Man Fires Shots At ICE Agents In Chicago Before Fleeing: Officials

CHICAGO, IL — Authorities are searching for a man who they claim fired shots at U.S. Border Control agents in Chicago on Saturday.

According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, agents were conducting immigration enforcement operations near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue when a man in a black Jeep fired shots at agents and fled the scene.

Officials said several others also threw a paint can and bricks at Border Patrol vehicles.

The Chicago Police Department was called for assistance and cleared the scene, officials said. The accused shooter and vehicle remain at large.

Officials said over the past two months, the agency has recorded an increase in assaults and obstruction targeting federal law enforcement officers.

"This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of violence and obstruction," DHS officials said in a statement. "These confrontations highlight the dangers our agents face daily and the escalating aggression toward law enforcement. The violence must end."

This incident is the latest in a series of tense encounters between ICE agents and Chicago residents amid federal authorities’ increased presence and activity in and around the city.

As of this week, more than 3,200 people with alleged immigration violations have been arrested since “ Operation Midway Blitz ” began in September as part of the Trump administration’s push to target cities with “ sanctuary” immigration policies.

What started as a handful of arrests in Latino and immigrant-heavy communities has rippled across the city of 2.7 million and its many suburbs, dipping into Indiana.

Sightings of agents in and around Chicago have drawn quick responses by activists and residents who blow whistles and honk horns as some follow CBP vehicles. Agents have increasingly used rubber bullets, pepper balls and CS gas, a synthetic irritant used by police as tear gas to deter protestors.

The Trump administration's Chicago area crackdown on immigration has also triggered a litany of court action, including forcing improvements at a federal immigration facility activists say is a de facto detention center and blocking a National Guard deployment.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander leading the immigration crackdown in Chicago, has defended agents' tactics, calling them appropriate and necessary for what he says are threats they have faced in the nation’s third-largest city.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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