Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, 38, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Franklin Park during an attempted immigration detention, despite having no criminal record.
The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed Villegas-Gonzalez resisted arrest and dragged an officer with his car “a significant distance.” Surveillance footage, however, showed the agent firing two shots, and Villegas-Gonzalez later died at a hospital.
On September 19, DHS issued a press release describing Villegas-Gonzalez as a “criminal illegal alien with a history of reckless driving.” NBC News later reported he had no criminal history, only four traffic violations, the most recent in 2013. The ICE agent was said to have been “seriously injured,” but bodycam video from Franklin Park police showed the officer describing his injuries as “nothing major.”
It remains unclear why ICE targeted Villegas-Gonzalez. David J. Bier, immigration director at the Cato Institute, said the stop was unnecessary, noting Villegas-Gonzalez had just dropped his two children at daycare. Bier added, “Desperate people in desperate spots can make stupid decisions like this guy did. But ICE shouldn’t manufacture these situations either.”
A witness told the Chicago Sun-Times that ICE’s account of the shooting was inaccurate and questioned whether it would be properly investigated. Neither of the officers involved wore body cameras, despite policy requiring them during enforcement activities.
Democratic lawmakers, including Illinois Representatives Jesús “Chuy” García and Delia C. Ramirez and Senators Dick Durbin, Richard Blumenthal, and Tammy Duckworth, sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons demanding an investigation by the DHS Inspector General.
Studies show ICE frequently arrests individuals with no criminal convictions. A June Cato Institute report found that 65 percent of ICE detainees since October 2024 had no criminal record, and 95 percent had no violent criminal convictions.
DHS also claimed ICE faced a 1,000 percent increase in assaults against agents. However, with just 10 assaults last year, the total would be roughly 100, a number critics say is inflated, especially given repeated inconsistencies in ICE’s public reports about alleged attacks on officers.
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