U.S. Border Patrol agents came under attack Friday morning in Chicago when multiple vehicles rammed and boxed in their patrol car during a routine operation near the intersection of 39th Place and South Kedzie Avenue. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the agents were conducting standard patrols in the greater Broadview area when ten cars surrounded and deliberately struck their vehicle.
Federal officials said the agents exited their immobilized vehicle and were immediately targeted again as one of the suspects attempted to run them over. Agents fired defensive shots at an armed woman who was later identified in a Customs and Border Protection intelligence bulletin for doxing federal officers online. The suspect fled the scene and later drove herself to a hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said the agents acted defensively after being ambushed. “Thankfully, no law enforcement officers were seriously injured in this attack,” McLaughlin said. “Our officers are being violently targeted simply for enforcing the law. This kind of escalating violence must stop.”
New information obtained from dispatch recordings reveals that Chicago police officers were reportedly ordered not to assist federal agents as the situation unfolded. According to the New York Post, agents called the Chicago Police Department for backup while under siege, but were denied assistance. “We’re not sending anybody out to that location,” a dispatcher can be heard saying after receiving a directive from the department’s chief of patrol. Local police reportedly withdrew several blocks from the scene despite the agents dealing with an armed and dangerous crowd.
The Chicago Police Department Is Now In "Cover Your Ass" Mode As They Were Caught REFUSING To Send Help To @ICEgov Agents Who Were Surrounded & Under Attack.
The Chicago PD Chief Of Patrol Directed Officers To Stand Down & NOT Respond To Feds Calls For Assistance. pic.twitter.com/Dct3hXKWCp— John Basham (@JohnBasham) October 6, 2025
According to DHS, the FBI is leading the investigation and is processing the scene alongside ICE and CBP personnel. Officials said the Chicago Police Department left the area shortly after the shooting and refused to assist in securing the scene, prompting DHS to deploy special operations teams to control a growing crowd.
The attack follows a week of heightened tensions in the Chicago area, including violent demonstrations outside the ICE Broadview Processing Center, where rioters reportedly threatened to “shoot ICE.” DHS officials said these incidents reflect an alarming pattern of hostility toward federal law enforcement officers.
Earlier this week, the department condemned the use of vehicles as weapons against ICE and Border Patrol, calling it a “dangerous and escalating tactic” used to intimidate law enforcement. McLaughlin said political rhetoric comparing ICE to “the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols” has emboldened agitators and increased the number of assaults against officers by more than 1,000 percent this year.
“The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters,” McLaughlin said. “They get up every morning to make our communities safer, and like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night.”
DHS said the investigation remains ongoing and that more information will be released as it becomes available.
