Shocking video shows couple telling kids they are lucky ‘ICE isn’t out here’ as they left Chicago dance studio

A couple was caught on camera yelling at children as they left a dance class in Chicago, threatening them that they were “lucky ICE isn’t out here.”

The confrontation outside the Ballet Folklorico de Chicago studio in Avondale, Illinois, was seen on viral video footage that has sparked outrage among the community.

Tensions over immigration in the Chicago area have been stoked by the Trump administration’s federal immigration surge across the city last year, which saw Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents carry out thousands of arrests.

Around 10 p.m. Friday, the children and their parents were leaving a class at the studio, a non-profit that teaches Mexican folk dance, when the woman began yelling, and a man threw unidentified liquid at the group, who were aged 13, 14 and 15.

“You’re lucky ICE isn’t out here,” the woman appeared to yell from a fire escape. “Get the f*** out of here,” she was also heard shouting.

One of the teenagers, 13-year-old Damian Guerrero, told FOX32 that the man who threw the liquid at them was also shouting “racial slurs.”

“The neighbor upstairs came out, started yelling at everyone, saying, ‘Oh you don’t belong here, hope ICE comes to get you,’” Guerrero said.

“He was cursing us out, saying we were lucky ICE wasn’t here,” added 14-year-old Questzali Estrada. “It was a lot. He was yelling it, and it was very terrifying.”

In a statement on social media, the dance studio said it had filed a police report and would be pressing charges.

“We will not tolerate bullying, hate speech, or hate crimes,” the statement said. “Our community stands united in making clear that actions rooted in hate have consequences, and together we will continue to stand for respect, dignity, and inclusion.”

The Chicago Police Department confirmed it was investigating the incident in a statement to The Independent, where the victims “related that a male offender threw multiple cups containing an unknown liquid” onto them.

“The male offender, along with a female offender, also threatened them,” the statement added.

According to local reports and witnesses on social media, the neighbors are locked in a dispute with the dance studio over a noise complaint.

The neighbors in the footage, who have not been identified, told CBS News Chicago that the noise issue has been “continuous.”

“I lost my cool. We both did. But there’s a reason why I lost it, I’ve had enough,” one of them told the outlet. “And speaking reasonable [sic], respectfully just hasn’t worked for us.”

The neighbors added that they have received death threats since the video circulated on social media.

“We’re getting death threats, our property is being, like, threatened to be damaged, and it’s not even our property. It’s crazy, it’s scary,” the woman said.

The man said he was “not pro-ICE” and denied he was a racist.

“Trust me when I say I am not pro-ICE, OK, I am not a racist, nor is she,” he said. “We are both Latinos.”