Tow Truck Driver Leaves Without Towing ICE's Crashed SUV in McKinley Park

A tow truck sent to haul away a wrecked Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle in McKinley Park left without doing the job Monday afternoon, driving off as a crowd of neighbors and rapid responders booed and jeered the crew.

The standoff followed a crash around 11:50 a.m. at the ramp connecting South Damen Avenue to the Stevenson Expressway (Interstate 55), according to Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th). Immigration agents driving a black SUV rammed into a blue pickup truck, then detained the man behind the wheel. Witnesses said he was wearing construction work clothes at the time.

Rapid responders with the Southwest Side Rapid Response Team said they believe agents had followed the man from a Home Depot at 4555 S. Western Blvd. in Back of the Yards, which the group said has drawn repeated immigration enforcement activity in recent weeks. The group reported that at least one other person was detained at the same Home Depot earlier Monday morning.

By about 1:15 p.m., agents had towed their damaged SUV to West 33rd Street and South Wolcott Avenue, where neighbors and rapid responders had already gathered. One rapid responder reminded agents standing nearby that it was the first day of school for Chicago Public Schools students. Others fanned out into surrounding blocks blowing whistles and shouting "La migra esta aqui" to warn residents that agents were in the area.

The confrontation grew tense in spots. One rapid responder challenged an agent who described himself as hardworking, and a neighbor shouted back, asking whether he was proud of separating families and children. When a tow truck finally arrived to remove the agents' crashed SUV, the crowd's jeers followed the driver, who left the scene without hooking up the vehicle. As the truck pulled away, the group chanted "Who keeps us safe, we keep us safe."

The agents' SUV remained parked on the block for hours afterward. Around 2:20 p.m., roughly ten immigration agents were still stationed around the vehicle as rapid responders and local officials held their ground nearby.

Ramirez said her office received reports that agents detained at least two additional people in West Lawn on Monday, part of what rapid response volunteers describe as an intensifying pattern of arrests tied to job sites and hardware stores on the Southwest Side. The identity of the man detained after the Damen Avenue crash had not been released as of Monday afternoon.

Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond Monday to requests for comment on the crash, the arrests, or the tow truck driver's decision to leave without servicing the agency's vehicle.

McKinley Park and the surrounding Southwest Side neighborhoods, including Back of the Yards and West Lawn, have organized rapid response networks over the past year to track and respond to ICE activity in real time, often relying on phone trees and social media alerts to mobilize volunteers within minutes of a reported sighting. Monday's standoff stretched over several hours on residential streets before the crowd eventually dispersed.

No timeline has been given for when or if the agents' SUV was eventually removed from South Wolcott Avenue. Ramirez's office said it continues to collect reports from residents about enforcement activity in the ward, and rapid response volunteers said they expect to keep monitoring the Home Depot on Western Boulevard given the repeated arrests there this month.