Shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 20, 2026, on the 1700 block of Howard Street in Evanston, Illinois, ICE officers detained a man who resembled someone they were looking for. He was a U.S. citizen and an Evanston resident. Police were called at 9:49 a.m. and found him on the ground, surrounded by bystanders, with injuries to his head, neck and teeth. An ambulance took him to St. Francis Hospital. The police chief went there to speak with him. He has not been publicly named.
Two videos capture part of it. CNN obtained surveillance footage showing two agents and the man in an upright struggle before he is pulled to the ground, one agent appearing to hold him down, and a voice saying, “I'm a f---ing US citizen.” NBC News verified separate video showing agents in ICE vests standing over him, one pinning him, the man shouting the same thing. In both, the agents get into a black SUV and drive away, leaving him lying face down in the street.
Miguel Angel Olivares, working at a restaurant on the block, told CNN's affiliate, “It looked like police vehicles until I started hearing, 'I'm a US citizen. I'm a US citizen,'” and that “they were being rough with him; they had him pinned against the floor, and it looked like one of the agents hit him in the face.” He told NBC Chicago the man's jaw was swollen and there was blood on his shirt. Another resident, Ryan Garton, said an agent's knee was pressed into the man's back, that he appeared to be going into shock, and that the paperwork the agents took off him looked like hospital discharge instructions for a pharmacy; the man said he was walking to a drugstore the day after an emergency-room visit. Whether he was punched is disputed. Police would not confirm it. The agent said his own hand was injured while handcuffing, and video shows one agent walking away shaking his hand.
The agents' version, given to an Evanston officer who stopped their vehicles nearby, is that they approached someone who resembled a person they were seeking, that he refused to provide identification, that he was detained for fingerprinting and resisted, and that they later determined he was not their man and was a citizen, and released him. The agent said they left when protesters began gathering because they feared being attacked. He identified himself as a federal officer on a fugitive investigation and said five agents were working the area in separate vehicles. A photograph taken locally shows his vest marked “POLICE” and “Federal Officer Fugitive Operations,” with an ICE badge, a gun, magazines and a body camera.
DHS defended the operation and said nothing about the injuries. Its statement says ICE “encountered an individual who resembled the target,” identified themselves, gave lawful commands to a man who “was not cooperative and refused to identify himself,” and that officers “relied on their training and later left the scene without further incident once the individual finally identified himself.” It adds, “The Supreme Court has already vindicated us on these practices,” and, “DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence. We know who we are targeting ahead of time.” That sentence sits against an operation that injured the wrong man, who was a citizen. CNN and NBC both note the statement does not address his injuries or why the officers did not render aid.
The Evanston Police Department is investigating. It is a municipal department, and it is the only body that has opened an inquiry; the body-camera footage it is preserving is its own officers', not the agents'. No charges, no findings, no discipline, and the agent has not been identified. See also Federal Agents Have Detained More Than 500 U.S. Citizens in Trump's Immigration Crackdown, ProPublica Finds and Federal Immigration Officers Have Fatally Shot at Least 10 People Since Trump's Second Term Began.