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Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes
“I simply asked if they had a signed judicial warrant,” Jessie Fuentes told The Advocate. “That’s not a crime. That’s a constitutional question."
When Alderperson Jessie Fuentes arrived at Humboldt Park Health on Chicago’s West Side last Friday, she expected to de-escalate a tense situation. Instead, she found herself in handcuffs, detained by armed federal agents she identified as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
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“I simply asked if they had a signed judicial warrant,” Fuentes told The Advocate. “That’s not a crime. That’s a constitutional question. They shoved me twice and then cuffed me.”
The encounter, the tail end of which was captured in widely circulated video footage, shows the 26th Ward alderperson asking two men in plain clothes — one masked — about a patient.
“He has constitutional rights,” Fuentes said.
“No, you need to leave,” the tattooed, unmasked man wearing a baseball cap demands. “Turn around!"
He then said, “I’m going to arrest you if you do not leave,” and immediately forcefully grabbed Fuentes and spun her around with her hands behind her back. She reacted calmly but was clearly stunned. “It is very simple. That man has constitutional rights. I did not touch you. It is a public space. I am not trespassing. I am asking you, do you have a signed judicial warrant?”
As she was being walked to the exit in handcuffs, she added, “I am an elected official, and I am asking if you have a signed judicial warrant." To which the masked agent responded, “What elected official?” Fuentes replied, “I am the alderman for this ward,” before being led away.
Fuentes told The Advocate that she was called to the hospital after the facility’s president and staff reported that ICE agents had entered the emergency department, terrifying patients and employees. According to Fuentes, the agents were attempting to detain a man who had been admitted for medical treatment. The patient, she said, has Temporary Protected Status and no criminal record.
“When I got there, I asked to see a judicial warrant,” she recalled. “They refused to show me anything. They wouldn’t even answer the question. Instead, one of them shoved me and put me in handcuffs.”
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Fuentes said the agents led her outside and appeared to debate whether to arrest her formally. Only when one of the officers realized she was an elected official did the situation shift. “If I weren’t an alderperson, I would’ve been arrested,” she said. “The only reason I wasn’t is because people were recording and speaking up. Most people don’t get that protection.”
For Fuentes, the incident was more than a frightening confrontation — it was, she said, a window into the broader authoritarian turn of Donald Trump’s second presidency. “This isn’t about public safety,” she said. “This is about control. This is sanctioned violence by the Trump administration — violence meant to terrify communities into silence.”
Fuentes said the patient at the center of the incident remains in custody, denied access to counsel, and even barred from speaking Spanish with hospital staff, which she called a “clear violation of civil and human rights.”
“This is what lawlessness looks like when it’s carried out by the state,” she said. “Hospitals should be ICE-free zones. People should not be afraid to seek care.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to The Advocate’s requests for comment. But the episode at Humboldt Park Health mirrors a broader strategy unfolding nationwide.
The Trump administration has begun deploying ICE and Border Patrol agents into heavily Democratic cities while creating high-production propaganda-like video content designed to showcase those raids as patriotic spectacles.
Critics, including Fuentes, say these operations blur the line between law enforcement and propaganda. “They’re making recruitment videos,” she said. “Trump is militarizing federal agencies and turning them into a personal army. This isn’t about safety; it’s about optics and fear.”
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In Chicago, those tactics have created an atmosphere of siege. “Their goal is to frighten people into silence,” Fuentes said. “They don’t want us recording, questioning, or telling our own stories. They arrest protesters and threaten journalists to keep the truth from getting out.”
The alderperson said the heavy-handed federal presence, combined with Trump’s escalating rhetoric, evokes echoes of history. “We’re watching fascism unfold in real time,” she said. “When you have masked agents dragging people out of hospitals, that’s not democracy. That’s dictatorship.”
On Wednesday, Trump intensified that message. In a post on Truth Social, the president demanded that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson be jailed, accusing them of endangering federal agents.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump wrote.
The remarks came after both officials publicly condemned the administration’s use of the National Guard in Chicago and criticized the raids. Johnson has signed an executive order establishing “ICE-free zones” in hospitals and schools, while Pritzker called the detentions “a violation of Illinois’s values and the rule of law.”
The president’s calls for imprisonment, observers note, are part of a broader campaign of retribution. Trump has already revoked security clearances for perceived political enemies, threatened prosecutions against journalists, and used federal agencies to target those he deems disloyal. Former FBI Director James Comey was arraigned on charges of lying to Congress on Wednesday after Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to secure an indictment against his perceived political enemy.
Fuentes said those actions reveal the administration’s true intent. “It’s not about enforcing laws,” she said. “It’s about silencing opposition. When he calls for jailing our mayor and governor, that’s not a policy position — that’s a threat to democracy.”
Days after Fuentes’s detention, President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against Illinois’s leaders. On Wednesday morning, he posted on Truth Social that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker “should be in jail” for “failing to protect ICE officers.”
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” he wrote.
The threat marked one of the most direct assaults yet on Democratic officials who have resisted the president’s immigration campaign. Johnson and Pritzker have both denounced Trump’s use of federal forces and the National Guard in Chicago, arguing that his actions undermine public trust and violate local authority.
Johnson recently signed an executive order establishing “ICE-free zones” in hospitals, schools, and shelters. Pritzker called the recent federal operations “a gross misuse of power.”
For Fuentes, Trump’s jail threats against the city’s top leaders were chilling but unsurprising. “He’s already shown he’s willing to use the state against anyone who disagrees with him,” she said. “When he threatens to jail our mayor and governor, he’s sending a message to every public official in America — obey or be punished.”
On Sunday, the Chicago City Council and Johnson issued a joint statement condemning what happened at Humboldt Park Health. “Showing a warrant before detention is not optional; it’s a cornerstone of constitutional law,” the statement said. “ICE agents continue to ignore this requirement. If we allow this erosion of due process to go unchecked, we risk undermining the foundation of our democracy.”
The statement urged residents to attend ICE-watch trainings and “stand together to demand accountability.” It called the detention of Fuentes “an abuse of power that cannot be normalized.”
For Fuentes, who identifies as queer and Boricua, her detention felt deeply personal. “My identities are intersected,” she said. “I’m both Latina and queer, and both communities are being targeted right now.”
She pointed to the administration’s attacks on transgender people’s access to health care, diversity programs, and immigrant communities as part of a single ideological project. “It’s the same playbook,” she said. “They go after immigrants, trans people, and Black and brown communities all at once because they want to divide us. If we’re fighting separate battles, we can’t organize. That’s what they want.”
Fuentes said she’s heard from LGBTQ+ constituents living in mixed-status households who fear both deportation and the rollback of medical protections. “They feel like they’re being hunted twice,” she said. “You can’t separate these struggles. A threat to one of us is a threat to all of us.”
If the goal was to intimidate, Fuentes said, it failed. “It’s energized me,” she said. “Trump’s goal is to scare us into silence, but silence is surrender.”
She urged Chicagoans to keep documenting raids, supporting immigrant families, and standing in solidarity with LGBTQ+ neighbors. “You don’t have to be a journalist to bear witness,” she said. “Use your phone. Tell the truth. Protect each other.”
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