Bolingbrook residents question claims federal agents were attacked while making immigration arrest
Bolingbrook residents are questioning claims made by police that two federal immigration agents were attacked while making an arrest Sunday morning. Now neighbors are concerned local police and agents are working together, which is in violation of Illinois law.
Shortly before 10 a.m., Bolingbrook police responded to the 100 block of Williamsburg Lane for a report of a battery.
Police said two immigration agents told officers they were trying to arrest a 46-year-old man in a parking lot, when two females approached and began hitting them in the head.
The females and the man agents were arresting fled the scene and went inside a nearby home, police said.
The agents declined medical attention.
In video of the incident posted to social media, officers can be heard telling someone "Don't block this vehicle," and a resident responding, "Y'all are on private property, though. What are y'all doing?"
Neighbors in Bolingbrook's Beaconridge community said they started recording video of federal agents in their subdivision after hearing about some sort of altercation involving neighbors.
"If it's true about what happened, then why aren't people being arrested then?" said one neighbor, who did not want to be identified. She recorded those agents as they left the area.
"I don't feel safe in my community and it's sad because I'm a resident," she said.
The neighbor also expressed skepticism about the narrative of the incident village officials released.
"You're telling me that these two little petite girls were able to fight off ICE agents, which doesn't make sense to me," she said.
But residents say the alleged female attackers stayed at the scene and told them a different story.
"The copy did not go up to them, didn't get their statements, didn't do anything and that kind of surprised me," said Anais Zuniga, neighbor.
Neighbors said the women reportedly were physically harmed while trying to record the agents' actions.
"I kind of questioned it because anybody that assaults a federal agent or an officer or anything should automatically usually get arrested for that," Zuniga said. "That's a crime and I thought it was weird that they are saying that they assaulted someone and no arrest was made. Yeah, just didn't make any sense to me."
Members of the neighborhood association said they're working on next steps to address the situation with their residents and with the village.
CBS News Chicago tried to speak to the family involved in the incident, but they were not ready to talk about it yet. CBS News Chicago also reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more information.