents shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez on Sept. 12 and after federal agents shot Marimar Martinez five times on Oct. 4.
Villegas-Gonzalez was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Franklin Park after dropping his children at day care.
Federal agents alleged Villegas-González dragged an officer with his vehicle while attempting to flee, seriously injuring an officer.
However, local police body camera videos showed the agent who shot Villegas-González walking around afterward and dismissing his own injuries as “nothing major.”
Martinez was charged with a felony after federal officials accused her of trying to ram agents with her vehicle. The case was dismissed after videos emerged that Martinez’s attorneys said showed an agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s truck.
After Martinez was shot, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling said his officers “cannot and will not” arrest federal agents conducting immigration enforcement operations in Chicago and implored residents not to interfere with those efforts.
There is no evidence that either CPD or Franklin Park police investigated either shooting.
Ten days after her office slammed Johnson’s executive order, O’Neill Burke unveiled a new protocol that she said would allow the use of force by federal immigration officers to be scrutinized.
However, a coalition of Chicago-area officials, organizations and individuals charged O’Neill Burke with failing to hold federal agents accountable and asked a Cook County judge to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the probes.
A hearing on that request has yet to take place.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
