An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a misdemeanor battery charge for throwing an activist to the ground near Chicago last year, amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the area.
A Cook County, Illinois, judge sentenced the agent, Adam Saracco, to 12 months of supervised release on Wednesday and barred him from contacting the activist he confronted, Robert Held.
Adam Saracco, 41, faced misdemeanor battery charges earlier this year following the December incident. At a Brookfield, Illinois, gas station, Mr. Held was recording when Saracco approached. Saracco seized Mr. Held’s phone and shoved him to the ground. Saracco was off duty, having just left a nearby immigration detention center, and Mr. Held reported no injuries.
It remained uncertain whether Mr. Saracco remained employed by ICE. He declined to comment when approached on Wednesday, and the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately available for comment.
Mr. Held, a trust and estate attorney, joined numerous Illinois residents in protesting ICE last fall amid a surge in immigration arrests throughout the Chicago area, a campaign the Trump administration dubbed Operation Midway Blitz.
“I am pleased that there is some accountability,” Mr. Held, 68, said during a Wednesday interview. He added that he remained “deeply troubled and concerned” by the conduct of federal agents.
“This resolution marks an important step toward accountability and demonstrates that Cook County will not overlook unlawful conduct, regardless of the individual involved,” said Eileen O’Neill Burke, Cook County’s state’s attorney, in a statement on Wednesday.
Ms. Burke added that her office would pursue justice for those harmed during the Trump administration’s crackdown in Chicago “when the evidence and the law permit prosecution.” To date, there have been very few local prosecutions of immigration agents.