Cook County SA Rejects ICE Abuse Special Prosecutor Petition

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office pushed back hard Tuesday against a petition demanding the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes committed by federal immigration agents, calling the effort “baseless” and “illogical” in court filings.

State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s office filed the response during a hearing before Cook County Judge Erica Reddick, describing the petition as “a heavy-handed attempt” to “usurp the authority of the elected prosecutor.” The filing marks the office’s most forceful public response yet to growing community pressure over incidents involving ICE agents in the Chicago area.

The petition was filed earlier this month by Chicago law firm Loevy and Loevy and signed by a coalition of nearly 250 elected officials, faith leaders, community organizations and residents. It centers on several specific incidents, including the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas González in Franklin Park last September, the non-fatal shooting of Marimar Martinez in Brighton Park last October, and multiple incidents in which federal agents deployed tear gas and pepper balls at protesters.

Loevy and Loevy attorney Locke Bowman spoke to reporters after Tuesday’s hearing and did not soften his position. “A murder was committed, there was an attempted murder, months and months have gone by, massive additional crimes have been committed and as far as we can tell, no prosecutorial action has been taken,” Bowman said. He added that the petition is not “asking anyone to violate the law. We are here asking the elected State’s Attorney to do her job.”

O’Neill Burke has consistently said her office cannot conduct independent investigations into criminal conduct and that all investigations must first be brought to her office by a law enforcement agency. In Tuesday’s filing, her office leaned on a 2017 Illinois Supreme Court decision establishing that a local state’s attorney’s investigative authority is “limited to circumstances where other law enforcement agencies inadequately deal with such investigation or where a law enforcement agency asks the State’s Attorney for assistance.”

Her office argued that the petitioners are essentially seeking a special prosecutor because they disagree with her prosecutorial decisions, and would prefer she act on “public sentiment, political pressure, the urging of elected officials, and information gleaned from newspaper articles and civil pleadings rather than a criminal investigation conducted by law enforcement officers with access to evidence that has been properly collected and documented.”

The office also raised a practical concern about overreach. “Acting outside the bounds of the law comes with a price, and that price here would be compromising the prosecution’s ability to obtain justice for victims and the community,” the filing stated.

The legal standoff puts O’Neill Burke in a complicated position. She has positioned herself as a defender of immigrant communities and a check against federal overreach since the start of the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement push. At the same time, her office is arguing that the very legal framework governing her role prevents her from acting unilaterally, even as community members and elected officials demand accountability for deaths and injuries they attribute to federal agents.

For Little Village, Brighton Park and other Southwest Side communities hit hardest by enforcement operations, the courtroom arguments feel distant from the lived reality. Families have buried loved ones. Residents have watched neighbors detained in street-level operations. Advocates say the lack of any visible prosecutorial response sends a troubling message about whether local government can or will protect them.

The petition’s broad coalition reflects that frustration. Nearly 250 signatories is not a fringe demand. It represents churches, block clubs, elected alderpersons and community organizations that have spent months watching and waiting.

Judge Reddick did not issue a ruling Tuesday. The case will continue, and the question of whether a special prosecutor can or should be appointed remains before the court.

O’Neill Burke’s office has drawn a clear legal line. The coalition behind the petition has drawn an equally clear moral one. How Judge Reddick navigates that gap could shape how Cook County responds to federal enforcement actions for years to come.