By Emily Schmall
CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) – An independent commission created by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker in the wake of an aggressive immigration crackdown in the Chicago area last year has recommended that local prosecutors investigate federal agents for misconduct.The Illinois Accountability Commission, led by retired U.S. District Judge Rubén Castillo, issued a report on Thursday documenting what it described as a pattern of “unjustified and excessive force,” and the “indiscriminate use of chemical agents” by federal officers.The commission, which took witness testimony and reviewed a trove of court evidence and media reports, recommended further investigation by Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke and other local prosecutors and police as well as federal law enforcement agencies with the authority to obtain additional evidence.The Trump administration’s crackdown, which it dubbed Operation Midway Blitz, led to thousands of arrests and violent confrontations between federal immigration agents and protesters. Agents shot two people, including one person fatally, and threatened to shoot others, body-cam footage shows. Agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets at protesters demonstrating outside an immigration holding center in suburban Broadview, Illinois, and across many Chicago neighborhoods.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During a news conference on Thursday, Judge Castillo described the shooting of Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen and Montessori school teacher in suburban Oak Park, by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum.”You would think that she was shot by some gang member on the South Side of Chicago. And she was. But guess what? That gang was Customs and Border Patrol. And the person who sent that gang to Illinois and to Chicago? Someone living on Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House,” Castillo said. Martinez survived the shooting and faced criminal charges by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in one of dozens of cases that were later dropped.
(Editing by Emily Schmall; Editing by Mark Porter)
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