Adam Saracco, the ICE agent who was charged with misdemeanor battery for pushing lawyer and activist Robert Held to the ground in December 2025 at a gas station in Brookfield, has pleaded guilty.
Saracco was sentenced to one year of court supervision on one count of misdemeanor battery on Wednesday, Aug. 12, nearly eight months since the incident late last year where Held said Saracco pushed him to the ground after he followed him to the Shell gas station at the intersection of 31st Street and Maple Avenue from the federal immigrant detention center in Broadview.
“I’m glad that there is some accountability and some justice,” Held told the Landmark on Thursday, Aug. 13. “I think that we have a long way to go to rein in ICE and the administration in terms of their violations of not only the rights of immigrants but protestors alike.”
Held said he was “extremely disappointed” with Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke for charging Saracco with a misdemeanor rather than a felony.
“Adam Saracco committed a felony by attacking me on a public sidewalk. That was a felony and attacking someone who appears to be over the age of 60, as I am, is also a felony,” Held said. “There were independent bases to charge a felony, so I’m disappointed in the state’s attorney for her determination to pursue it only as a misdemeanor. [As for] the process itself, I assisted, cooperated with and supplied information to the prosecution team, and they treated me with dignity and respect.”
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, prosecutors said a felony charge would have required them to prove Saracco knew Held was over 60 at the time of the incident.
Held said questions remain in the wake of Saracco’s sentencing as to the consequences for him outside of court supervision.
“Will this admittedly violent individual who wields government power be allowed to keep a firearm? Will he retain his employment? Will the Department of Homeland Security take back the false statements that they made immediately after the incident or after his arrest?” Held said. “Will [DHS] issue appropriate guidance to their agents, which will rein them in from the much worse conduct that they’ve committed, including murder? Those are serious and important questions that I have because of the broader ramifications.”
Held said he plans to keep protesting against ICE and its detention efforts in the name of upholding human rights.
“I want to turn the ship around and make sure that those members of our community who may not have documentation but are part of the fabric of our society — they’re part of who we are as a people — that they’re treated with respect and dignity and that the law is followed,” he said. “That the rights of protestors are not only followed but that the administration will … celebrate our First Amendment rights and not try to curtail them.”
