CHICAGO — Federal agents handcuffed Humboldt Park-area Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) as she confronted them Friday at Humboldt Park Hospital.
Agents handcuffed Fuentes, forced her out of the hospital and threatened her with arrest, Fuentes told a Block Club reporter.
“It shows just how much this is escalating,” Fuentes told Block Club. “They don’t care about people’s constitutional rights. They can handcuff an elected official for doing absolutely nothing — just imagine what they’re doing to the residents in the city of Chicago, whether they are documented or not. These federal agents don’t give a damn.”
A video of the Friday afternoon incident shows Fuentes at the hospital, asking federal agents if they had a signed warrant and telling the agents a man — who they were arresting — has Constitutional rights. Fuentes is not seen touching the agents, one of whom tells her he will arrest her if she does not leave.
Fuentes again asks the agents if they have a warrant, and an agent grabs Fuentes, spins her around and handcuffs her hands.
“This is an alderperson who is being under arrest,” a person off-screen says in the video.
“This is a hospital. Do you have a signed judicial warrant for him?” Fuentes says to the agents.
“We told you to leave,” says the agent who handcuffed Fuentes. “Now you are under arrest for impeding.”
Fuentes was led outside the hospital and released. She was told that if she went back inside, she would be arrested, witnesses said.
“Chicago’s elected officials have a First Amendment right to document ICE’s actions and to inform their constituents of their rights without federal interference. Any attempt to block this work is a direct attack on democratic accountability and an assault on the rights of the people of Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement upon hearing of the incident.
The incident comes amid a flurry of ICE activity throughout Chicago on Friday. Numerous people have reported seeing agents patrolling and detaining people in the neighborhoods.
In another incident caught on video from Friday, federal agents inside a car threw smoke grenades into a random street while people were outside nearby.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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