One Year After Silverio Villegas González Was Killed, His Family Is Still Waiting For Justice

One year ago today, Silverio Villegas González was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Franklin Park shortly after dropping off his children at school and daycare.

His two young sons were placed in foster care after his death and are now living in Idaho, where González’s family says they have been unable to see or speak with them. His brother and sister-in-law in the Chicago area have hired an attorney and begun the process of adopting them, while Mexico’s government is helping pay attorneys working to reunify the children with relatives.

“Silverio’s children lost their father one year ago today. Since then, they have been separated from family and caught in a legal process no child should ever have had to endure. His family has been left to grieve, fight to bring his children home and live with consequences that can never be undone,” said Lori E. Lightfoot, founder of the ICE Accountability Project. 

“What is impossible to accept is how little urgency there has been from the institutions responsible for delivering justice. Franklin Park waited. The State’s Attorney’s Office sat on its hands. The state finally opened an investigation nearly eight months after Silverio was killed, and more than four months later there is still no public resolution. How much longer is this family supposed to wait for justice?”

From the beginning, responsibility for investigating González’s death was left to the same federal government whose agent killed him. Franklin Park later said DHS told local police that the FBI would handle the investigation, and the village did not open a local investigation of its own. By February 2026 — more than five months after González was killed — community leaders were still publicly demanding a formal FBI investigation, and no federal findings had been released.

Still, no local investigation began.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office did not open an investigation into González’s killing during those months. State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has since maintained that her office must wait for another law enforcement agency to initiate an investigation before prosecutors can act. That position comes despite the office employing more than 120 investigators, exercising grand jury authority and felony-review powers, and historically participating directly in investigations involving alleged police misconduct.

Meanwhile, the Illinois Accountability Commission spent months collecting testimony and evidence about Midway Blitz, publicly presenting evidence related to González’s death on April 28. Two days later, it released its final report and referred evidence to Franklin Park, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and other law enforcement agencies. Franklin Park requested an Illinois State Police investigation that same day, and on May 5 — nearly eight months after González was killed — ISP confirmed to reporters that its Public Integrity Task Force had opened an investigation. There was no announcement. No press release. And more than four months later, there has been no substantive public update.

ISP still lists the investigation as open and says the case will be referred to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office when its work is complete.

Mr. González is not alone. His death is the most devastating consequence of Midway Blitz, but others — including Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times and nearly killed, and residents who endured violent arrests, chemical agents and other alleged abuses — are still waiting for accountability too. The ICE Accountability Project published a detailed timeline documenting those cases and the delays that followed: https://www.reporticenow.com/news/lightfoot-tells-illinois-police-and-prosecutors-to-finish-the-job-one-year-after-midway-blitz