Chicago Public Schools officials had a calm, seemingly friendly conversation with two U.S. Secret Service agents outside Hamline School hours before the district sparked a nationwide panic when it falsely proclaimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had tried to enter the building, according to recently released security footage.
The roughly 7-minute conversation raises questions about how the misunderstanding occurred and why incorrect information was shared with an already frightened community. Neither CPS nor the U.S. Secret Service would comment on the video, which was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
CPS safety and security chief Jadine Chou is leaving the district this week, though district officials said it was a planned departure and unrelated to the ICE snafu.
The footage from Jan. 24, released in two, 30-minute recordings that offered different angles of the conversation, begins with two agents in plainclothes walking up to the main entrance and buzzing the intercom. They then fidget and peer through a window as they wait to be allowed entry. At one point, an agent tries unsuccessfully to yank open the door.
The recordings have no sound, but agents are seen carrying file folders and showing identification cards that bear the U.S. Secret Service emblem. One agent twice shows that identification outside the building’s main entrance.
In a video obtained by the Tribune from a Freedom of Information Act request, U.S. Secret Service agents and CPS officials speak outside Hamline School in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood in January. The original 29-minute video has been edited for length by the Tribune. (Chicago Public Schools)
About 17 minutes after the agents arrived, Hamline Elementary Principal Natasha Ortega comes out from a side door to speak to them and one of the agents shows her his credential. Throughout their conversation, the same agent holds the file folder with the Secret Service logo.
In the security footage, Ortega is identifiable wearing a black-and-white coat.
Shortly afterward, a man in a black jacket joins the conversation. He gives Ortega a short hug and shakes the hands of the two agents before the conversation continues. The video then shows another woman pulling up in dark-colored car and joining the discussion for about five more minutes.
CPS would not say whether the two people who joined Ortega and the agents were district employees. However, the recording shows them standing next to the principal and conferring with her.
The man in the black coat can be seen making two phone calls while the agents stand near the doors. About 30 minutes after arriving at the school’s entrance, the agents shake hands with everyone and leave without any obvious confrontation with school officials.
CPS called a news conference about two hours after that brief interaction, which set off a firestorm of panic across the city and nation. In addition to local news organizations, the announcement received coverage on all major cable news networks and went viral on social media.
For many immigrants and their advocates, the announcement represented their worst fears. They had spent the week waiting for President Donald Trump’s long-promised raids, heightened after he reversed a policy preventing ICE from carrying out immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations,” such as health care facilities, day cares, churches and schools.
Later, the school district said in a statement its “original communication was a result of a misunderstanding.”
But exactly how that misunderstanding occurred is not clear based on video footage released by the school district.
The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment about when and how the misjudgment occurred, what Hamline principal Ortega was discussing with the federal agents and why CPS held the presser announcing the agents were from ICE.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Tribune hours after the Jan. 24 press conference that the agents were with the Secret Service investigating a threat against a “protectee” in connection with TikTok. Guglielmi would not identify the protectee, but the federal agency oversees protection for President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, their immediate families and former presidents.
“The U.S. Secret Service does not investigate or enforce immigration matters,” Guglielmi told the Tribune.
The Secret Service declined to comment about the footage beyond the information it provided in January.
At last month’s press conference, Ortega said school employees “followed the protocols that we’ve been trained and practiced and have discussed.” After the footage was released to the Tribune, Ortega declined to be interviewed.
It is the district’s responsibility to provide training to principals related to deportation activities in schools, said Kia Banks, chief of staff for the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, in a statement to the Tribune. Members of the principals’ union have established a task force to help improve the district’s guidance on handling ICE interactions, Banks said.
CPS staff are also receiving training through the union about how to best respond to ICE encounters.
Since the two Secret Service agents tried to enter Hamline Elementary, Trump has targeted Chicago with an intensive set of raids that swept up both people with criminal records, but also those with none at all.
CPS security video shows Secret Service agents trying to enter Chicago’s Hamline School, offering glimpse of an interaction that caused confusion and stoked fears.
Chicago Public Schools officials had a calm, seemingly friendly conversation with two U.S. Secret Service agents outside Hamline School hours before the district sparked a nationwide panic when it falsely proclaimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had tried to enter the building, according to recently released security footage.
The roughly 7-minute conversation raises questions about how the misunderstanding occurred and why incorrect information was shared with an already frightened community. Neither CPS nor the U.S. Secret Service would comment on the video, which was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
CPS safety and security chief Jadine Chou is leaving the district this week, though district officials said it was a planned departure and unrelated to the ICE snafu.
The footage from Jan. 24, released in two, 30-minute recordings that offered different angles of the conversation, begins with two agents in plainclothes walking up to the main entrance and buzzing the intercom. They then fidget and peer through a window as they wait to be allowed entry. At one point, an agent tries unsuccessfully to yank open the door.
The recordings have no sound, but agents are seen carrying file folders and showing identification cards that bear the U.S. Secret Service emblem. One agent twice shows that identification outside the building’s main entrance.
In a video obtained by the Tribune from a Freedom of Information Act request, U.S. Secret Service agents and CPS officials speak outside Hamline School in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood in January. The original 29-minute video has been edited for length by the Tribune. (Chicago Public Schools)
About 17 minutes after the agents arrived, Hamline Elementary Principal Natasha Ortega comes out from a side door to speak to them and one of the agents shows her his credential. Throughout their conversation, the same agent holds the file folder with the Secret Service logo.
In the security footage, Ortega is identifiable wearing a black-and-white coat.
Shortly afterward, a man in a black jacket joins the conversation. He gives Ortega a short hug and shakes the hands of the two agents before the conversation continues. The video then shows another woman pulling up in dark-colored car and joining the discussion for about five more minutes.
CPS would not say whether the two people who joined Ortega and the agents were district employees. However, the recording shows them standing next to the principal and conferring with her.
The man in the black coat can be seen making two phone calls while the agents stand near the doors. About 30 minutes after arriving at the school’s entrance, the agents shake hands with everyone and leave without any obvious confrontation with school officials.
CPS called a news conference about two hours after that brief interaction, which set off a firestorm of panic across the city and nation. In addition to local news organizations, the announcement received coverage on all major cable news networks and went viral on social media.
For many immigrants and their advocates, the announcement represented their worst fears. They had spent the week waiting for President Donald Trump’s long-promised raids, heightened after he reversed a policy preventing ICE from carrying out immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations,” such as health care facilities, day cares, churches and schools.
Later, the school district said in a statement its “original communication was a result of a misunderstanding.”
But exactly how that misunderstanding occurred is not clear based on video footage released by the school district.
The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment about when and how the misjudgment occurred, what Hamline principal Ortega was discussing with the federal agents and why CPS held the presser announcing the agents were from ICE.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Tribune hours after the Jan. 24 press conference that the agents were with the Secret Service investigating a threat against a “protectee” in connection with TikTok. Guglielmi would not identify the protectee, but the federal agency oversees protection for President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, their immediate families and former presidents.
“The U.S. Secret Service does not investigate or enforce immigration matters,” Guglielmi told the Tribune.
The Secret Service declined to comment about the footage beyond the information it provided in January.
At last month’s press conference, Ortega said school employees “followed the protocols that we’ve been trained and practiced and have discussed.” After the footage was released to the Tribune, Ortega declined to be interviewed.
It is the district’s responsibility to provide training to principals related to deportation activities in schools, said Kia Banks, chief of staff for the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, in a statement to the Tribune. Members of the principals’ union have established a task force to help improve the district’s guidance on handling ICE interactions, Banks said.
CPS staff are also receiving training through the union about how to best respond to ICE encounters.
Since the two Secret Service agents tried to enter Hamline Elementary, Trump has targeted Chicago with an intensive set of raids that swept up both people with criminal records, but also those with none at all.
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