US Secret Service approached South Side school, not ICE agents, CPS officials say
abc7chicago.com
The U.S. Secret Service told the I-Team they approached a South Side school Friday. Chicago Public Schools officials had initially said the agents were from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“CPS will continue to protect our students and their families in alignment with the Illinois TRUST Act and Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance,” one school official said.

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates called the situation “unprecedented” at a news conference Friday afternoon.

    • BlueLineBae@midwest.socialEnglish
      44·
      5 days ago

      CPS has a very hard headed teachers union that people often complain about. But in times like this, it’s exactly what’s needed. I can’t imagine the for profit “Disney II” charter school up the street to have the same approach 🙄

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    31·
    5 days ago

    It was the secret service, not ICE:

    The U.S. Secret Service told the I-Team they approached a South Side school Friday. Chicago Public Schools officials had initially said the agents were from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    But nonetheless, the school took the correct and appropriate action.

  • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    50·
    5 days ago

    The headline has been updated:

    US Secret Service approached South Side school, not ICE agents: officials

    The U.S. Secret Service told the I-Team they approached a South Side school Friday. Chicago Public Schools officials had initially said the agent or agents were from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Secret Service said they were investigating a threat, and responded to a house. They said they were then told the person they wanted to talk to was at Hamline Elementary School, but they did not enter the school, the Secret Service told the I-Team.

    The threat the Secret Service was investigating was not immediately clear.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
      42·
      5 days ago

      What kind of threat would the Secret Service be investigating at a random house in Chicago? Like, maybe if someone sent out a death threat to an elected official, but even then isn’t that the FBI or local cops jobs?

      Also, a public school turning away the secret service when they say they’re investigating a threat just seems incredibly unlikely.

      Also also, how in the world would the school have mistaken secret service agents for ICE agents? Did these agents not identify themselves?

      I think the answer to all of these questions is going to be “the Secret Service is lying their ass off because everyone in the executive branch knows Trump will throw a giant hissy for if he hears that his big mean ICE agents got scared of by a bunch of public school teachers,” but I guess we’ll see what happens.

        • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
          8·
          5 days ago

          Fair enough, looking at some news stories about past death threat incidents it does seem like there’s been a number of times where they do arrests and interrogations themselves

      • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        5 days ago

        What kind of threat would the Secret Service be investigating at a random house in Chicago?

        Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the Obamas from Chicago? Is it possible that they were investigating a threat against the Obamas or a site that a suspect believes is linked to the Obamas?

        Trump’s MAGA crew are right now running a victory lap, so it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that at least one nutjob has declared open season on Obama or something. And after the two attempted Trump assassinations, I don’t think they’re going to want to look like they dropped the ball a third time.

        • MimicJar@lemmy.world
          4·
          5 days ago

          That was my first thought too.

          Although it’s also possible some edgy teen made a comment online from a Chicago School computer. And by comment I mean threat worth investigating.

      • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        7·
        5 days ago

        All questions I have zero answers to, but am also curious about.

        I would guess the agents said “We are federal agents”, and since there has been all this talk of ICE and Chicago, made an assumption.

        The secret service might be investigating a threat to a family member of someone they are protecting.

        There are plenty of plausible answers, but we definitely don’t know the full story yet.

        • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
          5·
          5 days ago

          Yeah, most of this seems plausible, except

          I would guess the agents said “We are federal agents”

          That doesn’t sound right to me at all, cops don’t say “Hi I’m with the government” they’re always “This is FBI Agent Smith” or “I’m with Immigration and Customs Enforcement” or “I’m calling to speak to you about an official IRS investigation.” I don’t understand how “federal agents” is even in their lexicon.

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
            2·
            5 days ago

            “I’m calling to speak to you about an official IRS investigation.”

            I’ve gotten three of those calls, and the callers sounded like they were from Chennai or Bangalara. I quickly ascertained that they had no idea who they were talking to, and didn’t know what a Taxpayer Identification Number was, let alone what mine was.

          • Verqix@lemmy.world
            4·
            5 days ago

            But if you identify yourself as secret service it might lead to a lot more questions. Federal agents is a shout I know from many a cop show. Notably NCIS, which is famous to get “NCI what?” as a response if they acronym themselves.

            • em2@lemmy.ml
              3·
              5 days ago

              I don’t think it matters if it causes confusion. I believe LE are supposed to identify themselves accurately.

  • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
    12·
    5 days ago

    States and localities will make the good chunk of the resistance. Make sure to pay attention to every single local election

    Multiple states have statewide and local elections this year

  • Veedem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    5 days ago

    This was not an incident involving ICE if anyone here would bother to read beyond the headline

    CHICAGO (WLS) – The U.S. Secret Service told the I-Team they approached a South Side school Friday. Chicago Public Schools officials had initially said the agent or agents were from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Secret Service said they were investigating a threat, and responded to a house. They said they were then told the person they wanted to talk to was at Hamline Elementary School, but they did not enter the school, the Secret Service told the I-Team.

    The threat the Secret Service was investigating was not immediately clear.

    CPS officials had claimed an ICE agent or agents were denied entry to the South Side elementary school Friday morning.

    ICE said this was not a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement encounter.