ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. – In a stunning breach of federal law that has sanctuary-state critics crowing, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Radule Bojovic, a 35-year-old Montenegrin national posing as a sworn police officer in the Chicago suburb of Hanover Park, on Wednesday morning. The off-duty recruit, who had just completed field training and was slated for official swearing-in that evening, was collared during Operation Midway Blitz—a targeted sweep dismantling illegal immigrant networks in Illinois’ no-cooperation zones.
Bojovic, who entered the U.S. on a B-2 tourist visa in 2014 and overstayed its March 31, 2015, expiration by a decade, flashed his Hanover Park Police Department ID to stunned ICE officers. Admitting he carried no off-duty weapon—only authorized to bear arms on patrol—he was immediately detained for removal proceedings. Federal authorities decried the episode as a “felony fiasco,” noting undocumented individuals are barred from possessing firearms under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5). “Illegal aliens are prohibited from owning or possessing firearms—full stop,” thundered ICE Chicago Field Office Director Sam Olson. This marks the second such hiring blunder in recent months, following a similar case in Des Moines where an undocumented school superintendent was ousted.
The Hanover Park Police Department, in a defiant statement, insisted Bojovic had presented a valid, recently renewed Work Authorization Card from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, cleared by both state and federal vetting. Village Board President Rodney Craig urged residents to “consider the facts,” emphasizing the recruit’s academy graduation in August and glowing community reviews. Yet DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin lambasted the lapse as emblematic of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “corrupt” sanctuary regime: “Pritzker doesn’t just allow violent illegal aliens to terrorize Illinois’s communities—he allows them to work as sworn police officers.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amplified the outrage online, blasting “radical sanctuary politicians” for letting “criminal illegal aliens infiltrate our school districts, communities, and even police departments.”
The arrest, amid Trump’s mass-deportation blitz netting over 500,000 since January, exposes gaping holes in local hiring protocols. Bojovic, who professed love for America during questioning, faces swift deportation to Montenegro, his badge a casualty of bureaucratic blind spots. For Pritzker’s Illinois—where ICE-free zones shield thousands—this is less a glitch than a grenade, reigniting battles over borders and badges. As federal probes loom, one question echoes: How many more “protectors” patrol in the shadows?
