The nation’s largest police union condemned reports that Chicago officers were told not to assist federal immigration agents who were surrounded by protesters, calling the alleged stand-down “shocking” and a violation of law enforcement’s duty to protect officers in danger.
The National Fraternal Order of Police, joined by the Illinois FOP, urged city leaders to guarantee immediate mutual aid whenever an officer calls for help, regardless of agency.
National FOP President Patrick Yoes said initial accounts indicate Chicago Police Department officers were directed not to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel after a Saturday clash near the city’s Southwest Side. “When an officer calls for assistance, you answer, no matter what,” Yoes said in a statement distributed by the FOP.
The union cited a computer-aided dispatch message, described in reporting by Fox News, that allegedly instructed patrol units not to respond to a call for help from boxed-in agents after a ramming incident.
Chicago police later said officers did respond to maintain public safety and traffic control. The department added that federal authorities are leading the investigation.
What happened on the ground
Federal officials said Border Patrol and ICE personnel were confronted by demonstrators during an operation when an armed woman allegedly rammed vehicles. Agents fired, striking the woman, who later went to a hospital.
Nearly a dozen people were detained at the scene, according to local and federal sources cited in contemporaneous reports.
The incident intensified days of protests against stepped-up immigration enforcement around Chicago and nearby Broadview, where an ICE facility has drawn sustained demonstrations.
As video of the melee spread online, internal dispatch traffic and memos circulated among officers. Those materials, reviewed by multiple outlets, suggested Chicago’s chief of patrol told officers not to respond. Chicago police countered that their units controlled traffic, secured the area and documented the scene while federal agencies handled use-of-force and criminal investigations, consistent with department policy.
The department said it “will always respond to anyone who is being attacked or is under the threat of physical harm,” while supervisors determine the appropriate course of action when federal immigration enforcement is involved.
FOP’s charge: a violation of the first principle
Yoes and Illinois State FOP President Chris Southwood said any directive to ignore an officer-in-distress call breaks the most basic norm of the profession.
“The number one unwritten rule in law enforcement is that we respond to any calls from officers in distress,” Southwood said.
He asked what message it would send if the roles were reversed and federal officers were told to withhold aid from local police under threat.
The FOP leaders also cited Department of Homeland Security data that they say show assaults on immigration officers have risen sharply this year.
They argue that sanctuary-style policies, combined with political hostility to immigration enforcement, are undermining trust and coordination between local departments and federal agents at precisely the moment crowd dynamics around protests can turn volatile within minutes.
