ICE Agent Pleads Guilty to Battering a 68-Year-Old Protester Who Filmed Him at an Illinois Gas Station

Adam Saracco, 41, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, pleaded guilty on August 12, 2026 in Maywood, Illinois to one misdemeanor count of battery and was sentenced to one year of supervision. Brookfield police were called to a gas station on December 27, 2025 after Saracco, who was off duty, threw attorney Robert Held to the ground and grabbed at his phone. Held, who has protested at the ICE processing center in nearby Broadview, had followed and filmed him. On police body-camera footage obtained by the Chicago Tribune, Saracco said he tried to grab the phone.

Saracco is believed to be the first and only immigration agent charged in Cook County over conduct toward protesters and civilians during Operation Midway Blitz, which makes the disposition a rare data point on whether state courts can reach federal agents at all.

Brookfield officers initially sought a felony charge; the Cook County State's Attorney's office rejected felony approval, saying the case belonged in misdemeanor court, and declined Held's request to upgrade it. Earlier the same week, ten people filed police reports seeking local investigations of federal agents. Saracco declined to make a statement in court.