U.S. Citizen Beaten in Mistaken ICE Arrest in Evanston: Competing Accounts
Two federal immigration agents allegedly beat and badly injured a U.S. citizen in Evanston, Illinois, after mistaking him for a fugitive, then left him dazed and bleeding on the ground. The Guardian
The confrontation happened at about 10am on Sunday in Evanston, a suburb of Chicago. The man is an Evanston resident whose identity has not been disclosed. He told witnesses he was walking to a pharmacy to pick up a prescription when agents stopped him. They had wrongly identified him as a fugitive, meaning a person wanted for arrest.
Ryan Garton, 56, a marketing executive in Evanston, told the Associated Press he was driving home from his son's soccer game when he saw agents pinning a Black man down by the side of the road. UPI Garton pulled over to record video. About five bystanders stood nearby shouting at the agents to stop.
Garton said one agent kept a knee on the man's back while hitting him. The man shouted: "I'm a citizen, leave me alone." A second witness, Michael Lipson, who owns a store across the street, said he saw federal officers wrestle the man to the ground while the man repeatedly said he was a citizen.
Garton described the man's upper right eye socket and temple as swollen as if punched. His face was scraped as if ground into the sidewalk. After the agent stepped away, Garton said he saw bloodstains in the shape of handprints on the man's shirt.
Garton said he urged the officer to get off the man so injuries could be checked. The officer said he already knew the man was a U.S. citizen. Officers checked cards and papers from the man's wallet, then left them scattered on the road. Lipson laid out his sweatshirt for the man to rest on while Garton looked at his injuries.
The man was taken by ambulance to a hospital with injuries to his head, neck and teeth. AP One agent had a bloodied hand. He told Evanston police he injured it while the man resisted handcuffing.
The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, which oversees ICE, gave a different account. ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is the federal agency that carries out immigration arrests. DHS said officers met a person who resembled the target of an enforcement operation. The person was given lawful commands but did not cooperate and refused to identify himself. DHS said agents left the scene without further incident once the man identified himself, and that he refused assistance when offered.
An Evanston police statement described a different sequence. It said the alleged victim reported head, face and neck injuries. It said the agents walked away and said a crowd had gathered and they feared attack by protesters. Authorities in Illinois said earlier in the week they were looking into the incident.
The broader context here is a clash of two accounts that will be hard to reconcile without video and formal findings. Witnesses describe continued force against a man asserting citizenship, followed by abandonment at the scene. The federal account describes resemblance to a target, noncompliance with commands, and an offer of help refused. The narrow questions are what identification check came before the stop, what force was permitted after citizenship was asserted, and what duty of care applied once agents left. How Illinois investigators and federal reviewers answer those questions will shape liability, guidance for field encounters, and public trust in operations involving U.S. citizens.
