#Homeland security planning to send 150 federal agents to Chicago

About 150 agents from the US Department of Homeland Security are headed to Chicago, where they’ll help other federal law enforcement officers and city cops to fight crime, according to a report Monday.

The Homeland Security Investigations agents are expected to be deployed in Chicago sometime this week, although a specific plan on their expected duties has not yet been made public, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The city is aware of the plan, but had not been informed of details, one municipal official told the newspaper. Chicago police said the department had no immediate comment, the Tribune reports.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Chicago who asked not to be identified confirmed the deployment was expected to happen, adding that the agents would not be involved in immigration or deportation efforts, the newspaper reports.

The reported development comes amid federal agents being caught on camera confronting protesters in Portland, where demonstrations have been held for more than 50 consecutive days in the aftermath of George Floyd’s police-custody death in Minneapolis.

Federal agents have also been sent to Seattle and Washington, DC, the Tribune reports.

The expected deployment also follows a weekend in which at least 63 people were wounded, including 12 fatally, during shootings throughout the city, police said.

A total of 41 shootings occurred citywide from 6 p.m. Friday through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, according to stats provided to The Post by a Chicago Police Department public information officer.

The victims included nine juveniles, WGN reports.

In one incident late Sunday, five people were shot, including two fatally, during a shooting in the city’s Morgan Park neighborhood. No arrests had been made as of early Monday, the station reports.

In another shooting, a gunman opened fire early Sunday in the Loop after an argument erupted on a bridge, striking a 35-year-old man and a woman as they sat inside a vehicle. The man died while the woman was shot twice, police told the station.

A pair of cousins — two boys ages 10 and 11 — were also hurt during a drive-by shooting on Sunday, leaving them with wounds in the ankle and arm, respectively. They were listed in good condition at a hospital following the shooting, WGN reports.

A total of 203 children — victims 17 and under — have been shot in Chicago since Jan. 1, including 35 fatally, the station reports.

Homicides in Chicago, meanwhile, are up 48% through July 12, with 385 killings compared to 260 at the same date in 2019, according to police statistics cited by the Tribune.

Shootings are also up 46%, figures show.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, speaking at an unrelated news conference early Monday, said she had concerns about the overall prospect of federal agents being sent there in light of the situation in Portland.

“We don’t need federal agents without any insignia taking people off the streets and holding them, I think, unlawfully,” Lightfoot said.

In response to Monday’s report, American Civil Liberties Union officials blasted the plan, saying federal troops will not be a “constructive force” in Chicago.

“Given the documented abuse in Portland by federal forces against the press and those protesting police killing of Black people, it is clear that we are in a fight to save our democracy against a reckless administration bent on terrorizing our communities and endangering lives,” ACLU of Illinois Executive Director Colleen Connell said in a statement.

Connell’s statement continued: “As our colleagues have seen in Portland, Trump’s secret forces will terrorize communities and create chaos. This is not law and order. This is an assault on the people of this country, and the specific protections of protest and press in the First Amendment.”