Illinois lawmakers demand answers in Ice killing: 'A traffic violation should never amount to a death sentence' [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Sat 13 Sep 2025 12.56 EDT


A US congresswoman from Illinois and local officials in and around Chicago are calling for an investigation into the traffic stop initiated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents that resulted in the shooting death of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez on Friday.

A joint statement whose signatories included Democratic US House member Delia Ramirez said Villegas-Gonzalez’s killing in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park illustrated “the inevitable violence” resulting from the deportation campaign mounted by Donald Trump’s administration during his second presidency.

The statement also said community members were “outraged” at the “violent spectacle” that killed Villegas-Gonzalez near a school at a time when parents were dropping their children off. “What happened … is not an isolated incident. It is the consequence of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda,” the statement said in part.

The Trump-led Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused Villegas-Gonzalez of having “resisted arrest, attempted to flee the scene and dragged a [Ice] officer a significant distance with his car” at the time of his killing.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/13/illinois-traffic-stop-ice-killing