Crowd in Chicago's McKinley Park protests ICE after agents crash into truck and detain driver on I-55 ramp

Evgenia Anastasakos and Caroline Kubzansky, Chicago Tribune on Aug 24, 2026

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CHICAGO — Protesters gathered in the McKinley Park neighborhood Monday afternoon after immigration agents earlier in the day crashed into a pickup truck near the Damen Avenue exit on I-55 and detained a driver, witnesses and local officials said.

Livestream footage shows the blue pickup truck surrounded by ICE vehicles after colliding with immigration agents and smashing into a concrete barrier on the side of I-55 next to Exit 290.

Rapid responders said the crash was the result of a “chase,” according to 12th Ward Ald. Julia Ramirez, who was on the scene Monday afternoon. Ramirez said agents detained the driver, who had not been identified.

Illinois State Police responded to the crash.

“ICE agents were in one of the vehicles. No injuries were reported,” an ISP spokesperson said in a statement. “The I-55 northbound ramp to Damen Avenue is currently blocked. No further information is available at this time.”

Witnesses said agents pulled weapons on the driver, but no shots were fired. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Footage showed a tow truck arriving to take away the ICE vehicle involved in the collision.

Ramirez said around six to eight trucks remained in the area, down the ramp.

“This reminds me a lot of the incident with Marimar Martinez in Brighton Park. They stayed on-site for a very long time, which further provoked and caused a lot of people to come on the scene,” she said, referring to the shooting of a woman who was following a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle last fall.

“They have been heavily in our area,” Ramirez added. “What I worry about is the presence remaining here very close to the site as people continue to come.”

Meanwhile, the crowd of protesters near the crash site at Wolcott Avenue and 33rd Street continued to grow into the afternoon.

By 2:30 p.m., about 50 people had surrounded a half dozen agents and their SUVs, one of which had a crooked tire and significant damage to the body — the scene reminiscent of last fall’s Operation Midway Blitz across Chicago and the suburbs.

Several Chicago Police Department officers sat in squad cars farther up the block, but for most of the standoff, the only Chicago police officer on the scene was Deering (9th) District Cmdr. Joseph Mark.

Mark, who was one of the top brass to respond to the October 2025 confrontation between Brighton Park residents and Border Patrol agents after Marimar Martinez was shot, exchanged a few words at a time with the only unmasked ICE agent in the group.

A woman with her phone held up asked Mark, “Are you helping them find a tow truck?”

“I’m not helping them,” Mark said.

“You’re not helping them find a tow truck,” the woman repeated. “Those are your words?”

“We’re just trying to keep the peace,” Mark said.

A masked observer asked Mark if he had his body camera on. Mark nodded.

Most of the people who had gathered stood on the other side of a fenced-off Target parking lot, filming or calling out to the agents from a distance, while a more confrontational group approached the agents to scream at them or film them up close.

At one point, as one of the agents tried to take a car away from the scene, protesters rushed toward it and started to bang on the windows. A tow truck pulled up soon afterward and the crowd jeered. The driver hesitated on the street for a moment before driving away.

Slowly, agents left the scene. Soon, only the unmasked agent was with the damaged car as the crowd circulated up and down the block.

One man took a selfie with the battered ICE vehicle. After about 20 minutes, a second tow truck arrived. People converged around the tow truck, but rapid responders from PUNO and the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois stood between protesters and the truck and pleaded with people to let the tow truck through.

“We want ICE out of here, let’s go,” attorney Brian Orozco said. “Please guys.”

Another woman in a mask called, “They’re already out there, and we’re focused here, doing nothing.”

By 3:30 p.m., the agents were gone.

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