On September 12th, 2025, Silverio Villegas González was publicly executed by ICE pigs minutes after dropping his children off at daycare. Silverio’s murder came just days after heavily armed federal agents invaded Chicago for Operation Midway Blitz to hunt down immigrants for detention and eventual deportation. Immediately after the shooting, in typical pig fashion, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) got to work peddling a bullshit narrative that Silverio dragged an ICE agent with his vehicle to justify his murder.
However, shortly after, surveillance footage and eyewitness statements confirmed that Silverio was driving away from masked agents when they opened fire and killed him. But despite this blatant lie and Silverio’s public murder, neither of the agents responsible for hunting him down, stealing his life, and separating his children from their father, has been charged and locked up for murder.
Silverio would not be the last victim of ICE terror in Chicagoland. At the end of September, families and children residing in the SouthShore Apartments, including immigrant and Black residents, were forced from their apartments half naked, zip-tied, and held hostage in the middle of the night for hours as federal agents raided the apartment complex. 37 immigrants were detained and eventually deported under the guise of being gang members, but none of the detained were ever charged for gang activity. In October, Marimar Martinez was shot several times by Border Patrol agent Charles Exum as she tried to alert her neighborhood about la migra. When her Brighton Park neighborhood rebelled in anger over the shooting, the local pigs of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) surrounded and protected federal agents – even taking tear gas for their fellow pigs. CPD was also at the scene of several immigration raids in Little Village, ready to arrest protesters and repress righteous rebellion against ICE in allegiance with the agencies mission to oppress, kill, maim and brutalize. Sandra Infante, a single mother of three, was arrested by CPD during one of these protests. She is currently fighting multiple felony and misdemeanor charges for daring to protect her La Villita neighborhood from ICE.
In the year since Silverio was murdered, at least 7 other people were shot and killed by Federal immigration agents. At least 11 more were killed because of encounters with these pigs. Daphy Michel froze to death after ICE dropped her off at a bus shelter in Pittsburgh. Nurul Amin Shah Alam had a host of medical issues including severely impaired vision, and couldn’t speak English, but was released miles from his home without his family being notified and was found dead on the streets of Buffalo days later. Others died trying to flee by falling off roofs, car accidents, getting struck by traffic, or drowning. Daphy and Nurul’s deaths were ruled as homicides but no charges have been filed in either case. At least 53 people have died in detention centers since Silverio’s murder, which is undoubtedly a massive undercount.
Silverio’s family joins a growing list of families in grief and turmoil over their loved ones deaths whether in detention or in city streets at the hands of ICE. For Silverio‘s family, year has passed and they don’t even know the name of his killer. To add insult to injury, this rotten system is punishing them and Silverio’s two children further by holding them hostage in foster care after murdering their father. Silverio’s family is currently working with the MacArthur Justice Center and the National Immigrant Justice Center to bring a wrongful death suit against the federal government, and with the Mexican consulate to get his kids out of foster care, where it’s possible they could face even further horrors at the hand of the state like mistreatment, neglect, and abuse. The FBI has claimed they are investigating Silverio’s murder, but have yet to release any information on their findings. While we hope his family (and all families impacted by ICE terror) get the justice they deserve and that his kids are swiftly freed from foster care, we aren’t content with waiting for the system to right its wrongs or hold its foot soldiers accountable for their crimes against the people. It’s up to us.
Silverio’s murder, the lies of DHS, and the absence of criminal accountability is a norm under a capitalist system that allows law enforcement to murder people across the country. Local police and ICE Gestapo are some of the most protected elements within this capitalist system – given the right to kill and brutalize with no accountability only to swoop in to arrest and push millions of oppressed people into jails and prisons to rot away for crimes they and rulers of this country walk the streets freely for. By demanding their incarceration, we force the system to contend with what it cannot allow: a society where killer cops and ICE Gestapo do not exist, and provide ourselves with a vision of the new society we can build when we stand up and fight.
In the midst of killings and repression, we’ve witnessed the bravery of the masses willing to stand up to this system – some, like Alex Pretti and Renee Good, paid the ultimate price, and countless others like Sandra and Marimar are fighting bogus charges or have been scarred for life for standing up for what’s right. Still, if we want to become a threat to the system and the pigs who serve it we have to raise the stakes.
On October 22nd, we are calling on all people of conscience personally affected or moved to action against police brutality in all its forms, whether from local police or the feds, to take up the call of Families Demanding Justice (FDJ) to put on a protest and confront the pigs at their doorsteps. To get justice for Silverio and others victims of police terror, we must build a militant national movement to put an end to this capitalist and imperialist state that is directly responsible for their deaths. That is the purpose of 022. By joining the fight, you commit to fighting for a revolutionary future where police brutality does not exist. The choice is yours.
sources and further reading:
A Year After ICE Killed A Father Outside Chicago, FBI Won’t Release Any Info About Investigation – Block Club Chicago
A Running Count of How Many People ICE Has Killed and Injured – The American Prospect
Whistles won’t stop this: The immigrant proletariat and state repression from Chinese exclusion to the Bovino boys’ terror – Going Against the Tide
burn chicago 