An Illinois man has said his family, including his one-year-old daughter, were pepper-sprayed by federal immigration agents while in their car during a shopping trip in a Chicago suburb. Rafael Veraza, 25, said the incident occurred outside a Sam's Club in Cicero, where video footage shows him clutching his face after a substance was sprayed through his open window.
Mr Veraza told reporters that his wife had asked him to stop the car after she, their daughter and his sister were also hit. In the footage, the child is seen in distress in her mother's arms, with her eyes streaming. “My daughter was trying to open her eyes. She was struggling to breathe,” Mr Veraza said at a press conference on Sunday, a day after an operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the store.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the incident. Assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: “There was no crowd control or pepper spray deployed in a Sam's Club parking lot.” A post on the department's X account claimed that “rioters began throwing objects at agents and blocking the road.” Mr Veraza rejected that account, saying: “We're not protesters. We were not even attacking them.” Local pastor Matt DeMateo, who helped the family, said: “All US citizens attacked while shopping. We need a better way.”
The incident comes amid an increasingly aggressive ICE crackdown in Chicago, dubbed Operation Midway Blitz by President Donald Trump. Hundreds of people, from undocumented immigrants to protesters, have been arrested. Other recent incidents have included the forcible detention of a daycare worker, the targeting of rideshare drivers at O'Hare airport, the release of pepper spray in a neighbourhood preparing for a Halloween parade, and the detention of landscaping company employees.
Despite Trump's claim that he was deporting only the “worst of the worst”, most of those detained have no criminal record or active proceedings against them. DHS has described critical media coverage as “hateful rhetoric”, saying agents have faced an 8,000% rise in death threats. Courts have blocked the deployment of national guard troops to Illinois and a restraining order limits ICE use of force. Federal judge Sara Ellis last week reprimanded border patrol chief Gregory Bovino for lying about throwing a gas canister at protesters. CBS News reported on Monday that Bovino and an undisclosed number of officers are due to leave Chicago this week.
