The suburb of Cicero, Illinois, has a population of just under 90,000 residents. It sits outside Chicago, which has become the epicenter for ICE raid violence. As ICE agents continue to question and detain people illegally, a video posted to Reddit shows that not even its quiet towns are safe from Trump’s reign of terror.
In the video, two ICE agents approach a woman walking in the Walmart parking lot around 9:30 AM. Someone holding a camera begins photographing the agents, while the one behind the camera continues filming. As the woman being questioned comes to a stop, the ICE agents pepper her with questions. “Are you from here? Where’s here?” One asks, effectively stepping in front of her to cut off any means of escaping their third degree.
The woman answers quietly, but the ICE agent continues his questioning. “What country? Were you born here?” At this point, both ICE agents stand in front of her, preventing her from leaving. “Were you born here, ma’am? What country were you born in?” One agent can be heard asking again. The video ends as the woman raises her hands, a gesture indicating she’s not trying to be confrontational. Following the raid, it was confirmed that two people had been detained in the parking lot.
The act was a blatant show of racial profiling, and viewers watching the video were quick to express their disgust. “Yeah… something has got to give at this rate. The blatant racism and inhumane treatment ICE has managed to bring to Chicago is astonishing. And this is a city with a pretty extensive history of that beforehand,” one user says.
Some commented on the harassment of a young woman, expressing concern for her and other women’s safety. “They just wanted to kidnap a young woman,” one says. Another replied, “It’s only going to take one serial r*pist to recognize that they’ve opened the door for attacks on women. Crazy thing is, they probably won’t even care anyway.”
