US immigration enforcement officers were forced to deploy their firearms after being "rammed and boxed in by 10 cars".
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers were conducting routine operations in Broadview, Illinois, when multiple vehicles launched a coordinated assault on their patrol car.
One of the drivers who lay siege to the federal agents is understood to have been armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
With no alternative, the agents were forced to "deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots".
According to Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the officers' car was struck and subsequently surrounded, leaving them trapped and unable to manoeuvre.
She wrote on X: "This morning, during routine patrolling in Broadview, in the same area of Chicago that law enforcement were assaulted yesterday, our brave law enforcement officers were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.
"Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car.
"One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
The Ice agents were forced to deploy their weapons after being boxed in by 10 cars
|REUTERS
"Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed US citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds.
"The armed woman was named in a Customs and Border Protection intelligence bulletin last week for doxing agents and posting online ‘Hey to all my gang, let’s f**k those motherf*****s up, don’t let them take anyone.’
"Thankfully, no law enforcement officers were seriously injured in this attack.
"Pritzker’s Chicago Police Department is leaving the shooting scene and refuses to assist us in securing the area.
"There is a growing crowd and we are deploying special operations to control the scene.
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A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said 'one armed was armed with a semi-automatic weapon'
|REUTERS
"This is an evolving situation and we will give more information as soon as it becomes available."
The Chicago Fire Department later reported that the wounded woman was in stable condition at a local medical facility.
The incident unfolded on Saturday morning in a Chicago suburb located approximately 13 miles from the city centre against a backdrop of heightened anti-Ice sentiment in the region.
Police arrested several people on Friday as hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside an ICE facility in suburban Chicago.
Tensions have been high in recent weeks after President Donald Trump ramped up his efforts to deport immigrants living in the US illegally, arresting many without criminal records.
This week, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said the Trump administration had requested the Pentagon to send troops to the Democratic-run state.
Outside the detention facility in Broadview, behind barriers erected by Ice, protesters initially stood peacefully on Friday, singing Christian hymns and Jewish morning songs.
Then Gregory Bovino, the US Customs and Border Protection commander who is leading the federal enforcement effort in Chicago, arrived with agents in gas masks and armoured vehicles.
Protesters began jeering and scuffling with police, some shouting obscenities.
"It's outrageous. I'm just out here silently protesting and they're pushing us off the street and sidewalk and they're using violence against us," said Kevin Ryan, a US Marine Corps veteran and Democratic US Senate candidate.
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