While Scott Sakiyama was being arrested by federal immigration officers outside his child’s Oak Park, Illinois, elementary school this week, he had what he could only describe as an out-of-body experience.

Sakiyama, a 46-year-old U.S. citizen, was accused of “cutting off (an) agent’s vehicle” and “impeding (a) federal officer,” according to a citation he was later issued. Sakiyama, an attorney, told the Tribune these charges are a “complete fabrication” and that he was merely driving behind the vehicle, honking his horn and blowing a whistle to warn neighbors of their presence.

Sakiyama said two agents drew guns on him — steps away from Abraham Lincoln Elementary School — and told him that if he didn’t step out of the car they would break his windows. While a video filmed by a witness doesn’t capture the events leading up to the confrontation, it shows the agents approaching Sakiyama’s vehicle and at least one of them appearing to point a weapon from the passenger side of the car.

He’s then handcuffed and led away. The nearby school went into what it calls a “secure” status.

“I was very much focused on just not moving and not being escalatory in any way,” he said. “So it was kind of like a disembodied but also focused feeling.”

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment on the arrest, but officials have previously said violence against agents has increased during its latest immigration enforcement push. Some residents, however, have spoken out on increasingly aggressive tactics used by officers during the crackdown, particularly toward those protesting or filming arrests.

Since “Operation Midway Blitz” began in the Chicago area last month, agents have tear-gassed pedestrian streets, shot a pastor in the face with a pepper pellet, crashed into various cars and roughly detained a WGN-TV producer before releasing her without charges.

On Tuesday, state Rep. Hoan Huynh also said he was intimidated by agents during a rapid response shift in the Albany Park neighborhood. Rapid response volunteers respond and report on agents’ activity in neighborhoods.

Huynh said he was surrounded by six agents, including one who pointed a gun at him, while he was sitting inside his vehicle on the passenger side. He also accused an officer of trying to bash in his car windows. A video he posted shows the agents but not the gun. Huynh said the agent withdrew the gun when his colleague started recording.

“We have ICE agents out here who are not obeying any laws whatsoever. They’re using aggressive unlawful enforcement tactics,” Huynh told the Tribune. “They’re using political intimidation tactics as well.”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Huynh was stopped twice for “stalking law enforcement and attempting to interfere with operations.” She said he was given a warning the first time he was stopped, which he ignored, “forcing agents to get out of their car a second time to assess if he was a threat.”

“This behavior is unbecoming of a public servant and is just another example of sanctuary politicians putting our officers at risk,” she said.

Huynh, who is running to replace longtime U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, called that statement “ridiculous” and an “attempt to distract from the real danger — that an ICE agent pulled a gun on someone who posed no threat to them.” Huynh said he wasn’t issued a citation.

“If it could happen to an elected official in broad daylight, then it could happen to any one of us,” he said.

‘Chiraq Team 2’ group chat

Sakiyama said he responded to a rapid response call northwest of Oak Park early Monday morning, and then checked on a few friends protesting at the ICE processing center in west suburban Broadview.

Sakiyama, who regularly protests in Broadview, said he got involved with immigration advocacy because his family is Japanese American, and a number of his relatives were incarcerated during World War II. He said he’s also been arrested by Broadview police for allegedly violating the protest curfew the mayor imposed.

“It felt very important to me to protect people that were going to be coming under government attack,” he said.

In Broadview, Sakiyama followed a van, presumably that of federal immigration officers, back toward Oak Park. At a stop sign, he said two masked agents jumped out of the van and walked toward him. They got back in their vehicle when he backed his car up, Sakiyama said.

At that point, Sakiyama said he started honking his horn and blowing a whistle to warn neighbors of the agents’ presence. He followed them for a few more blocks, but he said the interaction took a turn around 11 a.m. when he reached the intersection of Harvard Street and South Grove Avenue.

“The ICE vehicle stopped, backed up very close to my car. Two agents jumped out — they had their guns drawn,” Sakiyama said. “They told me to step out of the car or they were going to smash my windows.”

“I didn’t move. I didn’t respond,” he continued. “They eventually opened the doors and pulled me out, cuffed me, put me in the back of their van.”

Stephanie Bailey, 44, of Oak Park, was walking her dog near the school and heard the whistles, a sound she knew alerted of ICE activity. She said she watched the agents’ van back up “aggressively” toward Sakiyama’s car. She then saw two masked men pull out their guns at his car window. When Bailey saw a gun she started filming, she said.

She said she’s “furious” that agents seemed to pull weapons near Lincoln Elementary. She has a fifth grader at the school, and later recognized Sakiyama because he has a second grader at the same school.

“It is so irresponsible to be pulling guns and acting like that for someone literally honking a horn and blowing a whistle right by the school,” she said. “It makes me afraid for my kid and for all of the kids at the school and for our neighborhood, and mostly just really, really angry.”

District 97’s interim superintendents said in a letter to parents that the school was put into “secure status” as soon as a substitute teacher observed Sakiyama’s arrest. They said this status means all students and staff remained inside the building. Immigration agents aren’t permitted to enter the schools without a judicial warrant signed by a federal judge, they said.

“While we are unable to comment on the details of the incident, we want to reiterate and confirm that the situation did not involve the school, nor did it pose a direct threat to any District 97 students or staff,” they said in the letter.

After he was arrested, Sakiyama said the agents drove him to Broadview. Inside the vehicle, he said he was asked a few questions, such as if he’s a U.S. citizen. Sakiyama also said he saw the agents receiving text messages from a group called “Chiraq Team 2,” which Sakiyama called “mind-blowing.”

After a half-hour wait outside the facility, an agent gave him the citation and then drove him back to his car in Oak Park. He plans to defend himself against what he said were baseless charges at a court date in January.

“I certainly felt relieved that they were not going to try to push anything that would hold me overnight, or something like that,” Sakiyama said. “But also some anger that they’re just making stuff up.”

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