HUMBOLDT PARK — An alderperson whom federal agents handcuffed and threatened with arrest has taken the first step toward suing the federal government, saying she wants to hold the agents accountable and show she wasn’t intimidated by violence.
The Oct. 3 incident made national headlines, with video of a federal agent roughly grabbing and then handcuffing Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) being shared widely online. It was one of many instances in recent weeks where federal agents have been seen on camera using excessive force against protesters and other people who question their tactics.
Jan Susler, an attorney for the People’s Law Office and who is representing Fuentes in the case, filed an administrative claim Tuesday morning, the initial step for suing under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The claim seeks to resolve administrative monetary claims for personal injury, property damage or death arising from the alleged negligence of federal officers.
Fuentes is seeking $100,000 in personal injury damages, according to the claim, which was shared with Block Club. The incident left Fuentes with injuries to her wrists, shoulders and arms, including bruising and “extreme mental distress, anguish and fear,” according to the filing.
“The alder is standing up to this terror and setting a marvelous example to not let fear lead but to lead with your sense of justice and insisting on accountability,” Susler said. “The federal government shields itself from being accountable, but this is one of the few ways that someone who was the [subject of] federal violence gets to seek accountability.”
Because the agents who threatened Fuentes did not identify themselves, the claim does not mention them by name, but it is a way to hold accountable their employer, the Department of Homeland Security, the attorney said.
Susler plans to file suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act if the initial claim in denied within the six-month review period by the government.
“Federal agents have been deployed to our city in an effort to create chaos, violate individuals’ constitutional rights and unjustly separate families,” Fuentes said in a Tuesday morning statement. “Federal agents are not above the law, and we must hold them accountable.”
Video of the incident shows Fuentes talking to agents inside the emergency room of Humboldt Park Health, asking if they have a signed warrant to arrest and telling the agents a man — who they had detained and had at the hospital — has constitutional rights.
Fuentes does not touch 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.
Fuentes was led outside the hospital and released; there, an agent told her that if she went back inside, she would be arrested, Fuentes said.
The federal agent seen grabbing Fuentes in the video — who was not wearing a uniform or anything that identified him as a federal agent — has also been filmed in at least three other incidents around Chicago and the suburbs, Fuentes said. In one of those instances, the agent is seen roughly pushing a woman into a car.
The man ICE agents tried to arrest had temporary protected status, no criminal record and had been detained by federal immigration agents at a work site, Fuentes said. Federal agents prevented the man from speaking to an attorney or making calls, the alderperson said.
The incident came as the Trump administration has targeted immigrants through operations Midway Blitz and At Large. The programs started in September, with officials saying they would target undocumented immigrants with serious criminal histories.
“Us documenting the atrocities, the constitutional violations and the violence that we are witnessing is what we need to do in this moment,” Fuentes — who is Puerto Rican and represents a historically Latino region of the city — previously told Block Club. “Because that is what’s going to keep our city safe.”
Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) speaks during an emergency press conference outside Humboldt Park Health on Oct. 3, 2025 denouncing ICE after she was briefly handcuffed by agents inside the hospital for asking if they had a warrant for the man they were detaining. Credit: Ariel Parrella-Aureli/Block Club Chicago
More than 1,000 people have been arrested during Operation Midway Blitz, Russell Hott, ICE field director in Chicago, told Block Club earlier this month.
But over the past month, federal agents have shot at least two people, killing one; repeatedly tear-gassed protesters and first responders; shot rubber bullets at protesters; detained U.S. citizens, including children; smoke bombed and tear-gassed more than one Chicago street; fired a chemical weapon at a TV reporter and detained a journalist, among other incidents.
“I want to be absolutely clear, the only people at risk in this moment are the residents of the city of Chicago. The only people walking around with military weapons, tear gas, rubber bullets are ICE agents,” Fuentes said. “The only people who have been shooting at people, running people over, killing an individual — Silverio Villegas González — in a suburb outside of Chicago have been ICE agents.”
Chicagoans have sought ways to resist violence by federal agents, like blowing whistles to alert neighbors that agents are near, recording agents and putting up signs in businesses informing agents they are not welcome on the premises.
Block Club’s Alex V. Hernandez contributed to this report.
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