What Happened
On November 2, 2025, three CBP agents were patrolling Melrose Park, a village in Cook County, in an unmarked vehicle to ‘search for criminal activity.’ The agents observed Ricardo Aguayo Rodriguez, 54, riding a bicycle and attempted to stop Rodriguez who was unknown to the agents at the time. When Rodriquez saw the agents approaching, he dropped his bicycle and ran through an alley. Agents claimed that the stop was a “consensual encounter,” but Border Patrol Agent Jesus Guillen chased Rodriguez down the alley without any questioning. Rodriguez fell between a parked car and building.
As he tried to stand, Guillen threw his weight onto him, then pepper-sprayed him in the face without warning, wrapped his legs around him, and punched him in the head three times.
Video recorded by a neighbor shows Guillen with one arm around Rodriguez’s neck and the other in a hold under his armpit, punching him in the head while Rodriguez — bleeding from the face — gasps and calls him “friend,” trying to communicate. Guillen’s own incident report described Rodriguez’s injuries as “moderate” — a “cut above his right eye.”
The Cover-Up
Guillen’s report claimed Rodriguez placed his arms near the agent’s firearm, justifying the punches. Rodriguez disputes this entirely — in a civil suit, he says he had already surrendered and posed no threat when he was punched and put in a chokehold.
The agents’ report also said they didn’t know who Rodriguez was before the encounter and were secretly patrolling for criminal activity. DHS’s public statement said the opposite: that agents were on a targeted operation specifically to arrest Rodriguez, whom they described as having a criminal record. His family disputes any recent criminal history. The Commission found agents’ supervisors never flagged this contradiction, and never investigated Guillen’s account despite the mismatch between his “moderate injuries” description and what photos actually showed.
Aftermath
Rodriguez’s family learned what happened from acquaintances and tried to visit him at the hospital where federal agents denied them entry. He was discharged in the early morning and detained at Broadview Detention Center, then transferred through detention centers in Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas before being deported to Mexico.
His family says he was denied proper medical care, ordered to sleep on the floor, and given pills that made him cough up blood. Family members recently visited Rodriguez in Mexico and shared the lasting impact the incident has had on Rodriguez and his entire family. They indicated that Rodriguez suffered multiple broken teeth, broken ribs, a dislocated collar bone, and serious injuries to his hand and other parts of his body. They reported that Rodriguez continues to have trouble sleeping and suffers physically and mentally from the incident.
“This has affected us physically and in every way. I sometimes couldn’t sleep and cried a lot. All my family, too, because we love each other as a family.”
Dora Suane, Rodriguez’s sister Illinois in an interview with the IAC
