What immigration enforcement operation in 2018 involved pepper-spraying a 1-year-old and where did it occur?

1. The allegation: family, video and location

Local media report that Rafael Veraza said he, his wife and their one‑year‑old daughter Arianna were sprayed while leaving a Sam’s Club in Cicero — a suburb adjacent to Chicago’s Little Village — and that cellphone video circulated showing a canister or stream of chemical agent affecting the car’s occupants, including the toddler ^{[2] [3] [5]}. Major outlets described the same location and family account, with ABC7 and other outlets specifically naming the Sam’s Club parking lot in Cicero as the scene of the incident and reporting the father’s description that the family had decided to leave after observing federal agents nearby ^{[1] [6] [7]}.

2. Official denial and competing narrative from DHS

The Department of Homeland Security and DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin publicly denied that any crowd control or pepper spray was used in the Sam’s Club parking lot, framing the broader enforcement day as one in which Border Patrol agents faced attacks in Little Village and saying there was no deployment of chemical agents at that parking lot ^{[1] [7] [5]}. DHS’s statement emphasized assaults on agents in Little Village — including reported gunfire and objects thrown — to contextualize its response to the overall operation, while explicitly denying the specific Sam’s Club pepper‑spray claim ^{[1] [5]}.

3. The enforcement operation named in reporting

News coverage links the episode to Operation Midway Blitz, a large‑scale immigration enforcement effort in Chicago described in reporting as targeting suspected criminal noncitizens and prompting heightened federal activity across Little Village and nearby suburbs ^{[2] [8] [5]}. Coverage also notes this incident occurred days after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction limiting how agents may use force during the operation, which heightened scrutiny of tactics used by ICE and Border Patrol ^{[2] [9]}.

4. Evidence, open questions and why the year matters

The factual record in the provided sources centers on video and eyewitness testimony captured in November 2025; none of the supplied reporting documents a 2018 instance of a one‑year‑old being pepper‑sprayed, so asserting a 2018 event would be unsupported by these sources (no source). The 2025 accounts present a classic evidentiary gap: viral video and family testimony alleging chemical exposure inside a family car in Cicero versus an authoritative DHS denial that such a spray occurred in that parking lot, leaving independent verification and chain‑of‑custody analysis of the footage and on‑scene law‑enforcement logs as unresolved elements in the public record ^{[5] [1] [4]}.

5. Broader reporting context and competing agendas

Media outlets ranging from local TV to international wire services amplified the family’s claims and the viral clip, while DHS communications emphasized threats to agents and denied the parking‑lot deployment; each side’s framing aligns with broader political stakes — immigrant‑rights advocates and local officials portray aggressive tactics harming civilians, while DHS highlights officer safety amid attacks and seeks to rebut accusations that would damage its enforcement posture ^{[7] [1] [5]}. Given those competing incentives, the available sources document the alleged event’s date, operation and location as November 2025, Operation Midway Blitz, Sam’s Club parking lot in Cicero ^{[2] [8] [3]}, but do not substantiate any 2018 incident.

Conclusion

The direct answer supported by the supplied reporting is that the widely reported allegation involved federal agents allegedly pepper‑spraying a one‑year‑old during Operation Midway Blitz in November 2025 at a Sam’s Club parking lot in Cicero, Illinois, just outside Chicago’s Little Village; DHS has denied that pepper spray was used at that parking lot, and no sources provided here document an analogous 2018 incident ^{[2] [1] [4]}.