A serious confrontation flared up in Chicago on Tuesday between President Donald Trump's immigration agents and locals, CNN's Whitney Wild detailed.
This comes as Trump continues to push for greater federal involvement in Chicago, backing up his immigration raids there with a presence of the National Guard — although that matter is currently tied up in federal courts.
"The question we have is, obviously, what led up to this and what prompted this action from Customs and Border Patrol agents?" said Wild. "Again, we've reached out to federal officials. We are waiting to hear back for an on-the-record statement. But we did just minutes ago receive the Chicago side of this. We've reached out to the mayor's office, as well as the Chicago Police Department."
"The Chicago Police Department says that this incident, as they understand it, began at 11:07 A.M," she continued. "That's when they got a call of an auto accident involving federal authorities. Again, witnesses are saying that this started after a crash between federal agents and another vehicle. We did see video of two damaged vehicles being towed away. The Chicago Police Department says that it was not involved in any of the federal operations occurring at that location. They did go to the scene. They documented the traffic crash. Additional Chicago Police Department supervisors arrived on scene to make sure that they are ensuring that there's, you know, the correct crowd control response that the traffic investigation is moving smoothly."
As all of this was going on, Wild reported, sources said "a crowd began to form as federal authorities were leaving the scene. And again, Chicago Police say that members of CPD tried to de-escalate that situation so that everybody would remain safe. Community members were continuing to gather at that location. That's when individuals began throwing objects at the federal agents and the Chicago Police Department says that federal agents deployed tear gas into the street. And they say 13 of their own officers were exposed to tear gas."
"This is the second time in about two weeks that Chicago Police Department officers have been exposed to chemical agents deployed by federal law enforcement in a prior incident that was very similar to this, that looked very similar to this," Wild said.