This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at Balls and Strikes.

On the morning of Sunday, September 20, police officers in the Chicago suburb of Evanston responded to a 911 call about a confrontation in the street. When the officers arrived, they found a man on the ground who reported injuries to his head, neck, and teeth. Soon, the officers learned that the injured man was a U.S. citizen, and his assailants were federal immigration agents.

The Department of Homeland Security put out a statement on Tuesday claiming that the beaten man “resembled the target” of an immigration enforcement operation, and that he was “not cooperative” with agents’ investigation. “Once the individual finally identified himself,” said DHS, immigration officers “left the scene without further incident.” 

A video of the incident shows that immigration officers pinned the man to the ground while he repeatedly yelled, “I’m a fucking U.S. citizen,” and while concerned witnesses asked why the agents were “fucking him up.” Eventually, the agents drove off without rendering medical aid. People tried to comfort the man, who remained motionless on the ground.

The citizen whom immigration agents attacked experienced what Justice Brett Kavanaugh described one year ago in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo as a “brief investigative stop.” In that case, the Supreme........

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