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A car crash involving a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle in suburban Chicago escalated into a violent arrest caught on camera as a crowd taunted agents.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News Digital that the violent confrontation unfolded Friday in Evanston, Illinois, after a suspect “aggressively tailgated” a Border Patrol vehicle and “grabbed the agent’s genitals and squeezed them.” The incident quickly drew what officials described as a “hostile” crowd of onlookers, devolving into chaos.
As federal agents took the driver of the civilian vehicle into custody, several bystanders confronted them, leading to one or two additional arrests, FOX 32 Chicago reported, citing the police.
Video from the scene shows an agent wrestling a suspect to the ground and striking him multiple times as bystanders shouted profanity and tried to intervene, with one person attempting to pull an agent away. Another officer was seen raising what appeared to be a can of pepper spray to hold the crowd back, while the suspect could be heard saying that he could not breathe during the struggle.
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Federal agents arrest a suspect on Oct. 31, 2025, in Evanston, Illinois. (Kerry Littel)
According to DHS, the Border Patrol vehicle had been “aggressively tailgated by a red vehicle.” When agents attempted to make a U-turn, the sedan collided with their car. One of the suspects then “physically assaulted” an agent by kicking and targeting his groin, prompting the officer to deliver “defensive strikes.”
“A hostile crowd then surrounded agents and their vehicle and began verbally abusing them and spitting on them,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in a statement on Sunday. “One physically assaulted a Border Patrol agent and kicked an agent. As he was being arrested, he grabbed the [agent’s] genitals and squeezed them. As you know this is an extremely painful experience for most human beings and justifies certain responses, the agent delivered several defensive strikes to the agitator to free his genitals from the agitator’s vice.”
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A federal agent points pepper spray at a crowd during a chaotic arrest on Oct. 31, 2025, in Evanston, Ill. (Kerry Littel)
The arrest occurred amid heightened tensions in Evanston, where community members have established “rapid response” teams to monitor federal agents and alert residents when they are in the area.
In response to the incident, Mayor Daniel Biss called on more residents to join the city’s “rapid response” teams and noted that city officials have passed ordinances designating certain city properties as “No ICE Zones.”
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Federal agents wrestling with a suspect during an arrest on Oct. 31, 2025, in Evanston, Ill. (Kerry Littel)
“I will continue to track the movement of federal agents in and around Evanston and ensure that the Evanston Police Department is responding in the appropriate fashion,” Biss said in a post on Facebook.
At a news conference shortly after the episode, Biss continued to condemn the actions of federal immigration agents, saying they had “assaulted Evanston residents, beaten people up, grabbed them,” and “abducted them.”
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“It is an outrage,” Biss said. “Our message for ICE is simple: Get the hell out of Evanston.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.