A video going viral on social media today captured about 10 Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents allegedly pursuing a food delivery worker in downtown Chicago. The action caught on camera was first shared as an ‘Exclusive’ by GrayStak Media co-founder and CEO Christopher Sweat. As per the visuals now taking over social media platform X, the man being chased appears to have successfully evaded all ICE agents, decked in full tactical gear, chasing after him.

As per Sweat’s account of the situation having momentarily spiralled out of control, the alleged food delivery worker made some “verbal comments but no physical or threatening contact” with the law enforcement authorities.

The supposed media person keen on reporting “real-time media from the frontlines of protest & power,” according to the yet-to-launch GrayStak Media’s X account, event sent out out a message to Kristi Noem and her colleagues with the message. “I feel I may have posterised ICE today by capturing this exclusive moment,” he wrote in a follow-up comment, acknowledging that the US Homeland Security Secretary and other officials would see the video on Monday morning (US time).

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Federal agents take over downtown Chicago

Sweat posted the alleged interaction’s clip shortly after reporting that the ICE was operation in downtown Chicago on Sunday. “Three arrests were made on a path from Millennium park all the way into the River North neighborhood. Demonstrators arrived about two hours in,” he wrote in another post, posting visuals of the demonstration and ICE subsequently moving on the scene.

Although more official confirmations on an detentions or arrests are still awaited, ABC7Chicago’s report suggested “multiple people,” including a family with more than one child, had been detained on Sunday afternoon. Elsewhere, a top US Border Patrol official told WBEZ the agency was nabbing people based on “how they look.”

The official said, “You know, there’s many different factors that go into something like that. It would be agent experience, intelligence that indicates there’s illegal aliens in a particular place or location. Then, obviously, the particular characteristics of an individual, how they look. How do they look compared to, say, you?”

Political figures react to ICE agents in Chicago

As swarms of armed federal agents were reportedly spotted patrolling on foot downtown, Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson couldn’t hold out on being silent.

“The Trump Administration’s DHS officers appear to be carrying large weapons around downtown Chicago in camouflage and masks,” the mayor said in a statement. “This is not making anybody safer — it’s a show of intimidation, instilling fear in our communities and hurting our businesses. We cannot normalize militarizing American cities and suburbs. Make sure you know your rights and stay alert.”

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Similarly, Johnson issued a statement, saying, “I am closely monitoring the confirmed reports of federal agents on Michigan Avenue. While Chicagoans and visitors are enjoying another gorgeous Sunday, they are being intimidated and threatened by masked federal agents flaunting automatic weapons for no apparent reason. This is another brazen provocation from the Trump administration that does nothing to make our city safer.”

Democratic Rep Jesus “Chuy” Garcia also responded: “They showed up downtown to indiscriminately continue to profile against people just because of what they look like.”

On the contrary, the Department of Homeland Security firmly stood by its agenda and reiterated its stance on social media, saying, “DHS under @Sec_Noem, will NOT back down. We will not rest until every violent terrorist, thug is arrested… @POTUS Trump and @Sec_Noem will return LAW AND ORDER to our streets.”

Chicago continues to be the centre of such developments tied to Border Patrol agents’ abundant presence long after President Donald Trump threatened to send the National Guard into the city. The recent Chicago updates poured in merely days after a sniper (deceased Joshua Jahn named as suspect) opened fire at an ICE field office from a nearby rooftop in Dallas. The incident led to the deaths of one migrant detainee, while two others were left in critical condition.