Federal agents confronted hundreds of protesters for the fourth week straight outside the Broadview U.S. Immigration and Customs processing center Friday, an exchange that at times had the look of a publicity stunt as masked men in military fatigues hung from the sides of an armored truck and waved to a jeering crowd as the media and local police officers looked on.
Demonstrations at the west suburban site have grown heated in recent weeks as federal forces have become more visible in downtown Chicago and arrests continue under President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” Federal personnel have deployed baton rounds, tear gas and other less-lethal ammunition at protesters who try to block vehicles with their bodies, throw things and taunt the agents.
Several people were detained Friday but authorities did not use tear gas.
Protesters began to gather at the intersection of 25th Avenue and Harvard Street around 6 a.m. Friday, carrying signs that read “And then they came for me” and “Immigrants make America great.” They booed Broadview public works trucks as they pulled up and blocked a sidewalk and cheered or shouted expletives at drivers of passing cars who beeped in support or yelled “America first!” They screamed “shame!” as masked agents drove cars and vans up and down Harvard Street, some apparently dropping off recent arrestees.
By 9:15 a.m., hundreds of people had joined the crowd as Illinois State Police troopers tried to keep people on the sidewalk. Federal agents could be seen massing behind a fence just outside the processing center, located at the intersection of Harvard and Beach Street, as protesters lined the street, chanted and sang songs on a nearby lawn.
The agents marched out of the gate and up to the intersection, accompanied by photographers in neon vests. A small drone tracked the group’s progress up to the intersection.
The agents, with U.S. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino among them, began to clear protesters off one side of the street, grabbing several and pushing them to the ground to detain them. Bovino participated in at least one arrest personally.
An armored truck drove out of the gate with more agents hanging on the sides, followed by a caravan of black vehicles that appeared to drive about a half-block before parking outside a low-slung gray building for about an hour and driving back again. An agent seated on the vehicle’s roof waved to the heckling protesters lining 25th Avenue.
Broadview residents are scared as ICE facility becomes a battleground for Trump immigration blitz
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was on hand, with TV news helicopters capturing images of her on the roof at one point in the morning.
Noem also apparently made an unannounced visit to Broadview’s Village Hall on Friday morning, hoping to meet with Mayor Katrina Thompson, according to a village spokesperson. Thompson was not there, but later went to the ICE processing center with Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills to ask that a fence put up by the federal government be dismantled.
“The mayor was told by agents at the gate the secretary was unavailable to meet,” village spokesperson David Ormsby said in a statement.
Noem’s appearance came after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called for accountability from her.
“Federal agents reporting to Secretary Noem have spent weeks snatching up families, scaring law-abiding residents, violating due process rights, and even detaining U.S. citizens. They fail to focus on violent criminals and instead create panic in our communities,” the statement said. “Secretary Noem should no longer be able to step foot inside the State of Illinois without any form of public accountability. Last time when the secretary was here, she snuck in during the early morning to film social media videos and fled before sunrise. It’s been nearly 45 days since Secretary Noem has held an official press conference, so it’s time she faces the public and takes questions from the press to be held accountable for the Trump Administration’s gross misconduct.”
Federal agents present at the site had uniforms with identification from at least five different agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Drug Enforcement Administration alongside Border Patrol, Homeland Security and ICE. Dozens of state troopers were working crowd control and detained at least one person just before agents marched up the driveway, as well as police officers from the Cook County sheriff’s office and nearby suburbs like Bellwood and Hillside.
Pritzker on Monday announced that the Department of Homeland Security had requested 100 National Guard troops to deploy for increased protection of ICE operations.
Local police agencies arrested at least five people on Friday for charges including aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting and obstruction. During prior protests, around 17 people were arrested at the site, according to the Department of Homeland Security, with some charged with offenses like weapons possession or threatening officers.
Officials have tried numerous other crowd control tactics, including the erection of a fence over the objection of Broadview village leaders and the creation of a “free speech zone” on the northern side of that fence on Beach Street. Thompson has likened the federal response to the protests to “(Vladimir) Putin’s Russia.”
At the request of Broadview police, state and county officials established a “unified command” to address public safety concerns outside the holding facility, according to a news release from state police Thursday evening.
A flashing traffic sign designated the northern portion of Beach Street as a protest zone, with TV crews lined up outside. Officials set up the zone as an area “where people can safely exercise their rights,” according to state police. The areas stretch along either side of Beach down to Lexington Street with a safety lane in between to allow for emergency vehicle access, according to a state police map.
Elected officials and Democratic candidates gathered in that area in front of television cameras to call for the Trump administration to allow congressional candidates to inspect inside the processing center. The building has become a campaign location of sorts for officials and candidates looking to signal their stance on immigration and opposition to the Trump administration.
Content creator Kat Abughazaleh, a 9th Congressional District candidate, said people are being held inside “for days or weeks at a time, without beds or hot meals or access to hygienic facilities.”
“We’ve heard of grandmothers and pregnant women sleeping on concrete floors, of dozens of men in a single cell,” said Abughazaleh, whose social media posts have made her a key face of the protests.
“I watched as detainees were marched into a van in the very same clothes they were detained in. And we have no idea how long they were there.”
Several progressive Chicago City Council members joined her. Many gestured behind themselves to the facility’s roof, where federal agents wearing military gear stood near a sniper rifle on a tripod.
“We’ve been pelted with pepper pellets, tear gas, rubber bullets,” Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, said. “It’s not how you treat your own people. It’s not what government looks like.”
Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, called ICE a “militarized gestapo.”
“What happens in Broadview matters to Chicago,” she told reporters. “Most of us as Americans are being bullied. We’re being taken advantage of. And it doesn’t matter what political party you are in, your rights are being chipped away every day. Every single day that this administration is in office, you are losing rights, you are becoming less American.”
Department of Homeland Security officials said agents have made around 800 arrests since the start of the operation around Sept. 8, though the agency has only released information about a small number of those arrests.
As the operation has unfolded, officials, community members and advocacy groups have condemned the methods of ICE and Border Patrol agents. In what was ripped as a publicity stunt, dozens of federal immigration agents patrolled in downtown Chicago on Sunday afternoon, creating a stir as agents in camouflage uniforms marched around popular tourist destinations.
Agents have also made arrests in and outside of courthouses, despite those facilities historically being spared from immigration enforcement so that people can safely come to court.
Last month, an ICE agent fatally shot 38-year-old Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez after allegedly being dragged by his fleeing vehicle, spurring calls for a full and transparent investigation.
Chicago Tribune’s Tess Kenny and Dan Petrella contributed to this story.
