* The Department of Homeland Security on October 4th…

This morning, Border Patrol agents were conducting a routine patrol, near the intersection of 39th Place and S. Kedzie Avenue, when they were attacked and rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars. The officers exited their trapped vehicle, when a suspect tried to run them over, forcing the officers to fire defensively. This is an evolving situation. FBI is on the scene.

Statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin:

“While conducting routine patrolling in the greater Broadview area, near the same area of Chicago that law enforcement was assaulted yesterday, our brave law enforcement officers were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars this morning. Agents were unable to move their vehicle and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon. Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fired defensive shots at an armed US citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds.

“The armed woman was named in a CBP intelligence bulletin last week for doxing agents online.

“Thankfully, no law enforcement officers were seriously injured in this attack.

“Unfortunately, JB Pritzker’s Chicago Police Department is leaving the shooting scene and refuses to assist us in securing the area. There is a crowd growing and we are deploying special operations to control a growing crowd.

* The Sun-Times two days later…

Body-camera video of a Border Patrol agent involved in the shooting of a woman who was allegedly chasing agents in Brighton Park over the weekend shows an officer saying, “Do something, b—-,” before pulling over and shooting the woman five times, the woman’s attorney said in federal court Monday.

The video appears to contradict the government’s allegation that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire on her late Saturday morning on Kedzie Avenue near 39th Street, her attorney, Christopher Parente, said at a detention hearing at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

U.S. District Judge Heather McShain denied a request by the federal government to detain Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, pending trial. Martinez and Ruiz, who wore orange jumpsuits for the detention hearing, were charged Sunday with felony assault of a federal officer.

The judge said it “is a miracle to me that no one was more seriously injured” in the incident in which Martinez and Ruiz allegedly followed agents for more than 20 minutes as they drove after conducting an operation in Oak Lawn. But she said the defendants’ lack of criminal history and extensive family and community ties compelled her to release them pending trial.

* Today in the Sun-Times…

The feds moved Thursday morning to dismiss the indictment that had been brought against Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ruiz, hours ahead of a status hearing in the case. Defense attorneys for the pair have been aggressively challenging evidence and sought a speedy trial.

The motion from assistant U.S. attorneys Ronald DeWald and Aaron Bond did not explain the decision. A U.S. attorney’s office spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. […]

Prosecutors alleged that Martinez drove a Nissan Rogue that side-swiped Exum’s Tahoe. Ruiz allegedly drove a GMC Envoy that struck its rear right end.

Exum opened fire on Martinez, who suffered seven gunshot wounds. Exum allegedly bragged about it in text messages later, writing to friends in a “support group” that, “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”

Redacted versions of those messages were made public during a Nov. 5 hearing in Alexakis’ courtroom. But Monday, she wrote on the court docket that she’d since reviewed unredacted copies. She wound up having a meeting with government counsel afterward.

The judge told the feds to “promptly” deliver additional text messages to the defendants, according to the docket.

More from the Tribune…

The U.S. attorneys office made the surprise move just hours before a hearing before U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis where defense attorneys were expected to describe new texts from the Border Patrol agent who shot Martinez and discuss witnesses for an upcoming hearing over what the agent did with his vehicle after the Oct. 4 incident. […]

Martinez’s attorneys, meanwhile, argue it was Exum who sideswiped Martinez and that his extreme use of force was completely unjustified. They’ve also alleged evidence tampering, saying Exum was inexplicably allowed to drive the Tahoe more than 1,000 miles back to his home base in Maine, where a Border Patrol mechanic attempted to “wipe off” some of the scuff marks from the crash.

An upcoming evidentiary hearing was expected to feature several witnesses who would testify about the decision to release the vehicle, including Exum’s direct supervisor, the FBI agent who helped process it, and a federal prosecutor working early stages of the case.

That followed a bombshell hearing earlier this month where it was revealed that after the shooting, as news of the incident was making national headlines, Exum texted a group of other agents that he was “up for another round of “f––– around and find out.”

* In a related story, here’s WGN…

Federal charges have been dropped against a U.S. Air Force veteran who was accused in late September of forcibly assaulting or resisting federal agents during a demonstration outside an ICE processing facility in west suburban Broadview. […]

[Dana Briggs, 70.] was released from custody following an initial hearing. He was initially charged with a felony, but the case was later reduced to a misdemeanor with a trial date scheduled for December, according to Jason Meisner of the Chicago Tribune.

In the September incident, Meisner reports, video showed Briggs being pushed to the ground and bumping an agent’s arm as he attempted to hand his phone off.

Meisner also reports that Briggs intended to call Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino as a witness during his trial. Bovino, who became the face of the immigration enforcement crackdown in the Chicago area known as “Operation Midway Blitz,” and his team of federal agents are now conducting operations in and around Charlotte.

* Bloomberg…

An appellate court has temporarily paused a lower court order that could have soon released hundreds of people in Immigration and Customs and Enforcement custody.

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Thursday granted the Trump administration’s motion to pause the order as the appeal proceeds. The brief order gave no explanation for the decision but scheduled oral arguments on the matter for Dec. 2.

The decision comes after the district court judge declined the government’s request that he stay his own rulings.

The Tribune…

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings had allowed their release on a $1,500 bond and some form of monitoring, including electronic ankle monitors, pending the outcome of immigration proceedings. Most of those arrested were originally processed at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in west suburban Broadview, but have since been moved to jails around the country.

But the Trump administration has asked an appeals court to block the release Friday of some 450 Chicago-area immigration arrestees, arguing the judge made a “bevy of legal errors” that put public safety at risk and “cripple” immigration enforcement.

“The district court’s orders subject the government to burdensome, costly and intrusive mandates — including training, documentation and reporting requirements — and cripple the government’s renewed implementation of the nation’s immigration laws after years of non-enforcement,” the administration argued. […]

The order comes nearly a week after the Trump administration released the names of 614 people whose Chicago-area immigration arrests may have violated the consent decree, showing that only 16 of them have criminal histories that present a “high public safety risk.”

Oral arguments are scheduled for December 2nd.

* Sun-Times…

The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security used “shifting, contradictory, and often opaque communication” to deny clergy the ability to pray with detainees at the ICE facility in Broadview, including late immigrant activists Sister Pat Murphy and Sister JoAnn Persch.

The group attempted to provide communion for detainees at the facility in October as well as earlier this month, but were denied both times, with officials citing “safety and security concerns,” according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court. The group accused the government of violating federal law as well as the First Amendment rights of religious officials and detainees.

“A non-specific reference to safety and security is not sufficient to deny the rights of Catholic clergy and laypersons, or persons of any other denomination or religion, to practice their faith, especially as others have been allowed to do so at the ICE facility in Broadview since it became an immigration-related facility in 2006,” the lawsuit states. “The United States has a long history of accommodating such religious freedom and practice inside of prisons and jails, and there is no reason to deny them altogether at Broadview, where the vast majority of detainees have no criminal records.” […]

Clergy were previously allowed to pray with detainees before they were bused to deportation flights as well as during the 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. family visitation hours the facility used to have, according to the lawsuit. Murphy and Persch would pray with detainees in the early hour mornings every Friday from 2010 to 2020, only stopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The visits then continued virtually.

* More…

* Fox Chicago | Chicago Police address misinformation after ICE shooting, confirms federal agents leading probe: In a statement, Chicago police clarified that officers did respond to the shooting scene involving federal agents on Saturday near the intersection of West 39th Street and South Kedzie Avenue around 10:30 a.m. Police said their purpose was to “maintain public safety and traffic control.” No injuries to any law enforcement officers were reported. CPD said they are not investigating the shooting, but federal authorities are. Chicago police also stated they responded to a separate call for service from federal officers involved in two hit-and-run crashes. The crashes were unrelated to the incident earlier in the day.

* TIME | Trump Administration Accused of ‘Propaganda’ for Shifting Story in Shooting Amid ICE Protests: Murphy noted, however, that the criminal complaint filed against Martinez the next day tells a different story. The complaint, written by FBI Special Agent Caitlin Malone, said that only two cars rammed federal agent vehicles, rather than the overwhelming 10. There is no mention of her brandishing a weapon, as the original DHS statement implied, nor any firearms at all on Martinez. Police audio later confirmed that Martinez had a concealed carry permit for a weapon that stayed inside her purse throughout the incident, according to Fox Chicago.

* AP | Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns: The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Federal agents in turn may then flag local law enforcement. Suddenly, drivers find themselves pulled over — often for reasons cited such as speeding, failure to signal, the wrong window tint or even a dangling air freshener blocking the view. They are then aggressively questioned and searched, with no inkling that the roads they drove put them on law enforcement’s radar.

* NYT | ICE Frees Blind Migrant Who Was Detained for Days in Isolation: For at least five days, a blind Ecuadorean man who was arrested this month in New York City by U.S. immigration authorities was held in isolation at a county jail, locked in his cell for 24 hours a day and deprived of his cane. “I feel so terrible I cannot see and that I cannot walk, read or do things on my own,” Carlos Anibal Chalco Chango, 40, said last week in a declaration prepared by his lawyers based on their conversations with him.

* AP | Federal immigration crackdown ends in Charlotte, North Carolina, sheriff says: A news release from the sheriff’s office in Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, said that federal officials have confirmed with Sheriff Garry McFadden that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation known as “ Charlotte’s Web,” has officially concluded. No border agent operations will occur on Thursday, the news release said. The operation that began over the weekend is the latest phase of Republican President Donald Trump ’s aggressive mass deportation efforts that have sent the military and immigration agents into Democratic-run cities — from Chicago to Los Angeles.

* NYT | As Border Patrol Floods North Carolina, Charlotte Asks, ‘Why Us?’: Now, his operation — named Charlotte’s Web in a reference to the children’s book — has drawn criticism for its aggressive tactics. Attendance has dropped at public schools. Adults have skipped work, prompting small businesses to close. And many have accused agents of profiling Latinos. Some residents have been fighting back, honking horns at the agents in parking lots, raising their middle fingers and shouting expletives at them. Two men were charged in separate incidents and accused of using their vehicles to assault, resist or impede federal agents conducting immigration enforcement operations in Charlotte.

* The Atlantic | Every State Is a Border Patrol State: When President Donald Trump ran for office in 2024, his campaign wanted voters to tie the problems in their communities and personal lives to the chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump’s surrogates adopted a talking point long used by Homeland Security officials when they wanted more attention and funding from Congress. “Every state is a border state,” they’d say, meaning that problems generated at the border—illegal migration and drug trafficking—don’t stay there.

* South Side Weekly | Feds Used Chemical Agents Dozens of Times in Chicago—Even After Judge Said To Stop: The events of October 4 also helped establish a pattern of force by federal agents. Our investigation found that federal agents used chemical weapons on protesters at least 49 times across 18 incidents across Chicago and the suburbs since October 1. Federal agents have used chemical irritants at least thirty times since a judge placed restrictions on their use of tear gas and pepper spray. Contrary to federal claims about attacks on agents, most of these incidents appear to involve nonviolent protesters or bystanders.