A Year After ICE Killed A Father Outside Chicago, FBI Won’t Release Any Info About Investigation

FRANKLIN PARK — Adriana Balvaneda can still picture the day Silverio Villegas González was killed.

She remembers gathering at the edge of the police tape that blocked off the street and talking to her neighbors as prayer candles and flowers started piling up. Balvaneda and her group, Hijas del Pueblo, have been maintaining a vigil at the site ever since.

“Justice might not come today or a year from now, but we know it will come. Our job in the meantime is to make sure they can’t change or forget what happened here,” said Balvaneda, who co-founded Hijas del Pueblo as a mutual aid group in 2024.

Villegas González, a 38-year-old father of two, was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent in suburban Franklin Park on Sept. 12, 2025.

A year later, the public still has few answers about what actually happened the day he was killed — and if the agents involved will ever be held accountable. Now, Villegas González’s family and the Mexican government are taking matters into their own hands.

‘Unnecessary And Unjustified’

Villegas González, who immigrated from Michoacán, Mexico, in the early 2000s, was killed during a traffic stop, just days after President Donald Trump’s administration launched Operation Midway Blitz.

By 1:30 p.m. the day of the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security had claimed Villegas González “drove his car at law enforcement officers” and dragged an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent “a significant distance.” But body-camera footage recorded by Franklin Park police showed the ICE agent describing his injuries as “nothing major” shortly after the shooting.

Security footage obtained by the New York Times from a nearby nail salon showed that Villegas González was pulled over by a silver Jeep while driving down Grand Avenue in Franklin Park the morning of Sept. 12, 2025. Two ICE agents got out of the Jeep and went to both sides of Villegas González’s car. After a few moments, Villegas González began to reverse and then pulled forward. The ICE agent on the driver’s side of Villegas González’s car is not visible in the video. 

The Times reported that security footage from a different business recorded what sounded like two gunshots about six seconds after Villegas González began to move his car forward. He crashed into a parked box truck shortly after he pulled forward, according to an interview with the truck driver captured by a Franklin Park police officer’s body camera.

Local leaders said the shooting was being investigated by the FBI, however, federal law enforcement officials have refused to release any information related to the incident.

Villegas González’s family members in Illinois are working with the MacArthur Justice Center and the National Immigrant Justice Center, two Chicago-based advocacy groups, to bring a wrongful death claim against the federal government.

Jonathan Manes, senior counsel with the MacArthur Justice Center, said his team started investigating Villegas González’s death last year, interviewing witnesses and tracking down evidence. Manes said he plans on filing an administrative complaint with the federal government this fall.

He said it’s “shocking” that after a year, the federal government has refused to release any information about its investigation, including the name of the ICE agent who shot Villegas González.

“The day Silverio was killed, the Department of Homeland Security was declaring it a justified shooting before there was any investigation,” Manes said. “We don’t have very much faith that the federal government is taking its investigation seriously.”

Manes said the goal of the wrongful death claim is to hold ICE accountable and to clear Villegas González’s name.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed Villegas González was targeted because he had “a history of reckless driving.” Cook County court documents show that, between 2010-2013, Villegas González had three convictions for driving with an expired license, one for driving an uninsured vehicle and one for speeding 31-39 miles above the speed limit.

Manes criticized the Department of Homeland Security for citing “ancient traffic tickets as if that justifies being killed.”

He said the federal government has “done everything it can to smear this man in an attempt to justify his killing after the fact.

“Silverio’s death cannot be forgotten. He was shot dead at the hands of the federal government and based on all the evidence, his death was unnecessary and unjustified,” Manes said.

Still No Answers

In May, Illinois State Police announced they had opened an investigation into the shooting at the request of the Franklin Park Police Department. State police announced the investigation less than a week after the Illinois Accountability Commission, a state panel formed by Gov. JB Pritzker, called on local law enforcement agencies to investigate shootings and other acts of violence that occurred at the hands of federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz.

The commission compiled a report on agents in Illinois and found that they engaged in “extreme physical force,” “routinely lied to the public” and “created an environment of occupation that terrorized immigrants and attempted to silence individuals engaged in First Amendment protected activity.” The report and the evidence collected was referred to multiple local agencies, including the Franklin Park Police Department and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Trooper Jayme Bufford, a state police spokesperson, declined to share any updates on the Villegas González case and said the investigation is ongoing.

Bufford said that once the investigation is complete, it will be turned over to the state’s attorney’s office.

In an email to Block Club, Cook County State’s Attorney Office spokesperson Elyssa Cherney said the office “remains committed to supporting the Illinois State Police investigation” and “will not hesitate to bring criminal charges against any law enforcement officer, including federal agents, when the evidence and the law support it.”

Advocates and elected officials have been demanding Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke take action for months. Last March, a coalition of more than 400 elected officials, faith leaders, community organizations and other residents submitted a petition asking that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate alleged crimes committed by federal immigration agents. The petition stated O’Neill Burke had turned “a blind eye” to the “egregious acts of violence” carried out by federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz.

A judge, however, ultimately denied the petition.

‘He Carries The Legacy Of Immigrants’

Hijas del Pueblo member Ingrid Alvarenga said Villegas González’s death did not get the same attention as some of the other high-profile shootings committed by immigration agents.

She said Villegas González’s memorial, which has grown to include a community garden, will help keep his memory alive.

In August, Hijas del Pueblo was able to get a permanent memorial approved at the site.

Balvaneda said a bench and a plaque will be installed next to the vigil later this month.

“It’s a space that makes it known that we will not tolerate federal violence in our town,” Balvaneda said.

In July, the federal government gave Minnesota prosecutors evidence related to the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January. The evidence was turned over after prosecutors in the state filed a lawsuit against the federal government. Last week, federal prosecutors charged an ICE agent with lying about the events leading up to the shooting of an immigrant this year in Minneapolis.

Just days after Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by ICE in Houston at the start of July, the Mexican government announced it would be taking legal action to seek accountability for the 17 Mexican nationals who have died during U.S. immigration enforcement operations — 14 of whom have died in detention centers.

“We are going to do everything within our power. What we cannot do is be negligent regarding the Mexicans who have died in ICE operations,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said during a July 9 news conference.

The Mexican government has filed complaints with 20 state and county prosecutors offices where Mexican nationals have been killed. According to documents obtained through public records requests, Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States, Roberto Lazzeri Montaño, reached out to both the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on July 13.

Lazzeri Montaño asked both offices to investigate Villegas González’s death.

Records showed O’Neill Burke’s office responded by saying they are not authorized to lead investigations, but would play a supportive role in the state police investigation.

Cherney said the prosecutor’s office has invited the Mexican Consulate in Chicago to meet.

The Illinois Attorney General’s office responded to Lazzeri Montaño by asking to arrange a meeting, however a spokesperson for the office declined to comment on if the meeting had occurred.

Reyna Torres Mendivil, consul general of Mexico in Chicago, said her office has been in close contact with local officials.

“The anniversary of Silverio’s death is getting close, so we would like to have some more information for the family,” she said. “We’re working with all the different authorities to make sure that we can advance the investigation and get some clarity.”

Torres Mendivil said the Mexican Consulate is also working to reunite Villegas González’s family with his two sons, who were 3 and 7 when he was killed and are currently in foster care.

Having a permanent memorial in Franklin Park will show Villegas González’s sons that their father has not been forgotten, Alvarenga said.

Hijas del Pueblo is holding a gathering at the memorial site Saturday, marking the one year anniversary of Villegas González’s death. The event will start with a 9 a.m. prayer followed by a neighborhood barbecue in the afternoon. The memorial sits near Grand Avenue and Emerson Street. You can learn more about the event by following Hijas del Pueblo on Instagram.

Over the past year, the memorial has become a gathering place for the Franklin Park community. Balvaneda said Villegas González’s loved ones have stopped by the site to share memories, neighbors have come to report ICE sightings and residents from throughout the western suburbs have shown up just to have a safe place to grieve.

She said Villegas González “carries the legacy of immigrants and what immigrants go through here.”

“We were able to transform something so painful into something beautiful that will help our community,” Alvarenga said.

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