Police superintendent: Chicago cops will keep peace amid ICE protests

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(The Center Square) – Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said he’s going to review an “ICE-free zone” executive order issued Monday by Mayor Brandon Johnson, but police will assist in keeping the peace. Johnson's order limits federal immigration officers’ use of city property, among other things.

“If we’re working to make sure that we’re keeping the peace, this has nothing to do with immigration,” Snelling said Monday at a separate news conference.

Snelling reiterated local police will not assist in federal immigration enforcement.

Stories of federal agents being assaulted with vehicles and other incidents were reported over the weekend in and near Chicago. Snelling told reporters that the public better understand there are consequences to their actions.

“When you plow into a vehicle that contains law enforcement agents, you’re using deadly force and they can use deadly force in response to stop you,” Snelling said.

Federal prosecutors announced charges against several individuals alleging they used their vehicles to assault ICE officers. One of them was shot by an officer, and was found down the road with the vehicle and treated at a hospital.

Snelling said Chicago officers will communicate directly with federal officials to keep the peace in other situations where protesters may be encroaching on immigration enforcement.

“So that they understand that we’re going to cover that front line so that it will be unnecessary to use these chemical agents,” Snelling said.

Democrats complained federal agents used chemical agents to disperse crowds.

To Johnson’s “ICE-free zone” executive order, the White House put out an email saying it was a “disgusting betrayal of every law-abiding citizen.”

“Johnson’s pathetic excuse that enforcing our nation’s immigration laws somehow ‘undermines community trust’ exposes his true loyalty: to criminal illegal alien predators, not the terrified families of Chicago,” the White House email said. “Shielding the most depraved, violent criminal illegal aliens from justice is not only an insult to every Chicagoan, it’s also a dangerous intensification of Democrats’ lunatic ‘sanctuary’ agenda where criminal illegals come before American citizens.”

The order limits federal immigration officers’ use of city property, among other things.