By Renee Hickman
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A suburban Chicago police officer arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday was legally authorized to work in the U.S. and had completed a full background check by the FBI, according to the Village of Hanover Park, where he was employed.
Radule Bojovic, who was born in Montenegro, was arrested “during a targeted enforcement action,” according to a press release from the Department of Homeland Security. DHS said Bojovic was in the country illegally after overstaying a B2 tourist visa more than 10 years ago. But a statement from the Village of Hanover Park later on Thursday said its police department received a work authorization card for Bojovic issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which had recently been renewed. The Village also said Bojovic had successfully completed a background check with the FBI and the Illinois State Police.
“The bottom line is that all information we received from the federal government indicated that Officer Bojovic is legally authorized to work in the United States as a police officer. Clearly, without that authorization, the Village would not have hired him,” the statement said.Bojovic was being held in immigration detention at the Clay County Justice Center in Brazil, Indiana, on Friday morning, according to ICE’s online detainee locator. The Village’s statement said Bojovic had been placed on administrative leave during his immigration proceedings and that he would return to duty if he were allowed to remain legally in the U.S. Since the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump launched its federal immigration enforcement blitz in the Chicago area last month, about 1,500 people have been arrested, according to DHS.The use of tear gas and other chemical munitions by federal immigration agents to disperse crowds during arrests has increasingly come under scrutiny by civic leaders and residents. Some, including Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, have also questioned the veracity of statements issued by the DHS about the incidents.
Earlier this month, DHS accused Marimar Martinez of ramming a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle with her car in the Chicago neighborhood of Brighton Park before agents shot her multiple times. Martinez survived the shooting and was subsequently indicted on charges of impeding a federal officer. But her attorney says that body camera footage shows federal agents striking Martinez’s car.
And on September 12, DHS issued a press release saying an ICE agent had shot and killed Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, a Mexican national, during an arrest attempt in Franklin Park, Illinois, because the man had driven his car at agents, injuring one and causing him to fear for his life.
Body camera footage later showed the agent saying the injury was “nothing major.” In a court filing from a lawsuit filed by protesters and journalists over ICE agents’ use of force, government attorneys said that Chicago ICE Field Director Russell Hott’s last day overseeing enforcement operations in the city was Friday. On Thursday, a U.S. judge ordered Hott to appear for a hearing on Monday to answer questions about a number of incidents where ICE agents used tear gas against protesters despite a court order requiring them to give a warning first.Hott, formerly a top ICE official in Washington, D.C., was reassigned in February amid pressure from the Trump administration to dramatically increase arrests of people living in the U.S. illegally.
(Reporting by Renee Hickman in Chicago; Additional reporting by Diana Jones in Chicago; Editing by Emily Schmall and Matthew Lewis)
Comments