HAMMOND — Armed agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department were "staging an operation" early Thursday in the parking lot of the city's police department, which triggered quick backlash from Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr.
"Let me be clear: Hammond does not have any agreements or partnerships with ICE that authorize them to use our city’s facilities or property for their operations," McDermott said in a prepared statement.
"It is deeply concerning that federal agents would enter and use Hammond’s property without permission — especially when the Federal Courthouse is located just one block west of our police headquarters," he said.
City officials informed the ICE agents they were not authorized to stage operations on city property, according to the mayor. The agents reportedly complied and relocated their operation elsewhere in the city, he said.
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At the same time, this isn’t the first ICE visit to Hammond. McDermott said earlier this month on his “Left of Center” podcast that ICE has been spotted in the city in recent weeks taking into custody specific individuals suspected of lacking legal status to remain in the United States.
For example, the Democratic mayor said a concerned citizen recently contacted Hammond Police after noticing a vehicle with Illinois license plates and several people sitting inside that was parked on the street near a home in their neighborhood for more than two hours.
When police pulled up to the vehicle, McDermott said Hammond officers discovered it was filled with ICE agents waiting to detain someone.
“You would never guess it’s an ICE car. It doesn’t look like an ICE car; it’s not marked like that. And it’s got a bunch of agents in there with their faces covered like the Taliban,” McDermott said. “If you have to cover your face, you know what you’re doing is wrong.”
Indeed, McDermott said on his podcast he believes the entire federal approach to immigration enforcement under Republican President Donald Trump is akin to something you’d see in China, or another authoritarian nation, rather than the American way.
McDermott specifically cited ICE’s efforts to intimidate the population by walking down Chicago streets armed to the teeth, indifferently pushing down protesters and anyone else who gets in their way, and even using pepper spray on uniformed Chicago police officers.
“If you support this, you’re a (expletive) animal. I mean, honestly, you can’t support that. If my Hammond cops did that, I’d be run out of office, along with the department. There’s no way we could operate like this,” McDermott said.
“I am done with ICE. ICE is a freaking paramilitary organization for Donald Trump, OK? They are not cops. Those guys are not police officers. They’re like little soldiers for Donald Trump, and they’re invading Chicago. And I’ll tell you, I am done with them.”
To that end, McDermott urged his podcast listeners to vote out any elected official who supports what ICE is doing, and to hold individual ICE employees responsible for their behavior.
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll never hire an ICE agent, or a former ICE agent, in the city of Hammond. Whatever job I’m in, if they have ICE listed on their form, I’m going to find a reason not to hire that person. Because I consider them the modern-day equivalent of what was going on in Germany leading up to World War II. This is Trump’s little secret army,” McDermott said.
