DHS says officers encountered man who “resembled the target”

Two federal immigration agents in Evanston, Illinois, stopped a U.S. citizen at about 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 20, 2026, and left him hospitalized with injuries to his head, neck and teeth, according to bystander accounts and a statement from the Evanston Police Department. The man, who is Black, had been walking to a pharmacy to pick up a prescription when agents stopped him, according to a witness.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement that ICE officers had “encountered an individual who resembled the target” of an enforcement operation. “The individual was given lawful commands but was not cooperative and refused to identify himself,” the statement said. DHS added that the agents “left the scene without further incident” after the man said who he was, and that “when ICE officers offered the individual assistance, he refused.”

Bystander Ryan Garton, 56, told the Associated Press he was driving home on Sunday when he saw two federal agents pinning down the man on the side of the road. Garton said he pulled over and began recording video of the encounter.

“His upper right eye socket and temple were swollen as if he had been punched,” Garton said. The man’s face was scraped “as if it had been ground into the sidewalk,” Garton added.

Garton said one agent had his knee on the man’s back and was “beating up on him” even as the man shouted: “I’m a citizen, leave me alone.” About five bystanders stood nearby, Garton said, yelling at the agents to stop.

Garton said he urged an officer to get off the man so he could inspect the injuries. He said the officer acknowledged he was already aware the man was a U.S. citizen. When the agent stepped away, Garton said, he saw bloodstains in the shape of handprints on the man’s shirt.

A second eyewitness, Michael Lipson, who owns a store across the street, told the AP he saw federal officers wrestle the man to the ground as the alleged victim repeatedly yelled that he was a citizen. The man’s face looked “badly messed up,” Lipson said.

Lipson said the officers checked cards and papers from the man’s wallet before leaving them scattered on the road. He said he laid out his sweatshirt for the man to rest on while Garton inspected his injuries.

Evanston police said in a statement that the alleged victim told officers he received head, face and neck injuries during the beating. The police statement said the agents told officers they left because a crowd had gathered and they feared protesters might attack them. One of the agents had a bloodied hand that he told Evanston police he sustained while the suspect resisted an effort to handcuff him.

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, a Democrat, said in a post on X that the man was treated at St Francis hospital for minor injuries, and that the city’s police department “continues to investigate the situation, and we will remain vigilant about federal activities.”

In a separate post on Wednesday, Biss condemned what he called the Trump administration’s immigration “crackdown,” which he said has escalated through the president’s second term with enforcement “surges” into Democratic-run cities and states in particular, and resulted in a record 50,000 arrests in July alone. “This violence must end,” Biss wrote. “We need to take Evanston’s energy and fight to Washington to abolish ICE, hold the Trump administration accountable, and end the funding of these brutal invasions into our cities.”

The Evanston confrontation was one of three separate violent events on September 20 involving federal immigration officers. In Austin, Texas, an ICE agent shot and seriously wounded a 28-year-old Venezuelan man during a traffic stop as he worked as a DoorDash delivery driver, according to The Guardian. In Michigan, authorities are investigating the death of a 36-year-old Guatemalan national who crashed his car into a tree at high speed after reportedly attempting to flee immigration officers trying to detain him.