One-year-old pepper-sprayed during US federal immigration operation in Chicago suburb

One-year-old pepper-sprayed during US federal immigration operation in Chicago suburb

A dramatic incident unfolded on Saturday in a parking lot outside a Sam’s Club in the suburb of Cicero, Illinois. Across the border from Chicago’s Little Village neighbourhood, US federal agents are accused of deploying pepper spray at close range and striking a one‐year-old child riding in a car. The father, Rafael Veraza, says he and his daughter, Arianna, were hit after deciding to leave the lot upon seeing a large law-enforcement presence.

Veraza describes the moment he heard a helicopter and honking, which are known signals in the area that immigration agents were nearby, and chose to exit. As his window was rolled down, he claims a masked agent pointed a pepper-spray canister through the open window and fired, releasing a cloud of irritant that engulfed him and his daughter sitting in the back seat. Both struggled: Veraza said his asthma flared immediately and his daughter “was trying to open her eyes” and had difficulty breathing.

The incident occurred amid heightened tension in Chicago’s southwest side, where federal immigration enforcement has been increasing under “Operation Midway Blitz.” Agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have used chemical agents, including tear gas and pepper balls, in multiple settings across the city and suburbs, actions that have drawn legal scrutiny over use-of-force standards.

In a statement, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) flatly denied the family’s account, asserting no pepper spray or crowd-control measures were deployed in that parking lot. DHS said federal agents were responding to hostilities, including gunfire, bricks thrown at vehicles and attempted ramming of federal convoys in the area that morning.

Local pastors and community advocates backed the family’s claim, noting the video shows the daughter crying and the father in visible distress. Pastor Matt DeMateo, who arrived on the scene, said federal tactics were random and indiscriminate, striking a family simply trying to shop and leave.

The legal backdrop adds complexity: earlier this week a federal judge in Chicago ruled that federal immigration agents had exaggerated protest risks and ordered stricter limits on their use of chemical irritants. That order forbids tear gas and pepper-ball munitions unless “objectively necessary” and mandates warnings, body-cameras and identification for agents.

As the family considers legal options and community groups push for oversight of the federal operation, the incident raises fundamental questions about the boundaries of aggressive immigration enforcement and the rights of bystanders, especially children, caught in its path.