Chicago antisemitic hate crime suspect was an illegal immigrant

The national outrage has simmered after Chicago officials waited five days to confirm that 22-year-old Mauritanian national Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi’s target in an Oct. 26 shooting in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago was an Orthodox Jewish man wearing a kippah.

Even when officials noted that Abdallahi intentionally sought Jewish victims while announcing hate crime and terrorism charges against him on Oct. 31, they left out another key detail about the attacker. Abdallahi was in the country illegally, having been paroled into the United States after entering near San Ysidro in March 2023, Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed.