An attorney and activist who said an immigration agent threw him to the ground as he filmed on his phone told the Tribune on Friday he learned from police that the agent has been charged with a misdemeanor in Cook County. Robert Held, a local attorney who has been a frequent protester at the Immigra tion and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, said he followed a car that left the facility on Dec. 27 and began filming the agent filling up his car at a gas station in nearby Brookfield. “He started walking toward me and then he increased his pace and threw me to the ground,” Held said. “And he was on top of me and he grabbed my phone and … I had to use all my might to hold onto my phone.” In response to questions from the Tribune, the Brookfield Police Department confirmed it responded to a gas station in the 9200 block of 31st Street which resulted in misdemeanor charges, but the department declined to confirm that the defendant is a federal agent. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Asked whether the incident in question resulted in charges against an immigration agent, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office released a statement. The office “reviews the available facts and relevant law when making charging decisions,” the statement reads. Neither the office nor police in Brookfield would release the name of the person charged. “After a thorough review of the investigation presented by law enforcement, our office recommended proceeding on a misdemeanor charge of battery, which local police then filed,” the statement said. The man was cited and released and given a court date, according to Brookfield police. Held said he immediately called police after the confrontation at the gas station. Officers asked him questions and examined his knuckles, he said. “They did a very professional investigation,” Held said. Held shared a video he shot with his cell phone with the Tribune of the moments before the alleged battery. It shows a man filling a black SUV up with gas, before he looks toward the camera and starts walking toward Held. The misdemeanor charge, which is not yet available in Cook County court records, is one of the first known cases of a federal immigration agent charged in connection with the controversial immigration operations in the Chicago area. In the Brookfield Police Department’s statement, officials said they initially sought a felony charge. The charge comes as some advocates and community members have clamored for Illinois officials to pursue criminal cases against immigration agents who have been accused of brutalizing city and suburban residents during their 64-day Operation Midway Blitz in the fall. Another Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is facing drunken driving charges after police said his car jumped a curb and crashed into a hedgerow in Oak Brook on Oct. 26. The calls for prosecutions echo those made in Minnesota, where local officials have sought to investigate the shooting of Rene Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, citing mistrust in the federal government’s ability to conduct an impartial investigation. Brookfield, a suburb of around 19,000 people, is near Broadview, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center has attracted frequent protests which have led to clashes between agents and demonstrators. In October, a left-leaning voters’ rights group wrote to Burke, Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul asking their offices to launch investigations into the conduct of immigration agents. The Kane County state’s attorney has asked Elgin police to further investigate two complaints in connection to a Dec. 6 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation at which bystanders were pepper-sprayed. Legal experts, though, have said that the path for state officials like prosecutors or attorneys general to file charges against federal agents working in the course of their duty is a difficult one. While working in the course of their jobs, federal agents have some immunity from prosecution, though, contrary to comments made by Vice President JD Vance, it is not absolute. “One of the narratives that has come out of this administration in recent months is ‘we are immune,’ and that’s incorrect,” Noah Smith-Drelich, an assistant professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, previously told the Tribune. The U.S. Supreme Court established decades ago that, in general, a federal officer cannot be held on a state criminal charge where the alleged crime arose during the performance of his federal duties. However, charges can be brought if it can be proved that the officer’s actions were so egregious they could not have reasonably believed it was in accordance with their official duties. Even then, defendants are often able to get their case removed to federal court to settle the question of immunity. The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the Chicago area has led to frequent clashes between agents and protesters. Agents have been accused of arresting citizens without probable cause, pointing weapons at people, tear-gassing neighborhoods, among other allegations of violent behavior. The most serious events were the Sept. 12 killing of Silverio Villegas-González by an ICE agent during a traffic stop in Franklin Park, and the shooting of motorist Marimar Martinez by a Border Patrol agent in Brighton Park three weeks later. ...read more read less