A Viral Video of a Delivery Driver Escaping ICE in Chicago Has Some Impressed

One of Donald Trump's foundational campaign promises is that there would be a massive increase in deportations if he became president again. In the months since he returned to the White House, he and his team have executed on that vision, and the result has been the appearance of ICE in many major American cities.

While the threat of ICE has hit immigrant communities the hardest (whether that's a good thing or not is a separate question), some moment s of resistance against them have also gone viral on social media. The latest example is a video of a delivery driver in Chicago who escapes from ICE on his bike. Here's what we know about the incident.

In the relatively short clip that has been circulating on social media, we can see ICE attempting to stop a delivery driver who gets away from the agents on his bicycle. The agents chase after him, but because he's on a bike, he manages to outmaneuver them, and appears to get an assist from a white man on a bike who gets in their way. The video doesn't offer much context on who the driver was or whether the agents had any reason to stop him other than the color of his skin.

It's worth noting, though, that the Supreme Court has ruled that it is not illegal for ICE agents to stop someone on the street without any pretext other than the color of their skin, per NPR. We don't know in this case whether that delivery driver was in the country without papers or not, but it seems distinctly possible that the agents chose to stop him simply because of the way he looked.

Although this video was an example of how ICE can be resisted, reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times suggests that ICE made its presence known on Sept. 28, conducting raids across the city.

What's more, a top U.S. Border Patrol official confirmed to the paper that agents were stopping and arresting people based on "how they look," even comparing a white reporter to those who are being placed in custody.

Gregory Bovino, commander at large of the border force, the agent in question, did acknowledge that many factors play into an arrest, though.

“You know, there’s many different factors that go into something like that,” Bovino said. “It would be agent experience, intelligence that indicates there’s illegal aliens in a particular place or location."

“Then, obviously, the particular characteristics of an individual, how they look. How do they look compared to, say, you?" he continued.

While this delivery driver appears to have gotten away, at least for now, it seems like plenty of other people are going to be apprehended in Chicago and other cities across the country. These acts of resistance are a reminder, though, that while ICE is exercising a lot of power, it doesn't have total control.