‘Deeply disturbed’: Lawmakers demand answers about ICE actions in Hoffman Estates

Two suburban lawmakers are demanding answers about a viral video appearing to show U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detaining a young woman in Hoffman Estates last week.

The video, taken from the window of a house Friday, Oct. 10, shows officers pulling over a sedan on a residential street and dragging the 18-year-old from the passenger side of the vehicle. As she screams in protest, she is forced to the ground then placed into one of the agent’s vehicles.

A Hoffman Estates patrol vehicle appears briefly in the video and pulls away as the scene plays out. ICE agents later stopped in the parking lot of the Hoffman Estates Police Department, where a crowd that included Illinois Rep. Fred Crespo and his attorney daughter Jennifer Crespo gathered.

Hoffman Estates Police Chief Kasia Cawley said the agents visited the police station to make a report but decided to leave and complete the report at another time.

ICE officers left the police station without the young woman, but took another detainee with them, according to Jennifer Crespo.

The video was shared over the weekend by U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Schaumburg Democrat whose 8th District includes Hoffman Estates.

“This is in our backyard,” he said in a statement. “I am deeply disturbed by what looks like ICE agents violently detaining a child. A child. She could be yours just as she could be mine.”

Krishnamoorthi said he wants Congress to investigate and the House Oversight Committee to subpoena Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Crespo, a Democrat from Hoffman Estates, said he is especially concerned about the presence of the Hoffman Estates police vehicle in the video.

“When you had three or four unmarked squad cars come to the house, why would the local police walk away?” he asked.

Cawley didn’t confirm the validity of the video, but she said it appears to be at the intersection of Morton Street and Glendale Lane in Hoffman Estates.

“The street sign is in the video, and we did have a squad car on a call for service on the 700 block of Morton on Friday,” Cawley said. “We don’t interfere with federal agents when they are doing their duties.”

Attempts to reach representatives for comment were not successful.

But Tricia McLaughlin, U.S. Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, claimed over social media that the video is from a burglary arrest Chicago police made more than a year ago.

When contacted by the Daily Herald, the family of the 18-year-old said she was not speaking to the media and had contacted a lawyer.