High-speed Border Patrol chase ends in arrest, tear gas used on
protesters on Chicago’s South Side
[October 15, 2025]
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
CHICAGO (AP) — A high-speed chase involving Border Patrol agents led to
the pursued person's arrest Tuesday afternoon in a residential street on
Chicago ’s South Side, authorities said, and footage from the scene
shows protesters gathering before agents deployed a tear gas to disperse
them.
While federal agents conducted an immigration enforcement operation, a
driver suspected of being in the country illegally rammed into a Border
Patrol vehicle before fleeing, Department of Homeland Security officials
said. The agents chased the vehicle until the driver stopped and
attempted to run away, according to DHS.
As agents arrested the person, a crowd began to form and “crowd control
methods were used,” DHS officials said. Chicago Police Department
confirmed that federal agents deployed tear gas into the street. Federal
agents have deployed tear gas on other residential streets in recent
weeks.
Footage from ABC 7 shows dozens of protesters waving flags as several
federal agents and local police officers hold them back from the street.
Border Patrol agents can be seen throwing tear gas canisters into the
crowd, enveloping the street in a white haze as protesters cough and run
from the area.
CPD officers arrived about 11 a.m. after a 911 call about a car accident
involving federal authorities, the agency said. A few members of the
crowd that formed began throwing objects at the federal agents,
according to the CPD.
Thirteen Chicago police officers were exposed to tear gas, the agency
said.
Illinois Go. JB Pritzker on Tuesday called federal agents’ treatment of
protesters “abominable,” saying they’ve been hit with tear gas, pepper
pellets and rubber bullets “just when they’re holding signs and
expressing themselves.”
“I’ve never seen it like this in the United States of America,” he said.
Over the weekend, federal agents also deployed tear gas in the northern
Chicago neighborhood of Albany Park, and earlier this month, agents
threw canisters of tear gas out of a vehicle near a grocery store on the
city’s West Side.
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ICE agents detain a protester as other protesters try to stop them
in East Side, Chicago, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (Anthony
Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Andrew Denton told The Associated Press that he was hit with tear
gas as he arrived at the grocery store to pick up lunch. He said
about 20 people were in the area, including older people and
families with children, adding that students at an elementary school
next door were also outside during their recess.
“It feels pretty sad that this is the reality, that the current
administration is treating the communities of Chicago in this way,”
he said at the time.
Protests over the federal immigration crackdown have erupted
throughout Chicago, mostly outside a federal immigration facility in
the west Chicago suburb of Broadview but also spreading into
neighborhood streets.
Some of these demonstrations have involved following federal agents'
vehicles.
Most recently, federal prosecutors last week obtained a grand jury
indictment against a woman and man accused of using their vehicles
to strike and then box in a Border Patrol agent’s vehicle. The agent
then exited his car and fired five shots at the woman, injuring her.
The two were released Monday pending trial.
Meanwhile, immigration activists rallied Tuesday in Springfield to
call for an expansion of what are commonly known as “sanctuary city”
protections under the state’s Trust Act, which prohibits state and
local law enforcement from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement.
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