Fed agents arrest man in Bolingbrook PD lobby after he tried to report encounter with them: police

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. (WLS) -- Community members gathered at the Bolingbrook police station with candles and concerns after federal agents arrested a man in the lobby earlier Tuesday.

"Everybody is a member of our community, and we are going to stand up for them," one woman said.

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The arrest happened around 7:45 a.m. after Christian Ramirez says his cousin was approached while warming up his pickup outside of his Bolingbrook home on Hywood Lane.

"He says, 'I'm freaked out. I do not know what's happening. These guys approached me. I'm sitting in my car. I do not know if they're ICE agents or bounty hunters. They never told me who they were, just very violent, trying to get me out of my car,'" Ramirez said.

Bolingbrook police said federal agents told them that they were conducting a targeted immigration enforcement action without local police when a 40-year-old man refused an order to exit his vehicle and then drove through grass "before intentionally ramming an agent's vehicle head-on" while fleeing.

Ramirez says his cousin called him from the road.

"I said, 'Go to the police station. Get out of the car. Walk inside, and tell them what's happening, that you have this group of guys that are trying to get you out of your vehicle, that you don't know who they are,'" Ramirez said.

Ramirez says he stayed on the phone as his cousin entered the lobby. Police say officers were dispatched to meet him, but by the time they arrived, federal agents had arrested him.

Democratic Illinois state Rep. Dagmara Avelar, who represents the southwest suburbs, is now calling for the release of the police lobby video.

"What happens today is deeply troubling, and I am waiting to hear more about what actually happened in the lobby of the police department," Avelar said.

Bolingbrook police said their involvement was filing a report of criminal damage to property for the alleged intentional crash on Hywood Lane.

Illinois' TRUST Act prohibits local police from aiding in federal immigration enforcement.

However, ABC7 Chief Legal Analyst Gil Soffer with Katten Law said, "It doesn't require police to interfere with the operations of ICE. It just requires them not to assist ICE, and that's the difference between giving information, turning somebody over, and blocking access."

Ramirez says his cousin, who ABC7 is not naming because it is unclear if he has been charged, is undocumented but has lived here for a quarter of a century and works in construction. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately provide a statement about the incident to ABC7.