An Indian-origin worker working within the Illinois division of transportation was stopped and questioned about his immigration standing whereas engaged on a Park Ridge building mission on Friday, in keeping with the Chicago Solar Occasions. The worker was additionally requested about incoming New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in keeping with Governor JB Pritzker’s workplace, which mentioned the incident raised considerations over racial profiling.The worker was a US citizen engaged on the Busse Freeway resurfacing mission when three masked brokers reportedly approached him. They questioned him about his immigration standing, whether or not he had travelled to New York, and if he was conscious of Mamdani’s mayoral election, earlier than leaving the location.Governor Pritzker condemned the federal motion, calling it an instance of authorities questioning US residents “apparently based mostly on the color of their pores and skin.”“I’m appalled they’d cease and query a state worker working exhausting on the job to assist enhance our state’s roads and infrastructure,” Pritzker mentioned in an announcement. “Our state staff ought to be capable to go to work and do their jobs with out masked brokers concentrating on them for no respectable cause.”The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) later denied that the brokers have been from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or US Customs and Border Safety. The incident nervous residents in Park Ridge. College students and academics within the native faculty district have been instructed to stay inside after stories of federal brokers within the space, WGN reported. Park Ridge-Niles College District 64 Superintendent Ben Collins confirmed he was conscious of stories relating to federal immigration brokers close to a few of the district’s colleges.The episode comes after months of heightened federal immigration exercise underneath the Trump administration’s MAGA crackdown. It has raised considerations amongst civil rights teams about potential concentrating on based mostly on race and nationality.The GOP authorities sought to deploy the Nationwide Guard in Chicago amid a wider immigration enforcement surge dubbed “Operation Halfway Blitz”. Illinois officers challenged the transfer as unconstitutional, and a federal appeals court docket blocked the deployment final month.
