CHICAGO — Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and ten of the 17 commissioners on the board called Thursday for State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to “pursue all available charges” against federal agents involved in the killing of Silverio Villegas González and the shooting of Marimar Martinez.

“We support thorough law enforcement investigations wherever federal agents have violated the law,” the group statement from Preckwinkle and board members said. All eleven signatories are Democrats. “We urge the Cook County State’s Attorney to act swiftly, proactively and transparently to ensure accountability and deliver justice for the families and communities who have been harmed.”

Debates about filing charges in the shootings and other instances of alleged criminal behavior by federal agents have been front and center in recent weeks, as Mayor Brandon Johnson and Burke have publicly disagreed about his executive order directing Chicago police to investigate federal immigration agents for possible felony charges.

Johnson’s order said the charges would be “at the direction of the Mayor’s office,” which he later backed off of after Burke pointed out that the taint of politics could undermine cases.

In an emailed statement, Burke’s office on Thursday noted it does “not conduct independent investigations into criminal conduct and lacks jurisdiction over federal agencies, except in extremely narrow and limited circumstances. CCSAO reviews evidence that is presented by law enforcement after a formal investigation has been conducted.”

But after witnessing “ICE actions here and across the country, State’s Attorney Burke directed her legal team to draft a protocol that ensures the process for moving forward with cases involving on-duty ICE agent conduct is clear and grounded in the law. We have shared that draft Protocol with local and state law enforcement and other prosecutors’ offices for their review and collaboration.”

Burke has been a critic of immigration agents’ “thuggish behavior,” but has emphasized her office is limited in its ability to prosecute federal agents’ for on-duty actions, telling county commissioners late last year that the U.S. Attorney’s Law Enforcement Accountability Division was the agency to determine whether an agent “exceeded the boundaries of what they are allowed to do within their capacity.”

Villegas González was killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Franklin Park last September. Martinez was shot by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago in October.

Preckwinkle spokeswoman Cara Yi said Thursday’s statement represented a “general call to all applicable law enforcement agencies to investigate” and that the policy and legal teams between the President’s office and State’s Attorney have been in touch.

Legal experts have said local prosecution for a range of alleged charges — from assault to civil rights abuses to first-degree murder — would be challenging and have little precedent.

Marimar Martinez’s attorney, Chris Parente, said at a Wednesday news conference he had not been in touch with Burke’s office, but did not rule out a future local investigation. The FBI still has Martinez’s car while the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Bend, Ind. continues their investigation. Until that federal probe wraps up, local authorities can’t investigate.

Besides Preckwinkle, other signatories included county commissioners Tara Stamps, Jessica Vasquez, Bill Lowry, Stanley Moore, Alma Anaya, Kevin Morrison, Frank Aguilar, Josina Morita, Maggie Trevor and Kisha McCaskill. All are up for reelection this year.

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(Tribune reporter Jason Meisner contributed.)

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