DHS Downplays Horrific ICE Arrest by Straight Up Lying About It

The Department of Homeland Security has been caught in yet another lie about the victim of a violent immigration arrest.

A shocking video that went viral Saturday showed the violent arrest of a young woman by law enforcement officers. In the video, unmarked cars swarmed a suburban street, as another vehicle screeched to a halt on what appears to be a driveway. As the driver was pulled from the stopped car, she could be heard loudly pleading with the arresting officer. The officer threw her to the ground and appeared to put his knee on her neck as he restrained her hands behind her back. Multiple X accounts claimed she had yelled, “I’m 15!”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin denied that the arrest was part of a rash of brutal arrests by federal law enforcement that took place in Chicago over the weekend, claiming the footage wasn’t even from this year.

“Imagine being so desperate to demonize law enforcement you post a video from a burglary arrest Chicago Police made over a year ago,” McLaughlin wrote on X Sunday. “This isn’t even ICE.”

But McLaughlin wasn’t telling the truth.

McLaughlin was referring to the 2024 arrest of a 15-year-old girl who was charged with attacking and robbing multiple people on public transit. But the video couldn’t possibly be of that arrest. The Chicago Police Department said the teen charged with robbery had been arrested on the 1200 block of West 109th Street, a location in South Chicago, CBS News reported. Block Club Chicago identified the location of the video as Hoffman Estates, a Chicago suburb an hour away.

CBS News confirmed late Monday that the video showed the Friday arrest of 18-year-old Evelyn, a U.S. citizen, and reported that she had not claimed to be a minor but shouted, “I’m not resisting!” during her arrest. Evelyn and her friends had been monitoring ICE’s presence in the area, according to independent journalist Jacqueline Sweet.

Evelyn’s parents told CBS News that their daughter and her two friends were taken in cars to the Hoffman Estates Police Department parking lot, where they remained for hours before being released without charges. It’s still unclear what agency was responsible for making the arrest.

Hoffman Estates police released a statement confirming that ICE was present in their parking lot on Friday. “Two ICE agents also came into the police department to make a police report regarding an incident that occurred while in our Village,” the statement said.

Illinois Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi condemned the brutal arrest and demanded transparency from DHS. “The events in Hoffman Estates embody everything that’s wrong with the Trump Administration’s militarized ICE raids: cruelty without accountability, secrecy without oversight, and power without restraint,” he said in a statement.

Since federal forces have been unleashed on Chicago as part of President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” DHS has appeared to bend the truth on several occasions. Last week, an attorney told a judge that Border Patrol agents had rammed into his client’s car, not the other way around as federal officials claimed, and one agent had menacingly said, “Do something, bitch,” before shooting his client five times. DHS claimed the officer had acted in self-defense.

Last month, DHS claimed that ICE had shot and killed “a criminal illegal alien with a history of reckless driving” while trying to detain him—but a closer look found that the man had no criminal history, and his last traffic violation was in 2013.