By Greg Bishop
The Center Square

A Hanover Park, Illinois, police officer has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for being in the country illegally.

As part of a targeted enforcement in Operation Midway Blitz, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement effort in the Chicago area, the agency announced the arrest of Radule Bojovic. DHS said Bojovic is an illegal alien from Montenegro and was working as a sworn police officer with the Hanover Park Police Department.

“Governor J.B. Pritzker doesn’t just allow violent illegal aliens to terrorize Illinois’s communities, he allows illegal aliens to work as sworn police officers,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Radule Bojovic violated our nation’s laws and was living ILLEGALLY in the United States for 10 years – what kind of police department gives criminal illegal aliens badges and guns?”

McLaughlin said it is a felony for illegal aliens to possess a firearm.

“A so-called law enforcement officer who is actively breaking the law,” McLaughlin said.

Pritzker enacted House Bill 3751 in 2023.

Previously, state statute said “it was unlawful” for the sheriff of any county or local government to “authorize, empower, employ, or permit any person to act as deputy sheriff or special policeman for the purpose of preserving the peace, who is not a citizen of the United States.”

Struck from statute with HB 3751 were the words “it was unlawful” and “not” and added DACA and those “legally authorized under federal law to work in the United States and authorized under federal law to obtain, carry, or purchase or otherwise possess a firearm.”

Pritzker responded to critics of the new law in 2023.

“I am tired of the right wing twisting these things,” Pritzker said. “They put it out on Facebook. They tell lies. They attack based upon those lies. They’re perpetuating lies so that there are people out there that think that we’re just allowing anybody to become a police officer. That’s just not accurate.”

DHS said Bojovic overstayed a B2 tourist visa that required him to depart the U.S. in 2025.

“Under President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem, ICE is restoring law and order. Criminal illegal aliens have NO PLACE in our communities, especially on our police forces,” McLaughlin said.

Thursday’s announcement was the latest in other news releases from DHS this week. Wednesday, they released a list of the “worst of the worst” at the Broadview ICE facility.

“Despite incessant lies from Governor J.B. Pritzker, Broadview is housing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens including those convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, felony robbery, drug possession, and driving under the influence,” McLaughlin said.