Chicago Suburb Put Illegal Alien Arrested by ICE Back to Work as a Cop

The illegal-alien cop whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested in October is back on the job and packing a gun in defiance of federal law.

ICE bagged Radule Bojovic, 25, an illegal from Montenegro, whom far-left officials in Hanover Park, Illinois, a suburb of crime-ridden Chicago, thought should be a cop despite his obvious disregard of federal law.

Then the usual happened: A judge freed him and Hanover Park put him back to work.

Upshot: An illegal alien now has police power over American citizens.

Arrest

ICE collared Bojovic during Operation Midway Blitz, which targeted Chicago. Siding with illegals caught in the operation, far-left Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly called ICE agents Nazis and threatened to arrest them.

Bojovic’s immigration status is clear: He should not be in the country.

He is “a B-2 visitor visa overstay, who was required to leave the country by March 31, 2015. He illegally overstayed his visa by more than 10 years,” ICE reported when he was arrested:

Upon arrest, Bojovic provided his employee identification card, confirming he is a police officer with the Hanover Park Police Department. Bojovic also admitted that he had no weapons on his person because he’s only authorized to carry his firearm while on duty. 

ICE removal operations chief Sam Olson observed that illegals cannot own or possess firearms.

“This is the second known instance in recent months of a local police department hiring an illegal alien and unlawfully issuing him a firearm while on duty in violation of federal law,” said Sam Olson, chief of ICE removals in Chicago:

It is alarming how local jurisdictions continue to disregard federal law to the detriment of their communities.

The Law

Hanover Park claimed that it was “in full compliance with federal and state law” because it “confirmed that he was legally authorized by the federal government to work in the United States.”

The village said Bojovic had a federal work authorization card that was “valid and recently renewed.”

“The bottom line is that all information we received from the federal government indicated that Officer Bojovic is legally authorized to work in the United States as a police officer,” the village continued:

Clearly, without that authorization, the Village would not have hired him. Additionally, the Village has not received any notice from any federal or state agency that his work authorization status has ever been revoked.

The village vowed to return him to duty if he is permitted to remain in the United States.

Also at the time, the Chicago suburban Daily Herald reported, Bojovic could indeed carry a firearm:

“The village also confirmed, based on a memorandum issued by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Jan. 5, 2024, that his immigration status allows him to carry a firearm while on duty,” Deputy Police Chief Victor DiVito said.

Frighteningly, that appears to be correct.

“[W]hile 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(A) makes it a federal crime for nonimmigrant overstays to possess firearms, a loophole in 18 U.S.C. § 925(a)(1) creates an exception for firearms ‘issued for the use of … any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof,’” wrote Andrew Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies:

In other words, an illegal alien can carry a gun provided that the illegal alien does so as a law enforcement officer, but that loophole does not solely apply to illegal aliens.…

In 1968, when both 922(g) and 925(a)(1) were added to the federal criminal code, Congress likely never anticipated that any police department would hire any of those people to be cops, but if it accidentally did so, both the department and the individual would be protected from criminal liability.

Arthur also drilled into the village’s claim about the ATF memo. It was “issued under the Biden administration and therefore has likely been at least reviewed, if not rescinded, under Trump II,” the analyst continued:

That said, Hanover Park likely reviewed the ATF memo because it also found it difficult to believe someone who wasn’t a U.S. citizen or who at least didn’t have a green card could be a gun-carrying cop.

It’s still unclear what immigration status (if any) Bojovic possesses, but if Hanover Park is correct, it lets him enforce local, state, and (to a degree) federal laws, and to carry a firearm while doing so, but only if he turns in his gun at the end of the work day; otherwise, his possession of that weapon is a federal crime.

Back on the Job

This week, the village did what it said it would, repeating what it said before. It rehired him, claimed it followed the law, and added that Bojovic would get back pay.

He might not be back on the job if one of the usual suspects — a judge — hadn’t interfered. Unidentified in media reports, the judge freed Bojovic on October 31 after granting a $2,500 bond.

NewsNation reported a statement from DHS spokesman Tricia McLaughlin. 

“It is absolutely deranged that this activist judge released this criminal illegal alien and now he is back on FULL DUTY as a policy officer to enforce the law, which he is breaking with every breath he takes on U.S. soil,” she said:

Among a litany of other crimes, it is a felony for an illegal alien to possess a firearm. We will be pursuing every legal option available to us, including criminal charges.

Again, as CIS’s Arthur explained, Bojovic can carry a gun on the job, but must turn it in.

Still, the bottom line is — as the village would say — Hanover Park hired an illegal alien to police Americans.