A Border Patrol agent was filmed punching a U.S. citizen in the head during a stop in a suburb outside of Chicago on Friday, and tried to justify it by saying the car was tail-gating them. Now the mayor is announcing an investigation into the agents.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss announced an investigation of the Board of Public Safety Patrol agents seen kneeling on a man and striking him repeatedly while he was handcuffed, reported The Daily Beast.
“I can’t breathe," the man can be heard at one point before he was dragged into an unmarked vehicle.
Speaking to CNN about the incident, Bliss said, "They forced this car accident, and then they started literally beating up innocent bystanders," calling DHS "a bunch of liars."
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin and Trump’s Border Patrol commander, Gregory Bovino, alleged on X that the reason the Border Patrol agent was punching the man while handcuffed and kneeling on him was that the man allegedly grabbed the agent's groin area and squeezed.
DHS wrote: “As you know this is an extremely painful experience for most human beings and justifies certain responses, [and] the agent delivered several defensive strikes to the agitator to free his genitals from the agitator’s vice.”
A video of the incident shows something different, however. There were about a dozen videos of the incident, and none showed the man grabbing anyone, the Beast said.
There is another video that shows an agent pulling a firearm and pointing it at a woman standing by the door to the unmarked vehicle. Another officer then fired pepper spray at the people filming.
Three U.S. citizens were arrested in the incident, and the man who was beaten was not immediately given medical attention.
Bliss said he is weighing recommending that the attorney general's civil rights division or the Cook County state's attorney explore an investigation.
Evanston police have now begun documenting DHS incidents by preserving evidence and recording badge numbers of agents. In this case, police arrived after the arrests, CNN reported.
“This is lawlessness,” Biss said. “This is an outrage, and everyone’s got to stand up against it.”
“To Gregory Bovino, Kristi Noem, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection: Get the hell out of our city," he continued.
This isn't the first time DHS has made false claims to justify the arrest of a U.S. citizen. Raw Story reported on Friday about a clarinet player in a band playing around protests. She was shoved to the ground, arrested, taken over state lines to a detention facility, and charged with a felony. DHS said that she kicked an agent and bit him. A Fox News video shows a different story as well.
DHS was also accused of lying about Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus, whose baby was lost in ICE custody. The Daily Beast said that in that case, McLaughlin alleged Monterroso-Lemus was a wanted killer. The Daily Beast found in legal documents that the allegation was untrue.
McLaughlin also alleged that a 13-year-old arrested in Massachusetts had a gun when detained, but local police contradicted her.
DHS has also falsely claimed that ICE does not arrest U.S. citizens. Judge Brett Kavanaugh went so far as to falsely claim in a written ruling that if American citizens were not being detained.
“If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter. ... If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go," he wrote.
