ICE officer fatally shoots man during traffic stop in Chicago suburb, authorities say

Federal immigration agents fatally shot a man Friday morning in the Northwest suburbs after he allegedly attempted to flee a traffic stop and struck an officer with his car, officials said.

The shooting comes days after President Donald Trump’s long-promised immigration enforcement campaign launched in the Chicago area earlier this week, generating widespread fear in the city’s and suburbs’ immigrant communities.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were conducting “targeted law enforcement activity” in Franklin Park when they stopped the vehicle, according to a statement from the agency.

During the stop, a man allegedly resisted arrest and attempted to drive his car into officers, dragging one officer, according to the statement.

The officer opened fire and shot the man, the statement said. The man was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead, the statement said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has identified the man as Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez. The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not yet identified him.

The officer was also taken to a hospital with “severe injuries.” His condition has stabilized, according to the statement.

“We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer,” a DHS spokesperson said. “He followed his training, used appropriate force, and properly enforced the law to protect the public and law enforcement.”

FBI agents were at the scene Friday assisting in the response, the agency confirmed. The FBI hasn’t provided any additional information on its investigation.

Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement that he was “aware of the troubling incident that has unfolded in Franklin Park.

“This is a developing situation and the people of Illinois deserve a full, factual accounting of what’s happened today to ensure transparency and accountability,” Pritzker said.

The Resurrection Project, a community advocacy group, said the “horrific incident in Franklin Park shows us the real danger that militarized enforcement creates in our neighborhoods.

“A community member is dead, and an officer was injured,” Erendira Rendón, a leader with the group, said in a statement. “These are outcomes that serve no public safety purpose and leave entire communities traumatized. Safe neighborhoods depend on trust, not fear. When federal agents conduct unaccountable operations in our communities, everyone becomes less safe.”

Federal officials said the man had a “history of reckless driving.”

The only Cook County cases for a man with the shooting victim’s name are for traffic violations. He has four cases dating back to 2010, according to court records.

The most recent was in 2019 for operating an uninsured vehicle. The case was thrown out within a month. The other three citations are for speeding, driving with an expired license and again operating an uninsured vehicle.

There have been reports of traffic stops by immigration authorities this week in the suburbs. Legal experts say ICE officers generally don’t have the authority to stop a vehicle unless they have specific reasonable suspicion that the person in the car has violated immigration law.

Officials and advocates in the Los Angeles area said federal immigration officers were targeting people in vehicles there. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer fired his gun during a traffic stop in San Bernardino, Calif., last month, and the family in that case said officers didn’t identify themselves before breaking their car windows.

Franklin Park resident Emilio Alvarez, 63, said he was inside his home when he heard three loud pops outside.

Alvarez stepped out and saw a federal agent on the ground and a man getting out of a semi truck. The man stopped by ICE had allegedly crashed his vehicle, a silver car, into a semi-truck that was traveling on Grand Avenue.

“Never in a million years did I think something like this would happen outside of my home,” Alvarez said.

He and his children sat outside their home Friday afternoon watching as police and FBI agents worked the scene. Alvarez said he felt ICE agents were disrupting their communities.

“Instead of fixing problems, they’re bringing problems,” said Alvarez. “Just look at all this.”

The semi-truck remained on the street later Friday afternoon with the silver car smashed into its side. Streaks of blood were smeared against the side of the car, and shattered glass littered the ground.

Ricardo De Blas, owner of nearby DBO Auto in Franklin Park, said several vehicles with agents dressed in military fatigues arrived on Grand Avenue moments before the shooting and crash happened.

“They got out of the trucks and started covering their faces,” he said.

De Blas said the agents were looking towards him and his employees and said he thought they were going to approach them to ask about their immigration status.

“This is not okay,” he said as he looked at the wreckage. “This never should have happened.”

The man killed by the ICE officer was known to keep to himself and was preoccupied with work and his family, his next-door neighbor said.

“He was a real quiet guy. I would just see him come from work and play with his kids,” said the neighbor, who requested his name not be published out of a fear that his Latino family would be targeted.

“Hes not someone that likes to, you know, throw parties, has people over, none of that stuff,” the neighbor said. “He’s just a family guy.”

The neighbor suspects the man was scared when confronted by officers because he wasn’t a fluent English speaker, and their community has been anxious about ICE’s presence.

“The impact that it’s gonna have is more undocumented people are going to be scared, and racism is going to be woken up,” the neighbor said. “They are going to try and paint a bad picture of us.”

Attorney Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said people have certain rights when approached by law enforcement while in a vehicle.

“It is illegal for an ICE agent to forcibly enter private property without a judicial warrant,” said Perez. “Individuals who are asked for permission to enter private properties, including a vehicle, should not consent.”

Perez said absent that warrant, federal authorities need reasonable suspicion to stop a car and probable cause to search it. He said a person can ask why they’ve been stopped and remain silent.

“There is no benefit to answering the questions of an ICE or federal official, especially one who is masked and who has not identified themselves as such,” Perez said. “But even if they do identify themselves, the Constitution gives you the right to remain silent.”

Perez also cautioned that staying calm is important.

“Take stock of the situation that you are in and act accordingly,” he said. “Anything that you do can escalate the situation, and it’s important to be careful about your actions in those moments.”

One week in, the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” seems to have resulted in few actual arrests despite widespread sightings of immigration authorities reported in the Chicago area.

Federal officials released a list Wednesday of the “worst of the worst offenders” they’ve arrested during the deportation campaign. DHS claimed the 13 men “flocked to Illinois because sanctuary policies allow them to roam free and terrorize innocent Americans without consequence.”

But a Chicago Sun-Times investigation found at least two of the men, and apparently a third, were arrested outside of Illinois.

It’s unclear whether federal authorities have reported all the arrests linked to the ongoing campaign. Pritzker has warned that more ICE enforcement could be on the way, telling reporters Wednesday, “They clearly have not gone out full force yet.”

Pritzker has previously suggested the stepped-up enforcement was timed to coincide with Mexican Independence Day festivities, which begin this weekend.

Hours before the Franklin Park shooting, activists were staging a 12-hour sit-in protest outside an ICE facility in west suburban Broadview in an effort to disrupt immigration enforcement operations.

Bernadette Arellano, 45, said she went to support families separated from their loved ones by ICE arrests.

“As a parent, the idea that somebody is tearing apart families and leaving children alone and frightened is horrendous,” Arellano said.

The protest remained peaceful, though there were tense moments as armed immigration authorities wearing gas masks and uniforms that looked like military fatigues walked out of the facility to push the crowd back and allow vehicles in and out of a fenced-in parking lot.

Protesters who were sitting on the ground were pushed and dragged by federal agents who refused to identify themselves, demonstrators said.

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss was in the crowd. He said his community has recently been targeted by ICE raids.

“We have to stand up for our people, our communities, and our values,” said Biss. “And as someone who is a born U.S. citizen, I’ve got a responsibility to put myself on the line to fight for this.”

Contributing: Mitchell Armentrout, Adriana Cardona-Maguigad