One-Year-Old Girl Hospitalized After ICE Agents Pepper-Spray Family Car in Chicago Suburb Chaos
Heartbreaking footage captures a masked ICE agent unleashing pepper spray through an open car window, leaving a one-year-old girl gasping for air and her family in agony. This shocking incident amid a botched immigration raid has ignited national fury over federal overreach.
In the latest flare-up of ICE pepper spray controversy, a one-year-old U.S. citizen girl named Ariana Veraza was hospitalized after federal agents allegedly doused her family’s vehicle with chemical irritant during a routine grocery run in Cicero, Illinois. The Cicero ICE pepper spray incident unfolded on November 9, 2025, as part of the Trump administration’s aggressive “Operation Midway Blitz” targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal records in Chicago’s Little Village area. Border Patrol clashes in Chicago suburbs escalated quickly, with reports of shots fired at agents and bricks hurled at vehicles, setting a volatile stage for the family’s ordeal.
Rafael Veraza, Ariana’s father and a Berwyn resident, described the terror at a packed Sunday press conference outside the Sam’s Club where it all went down. He and his wife had pulled into the lot for diapers and basics when helicopters thrummed overhead and whistles pierced the air—clear signs of an ICE sweep. Spotting clashes nearby, Veraza wisely decided to bail. As they inched toward the exit with windows down, a black pickup truck—driven by a masked Border Patrol agent—pulled alongside. Without warning, the agent allegedly fired pepper spray directly into the driver’s side, hitting Veraza in the ear, Ariana in her car seat, and even their 16-year-old daughter in the back.
Video shot by Veraza’s wife shows the pickup swerving close before the spray erupts in a misty burst. Seconds later, the family pulls over, chaos unfolding: Veraza squints in agony, his face burning; Ariana wails uncontrollably in her mother’s arms, tiny fists rubbing swollen eyes; the teen coughs violently. “My daughter was trying to open her eyes. She was struggling to breathe,” Veraza choked out, voice cracking. He flushed their faces with water on the roadside, unaware of the spray’s full sting on a toddler. Ariana was rushed to a local clinic, treated for severe eye irritation and respiratory distress—her little body not built for such toxins. Veraza, who battles asthma, spiked to a heart rate of 263 beats per minute en route to the ER, where poison control was looped in for his girl.
Local pastor Matt DeMateo, who rushed to help, captured the raw aftermath on his phone: Ariana sobbing, her cries echoing the broader outcry. “All four were struggling to breathe, their faces burning from pepper spray,” he recounted. “They weren’t protesting, not chasing ICE vehicles—just shopping. They didn’t even make it inside.” DeMateo drove them to medical care, slamming the agents’ recklessness in a neighborhood already on edge from weeks of raids.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fired back swiftly, denying the family’s account in a pointed social media post from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “No. There was no crowd control or pepper spray deployed in a Sam’s Club parking lot,” she insisted, pivoting to violence against agents: shots fired, bricks thrown, vehicles rammed during Little Village ops. A DHS release detailed a “hostile crowd” stalking agents into the lot, with one federal vehicle damaged—no mention of why a family fleeing the scene became collateral. Critics pounced, noting the feds’ use-of-force policy explicitly warns against spraying kids, pregnant folks, or moving vehicles. This came hot on a federal judge’s preliminary injunction curbing riot gear like tear gas unless absolutely necessary—warnings required, no shoving protesters or press.
Public reaction exploded online, with #ICEPepperSpray trending and over 200,000 X posts in 48 hours. Immigrant rights groups like the Chicago Community Bond Fund decried it as “state terror on innocents,” sharing the video that racked up 5 million views. One viral thread from activist @ChiRightsNow fumed: “A BABY? In a CAR? This is Trump 2.0’s deportation machine gone feral—families aren’t threats!” Conservatives countered, echoing DHS: “Agents under siege, doing their jobs amid anarchy—media spins victims from agitators.” Legal experts, including ACLU’s Lee Gelernt, called it a “textbook civil rights violation,” predicting lawsuits under the First and Fourth Amendments. “Pepper-spraying a toddler? That’s not enforcement; that’s endangerment,” he told CNN.
For everyday Americans, especially in immigrant-heavy enclaves like Cicero—home to 85,000 with deep Mexican roots—this slices deep into daily life and pocketbooks. Families now second-guess errands, pulling kids from school amid raid fears; Chicago Public Schools shifted recesses indoors after prior tear-gas drifts. Economically, it’s a gut punch: Local shops in Little Village report 20% sales dips from scared shoppers, rippling to jobs in a city where Latinos drive 30% of the workforce. Politically, it fuels the immigration enforcement firestorm, spotlighting Trump’s pledge for mass deportations—10,000 arrests monthly via ops like Midway Blitz. Tech angles? Drones and AI surveillance in these sweeps raise privacy alarms, while sports communities rally: Chicago Bulls stars like DeMar DeRozan donated to bond funds, tying it to family safety debates.
Ariana’s story isn’t isolated. Just weeks prior, kids in Broadview felt tear gas in backyards near an ICE facility; O’Hare rideshare drivers got nabbed mid-shift. As federal probes loom—possibly from the DOJ’s civil rights division—this could force policy tweaks, like stricter child protections in raids. But with DHS digging in, escalation feels inevitable.
The ICE pepper spray controversy rages on, with the Cicero ICE pepper spray incident exposing raw wounds in Border Patrol clashes in Chicago suburbs. As families like the Verazas demand accountability, Operation Midway Blitz’s toll on innocents underscores a deportation push that’s anything but surgical.
This tragedy lays bare the human cost of unchecked enforcement: A little girl’s tears could spark the reforms needed to shield communities from the crossfire. Yet as raids ramp up, the outlook darkens—brace for more stories, more scars, unless Washington reins in the heat.
By Mark Smith
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