Jonathan Manes is Senior Counsel in the MacArthur Justice Center's Illinois office and a Clinical Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he teaches in the Center's Civil Rights Litigation Clinic. His practice focuses on civil rights violations arising from government surveillance, policing technology, mass incarceration, and national security and immigration enforcement, with an emphasis on government transparency and public-records litigation. He previously directed the Civil Liberties & Transparency Clinic at the University at Buffalo School of Law and was a clinical lecturer at Yale Law School's Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic, where he litigated transparency cases involving national security surveillance and police technology. He clerked for Justice Morris J. Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Case
DHS says Silverio Villegas González struck and dragged an ICE agent before the fatal shooting. Compare that account with the Illinois commission's video review and the evidence limits it identified.
Role at the time: Attorney for the Villegas González family, MacArthur Justice Center
Statement summary
Family attorney Jonathan Manes said it is shocking that a year after the shooting the federal government has not released information about the ICE officers involved, including the name of the officer who shot Villegas González.
“It's shocking that a year after the shooting, the federal government has refused to release any information about ICE officers that took a man's life on our streets... They haven't even provided the name of the officer who shot Silverio and killed him.”
Manes frames the government's yearlong refusal to identify the officer or release information as shocking, directly faulting DHS and ICE for withholding basic facts about the shooting and its aftermath rather than merely describing the case's status.
Role at the time: Attorney for the Villegas González family, MacArthur Justice Center
Statement summary
Family attorney Jonathan Manes told ABC7 Chicago that speed can matter in investigations like this one, warning that evidence, witnesses and video can disappear if they are not gathered soon. ABC7 paired the remark with its report that the Illinois State Police investigation began in May 2026, nearly eight months after the shooting. ABC7 also reported, citing Manes, that the family is planning to sue the U.S. government over the death.
“In these kinds of investigations, speed can matter. Evidence, witnesses, eyewitnesses, video. These sorts of things can disappear if you don't get them soon.”
Manes speaks for a family that, according to ABC7, is planning to sue the U.S. government over the death. He warns that evidence and witnesses can be lost when investigators do not act quickly, a remark ABC7 placed after reporting that the state investigation began nearly eight months after the shooting. The statement faults the delay in investigating the killing as part of the family's push for accountability for the death.
Statement dates: September 8, 2026 to September 11, 2026
Statement dates: September 8, 2026 to September 11, 2026
Statement dates: September 8, 2026 to September 11, 2026
Statement dates: September 8, 2026 to September 11, 2026
