Chicago federal intervention: Tracking surge in immigration enforcement operations

Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino told ABC News nearly 3,000 people have been arrested in Chicago so far since the immigration crackdown began last month.

There was a tense confrontation outside an Aurora elementary school Saturday morning as activists confronted federal agents after they took two people into custody, and U.S. citizens also ended up being detained.

No students or parents were at Allen Elementary School at the time, but community members spotted a car they believed belonged to federal agents.

"I have these marks right here, these from the handcuffs from squeezing my wrists more that an hour," Ruben Morales said.

Morales says he and activist Jessi Olazaba were at the school to document reports of ICE agents in the area when they say they became targets of the officers.

"He pushed me backward and I fell and hit my head on the concrete," Olazaba said. "I have a huge knot in back of my head from this."

Morales and Olazaba are both U.S. citizens born in the country, but Morales says the officers, who were dressed in plain clothes, basically attacked him without provocation.

"I'm feeling multiple punches being thrown to the back of my head," Morales said. "The entire time I'm screaming 'help, help, help.' I still don't know who they are. I'm just guessing, assuming they were ICE."

Federal agents eventually transported Morales to FBI headquarters in Chicago, where he was released with no charges.

Agents took Olazaba to Rush Copley Hospital in Aurora for the injury to her head. They also gave her a citation for allegedly obstructing an arrest.

A group of protestors went to the hospital as well, and some of them confronted the federal agents.

Aurora Mayor John Laesch met them at the hospital to check on Aurora police and to document the activities. He is opposed to the federal agents being in Aurora at all.

"We believe a lot of these detentions are unconstitutional," Laesch said. "These are US.. citizens, Aurora residents, and we need to make sure they're protected."

"I'm an American citizen. Born and raised in Aurora," Morales said. "I'm 35 years old. Never have I been treated Ike this by anybody."

The mayor says he's looking into an ordinance similar to Chicago and other communities that would prevent ICE from being in the community without a warrant.

ABC7 Chicago has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment but they have not yet responded.

Dozens of protesters took over a stretch of Lake Street in Addison on Sunday, where hours earlier, federal agents were confronted by people in the area after one agent broke a car window before detaining the people inside.

Protesters lined a block where federal agents were seen detaining at least two people outside La Huerta grocery store.

A grocery store employee was in disbelief, capturing a video as federal agents broke the window of the vehicle. Those agents took the driver and two others in the vehicle into custody. ABC7 has blurred their faces as it's unclear if they are facing charges.

"There were about four vehicles, maybe five ICE vehicles that were in the parking lot," protester Maria Sinkule said.

Sinkule join in with others confronting agents, asking why they were detaining the individuals.

"They didn't have a judicial warrant, no expedited removal order. They didn't have any of that," Sinkule said.

The driver of the vehicle was released after agents checked and confirmed her immigration status but this community was left shaken.

Sinkule later returned to the scene with dozens of others who stood outside the grocery store to show their support for La Huerta and to share their frustration over "Operation Midway Blitz."

"This really impacts my community," Sinkule said. "People are too scared to go to the store, my students are too scared to go to school."

Allison Galvan is helping to mobilize and educate her community as a means of providing hope.

"There's people I love and care about that are impacted by this. I am using my privilege of being a U.S.-born citizen, first-generation American, to be out here and fight for my people," Galvan said. "We need to be educated, we need to support each other and that's how were going to be able to get through this. There is always hope. There is always information and that's how were going to get through this."

Concerns are growing over federal operations in the Chicago area.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security responded Sunday to an incident that appeared to involve federal agents deploying tear gas on Chicago's Northwest Side.

On Saturday, federal agents deployed what appeared to be tear gas in Chicago's Old Irving Park neighborhood.

DHS is once again defending their agents actions, saying they were acting in self-defense when they lobbed tear gas onto a residential street in Old Irving Park on Saturday. The man they were after, they say, had previously been arrested for assault.

Cell phone video showed the moment Border Patrol agents deployed tear gas on North Kildare Avenue near Waveland. It happened after residents who were outraged by the arrest of construction worker Luis Villegas came out to protest the immigration enforcement agents presence in their neighborhood.

"It was horrific. It is traumatic," resident Melanie Franke said. "It is not anything that anyone should be subjected to."

Responding to the incident on Sunday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the use of tear gas, saying in part, "Border Patrol agents were surrounded and boxed in by a group of agitators. Federal law enforcement issued multiple lawful commands and verbal warnings, all of which were ignored... Border Patrol had to deploy crowd control measures."

The statement however runs contrary to what others in the neighborhood, including what resident and former Cook County prosecutor Brian Kolp saw and heard.

"They deployed the smoke canister, the one I showed you a picture of, with no audible warning whatsoever," Kolp said.

The distinction is crucial. As district court Judge Sarah Ellis gets ready to question Border Patrol Commander at large Gregory Bovino on Tuesday, the public face of "Operation Midway Blitz" was himself photographed hauling a tear gas canister at protesters in Little Village last week. Ellis, who is presiding over an ongoing lawsuit regarding the feds' treatment of protesters, has forbidden agents from deploying chemical agents indiscriminately, and without at least two prior warnings.

"There are going to be pointed questions from Judge Ellis about whether or not he understood what her order is, or whether or not he complied with her order and if he didn't why not?" former federal prosecutor Christopher Hotaling said.

And because Ellis has also ordered all agents with body worn cameras to activate them, Hotaling says finding out who is telling the truth during these now routine tear gas deployments should not be difficult, if the cameras were rolling.

"She could ask for all the body cam footage," Hotaling said. "The option is contempt. She could pursue contempt proceedings against Mr. Bovino for willfully violating her order."

Homeland Security's McLaughlin said of Bovino's upcoming testimony last week, the agency can think of no better person to correct what they believe are the judge's deep misconceptions about their mission in Chicago.

A statement from DHS on the incident involving Bovino claims that he was hit on the head by rocks and other objects being thrown at agents during the Little Village confrontation. A court filing by plaintiffs' lawyers Sunday called that statement a lie.