Jan Susler, an attorney for the People\u2019s 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<\/a>. The claim seeks to resolve administrative monetary claims for personal injury, property damage or death arising from the alleged negligence of federal officers.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cextreme mental distress, anguish and fear,\u201d according to the filing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d Susler said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cFederal agents have been deployed to our city in an effort to create chaos, violate individuals\u2019 constitutional rights and unjustly separate families,\u201d Fuentes said in a Tuesday morning statement. \u201cFederal agents are not above the law, and we must hold them accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 who they had detained and had at the hospital \u2014 has constitutional rights.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The federal agent seen grabbing Fuentes in the video \u2014 who was not wearing a uniform or anything that identified him as a federal agent \u2014 has also been filmed in at least three other incidents around Chicago and the suburbs, Fuentes said. In one of those instances, the\u00a0agent is seen roughly pushing a woman into a car<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cUs documenting the atrocities, the constitutional violations and the violence that we are witnessing is what we need to do in this moment,\u201d Fuentes \u2014\u00a0who is Puerto Rican and represents a historically Latino region of the city \u2014 previously<\/a> told Block Club. \u201cBecause that is what\u2019s going to keep our city safe.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n But over the past month, federal agents have\u00a0shot at least two people<\/a>,\u00a0killing one<\/a>; repeatedly\u00a0tear-gassed protesters<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0first responders<\/a>;\u00a0shot rubber bullets<\/a>\u00a0at protesters;\u00a0detained U.S. citizens<\/a>,\u00a0including children<\/a>;\u00a0smoke bombed and tear-gassed more than one Chicago street<\/a>;\u00a0fired a chemical weapon at a TV reporter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0detained a journalist<\/a>, among other incidents.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d Fuentes said. \u201cThe only people who have been shooting at people, running people over, killing an individual \u2014\u00a0Silverio Villegas Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 in a suburb outside of Chicago have been ICE agents.\u201d<\/p>\n Chicagoans have sought ways to resist violence by federal agents<\/a>, like blowing whistles<\/a> to alert neighbors that agents are near, recording agents and putting up signs in businesses informing agents they are not welcome<\/a> on the premises.<\/p>\n Block Club\u2019s Alex V. Hernandez contributed to this report.<\/p>\n Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HUMBOLDT PARK \u2014 An alderperson whom federal agents handcuffed and threatened with arrest has taken the first step…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":321801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,1322,5386,1818,121074],"class_list":{"0":"post-321800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-featured","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-operation-midway-blitz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115413552604791171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759520891_138_hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761070937_719_jessie-presser-HP-1024x683.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n