Controversial security fence around Broadview ICE facility comes down shortly ahead of court-ordered deadline

Bowing to a court-ordered deadline, crews tore down the controversial security fence constructed around the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Broadview Tuesday night.

The clock had been ticking for the government to take down the fence after a federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to remove the barrier by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The Tribune observed that the fence had been taken down as of 11 p.m.

Federal officials erected the fence three weeks ago. In turn, Broadview officials immediately pushed back, saying it was “illegally built,” and demanded that the Department of Homeland Security take it down.

In a letter to DHS, acting Broadview Fire Chief Matthew Martin said the fence was built without a permit along the public street outside the Beach Street facility and blocked Fire Department access to the road.

But DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the fence was needed to keep the area safe. For weeks, the facility has been the site of volatile protests amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown across the Chicago area.

Hours before the removal deadline, the unified command — a law enforcement task force consisting of the Cook County sheriff’s office, Illinois State Police, state and county emergency management and Broadview police — released an updated map outlining designated protest and media areas solely along Beach Street near Lexington Street.

Reflecting Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson’s order this week shrinking protest areas, state and local officials said sidewalks along the east and west sides of 25th Avenue between Fillmore and Lexington streets would be temporarily closed. Officials noted that roughly 2,500 protesters have demonstrated outside the detention facility over the past three weeks and that the vast majority of those gatherings have been peaceful, safe and lawful.

On Oct. 3, Broadview filed a federal lawsuit against DHS seeking a temporary restraining order and the immediate removal of the 8-foot-high fence. The suit accused DHS of constructing the fence “in the middle of the night without notice” and physically depriving the municipality of the right to control its own land.

Arguments in the case began last week, during which U.S. District Judge LaShonda Hunt warned both sides she didn’t want to get caught up in the politics of the moment.

The matter came to a head Thursday when the federal judge sided with the village and ordered the fence removed. Hunt said it was clear from the government’s own arguments that “there is no plan to take the fence down and that ‘Operation Midway Blitz‘ currently has no end in sight.”

Thompson hailed the ruling as “a decisive win for public safety.” Meanwhile, McLaughlin in a statement decried “activist judges” and local leaders she says are attempting to stop lawful immigration enforcement.

The fence’s removal comes a day after Thompson issued an executive order to shut down a previously authorized protest zone outside the holding facility along 25th Avenue at Harvard Street. Last week, with a separate executive order, Thompson limited protest hours at the facility from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Since the beginning of the month, state troopers have monitored protests at the facility as part of the unified command the agency temporarily formed alongside the sheriff’s office to address safety concerns outside the building.”

Chicago Tribune’s Jason Meisner, Dan Petrella and Angie Leventis Lourgos contributed.

tkenny@chicagotribune.com