Family Files Claim Over 'Execution-Style' ICE Killing of Silverio Villegas González

Organizations representing the family of Silverio Villegas González filed a legal claim against President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday over an immigration agent's "execution-style killing" of the 38-year-old Mexican man in Illinois last year.

Trump deployed agents from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to Chicago and its suburbs, including Franklin Park, in September 2025 for "Operation Midway Blitz," part of the president's mass detention and deportation agenda.

Shortly after Villegas González dropped off his young sons at school and daycare on September 12, 2025, a team stopped their vehicle in front of his, and an unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot him. Video footage has contradicted DHS claims that he refused to follow commands and "drove his car at law enforcement officers."

Villegas González's family said in a statement that "we want his name to be cleared. The administration has tried to justify his death by smearing his good name with lies and false narratives, but here is the truth: After Silverio was shot, two innocent children were left without their father, and we were left without a brother and son."

"We are united by the same pain that every family who has been impacted by this inhumane immigration system faces," the family continued. "A year has not erased or diminished the ache we feel in his absence. Our family demands justice for Silverio, and we hope that those responsible for his death are held accountable."

Filing a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) complaint "is an initial step to ensure the truth comes out and the government is held accountable," explained Mark Fleming, director of Litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center. It starts the clock for launching a lawsuit in six months, if a settlement cannot be reached before then.

"The government has failed Silverio and his family, but we will not let Silverio be forgotten," pledged Fleming, whose group is representing the family alongside the MacArthur Justice Center.

Jonathan Manes, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center, told the Chicago Sun-Times that they expect to seek "a very large sum of money," but "we're not focused on the number at this point."

As the newspaper reported: "The compensation would benefit Villegas González's children and spouse, not his brother, Manes said. The claim describes Villegas González as his sons' primary parent. After his death, the children were placed in foster care in Idaho, far from their Chicago-area relatives."

José Villegas González is representing his brother's estate in the case—and, according to the Chicago Tribune, he and his wife, "both US citizens living in the Chicago area, are pursuing adoption of the boys."

Manes stressed that "Silverio was a loving father, brother, and son. He worked hard to raise his sons and to protect them. His life was cut short senselessly and unnecessarily by our government. His death shattered a family and has caused untold trauma that will last a lifetime."

DHS told the Sun-Times earlier this year that federal prosecutors declined to charge the agent who killed Villegas González, without offering a public explanation, and the Tribune pointed out on Thursday that an ongoing Illinois probe has run into issues:

Illinois State Police announced in May that the Franklin Park Police Department requested that its Public Integrity Task Force investigate the shooting. Once completed, the investigation is expected to be turned over to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

But Gov. JB Pritzker said that the federal government’s refusal to provide requested evidence and make agents available for interviews has made the state investigation "near impossible to complete."

The federal government, he said, has not provided information Illinois requested about the shooting or made agents available to give testimony.

"It has been more than a year and yet there has been zero accountability for Silverio's unjustified death from the federal government," Manes highlighted. "Even after Silverio was senselessly killed, immigration officers have continued shooting at people inside their cars and have killed several other victims."

The FTCA filing comes a week after relatives of Renee Good—a 37-year-old US citizen fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minnesota on January 7—filed a pair of lawsuits against the federal government and immigration officials.