Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson signed a declaration of civil emergency after a series of reported threats against the village and its elected officials through the course of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, the village announced in a news release Monday.
With the declaration, Village Board meetings will be held remotely, starting with a meeting scheduled Monday night.
The announcement comes after two Broadview police officers were injured in a skirmish Friday during a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs processing center in Broadview that resulted in 21 arrests.
According to the village’s release, Broadview received a bomb threat against its municipal building over the phone Sept. 4. A month and a half later, the village further stated, a death threat was made against Thompson on Oct. 13. The FBI has been notified of the threat against Thompson, the village said.
In response to questions about the reported threat, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Chicago field office wrote in an emailed statement to the Tribune, “While Department of Justice policy prevents the FBI from commenting on the nature of investigations that may or may not be occurring, we take all potential threats seriously.”
Threats further escalated over the weekend after a group of “out-of-town protesters, non-Broadview residents, attempted to storm Village Hall and explicitly threatened to ‘shut down’” Monday’s board meeting, the village’s release said, citing the Broadview Police Department.
“Since ICE’s Midway Blitz and the subsequent, intensifying protests began, the serious and credible bomb and death threats and the threat to disrupt village government has left me with no alternative but to declare a civil emergency in Broadview,” Thompson said in a statement.
Since the launch of Operation Midway Blitz, which sources said last week could be winding down, protesters have held near-daily demonstrations at Broadview’s ICE processing center, thrusting the tiny suburb into the national spotlight. In the wake of Friday’s protest, during which one Illinois State Police trooper and a Cook County sheriff’s deputy were also hurt, Thompson in a statement, called the injuries to officers “outrageous.”
Per the village’s release Monday, the injured Broadview police officers were transported to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood for treatment and have been released but are now sidelined due to their injuries.
“I will not allow threats of violence or intimidation to disrupt the essential function of our government, and I will not allow other elected officials, village hall staff or residents to be placed in harm’s way,” Thompson said.
Thompson’s executive order declares that until she deems “the emergency no longer imminent,” regularly scheduled board meetings will be held remotely and accessed publicly through YouTube livestream.
The order also comes as the Department of Homeland Security announced the launch of “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” the agency’s latest immigration sweep targeting Charlotte, North Carolina.
On Friday, DHS closed its command center at the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, ending a two-month-plus stay. However, it was not immediately clear what the closing of the command center meant for the future of federal immigration enforcement operations in Lake County and the rest of the Chicago area.
Meanwhile, as of Monday afternoon, the Texas National Guard had departed Illinois, ending a futile 41-day deployment in support of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation mission, according to a memorandum obtained by the Tribune. The departure marks yet another sign that Operation Midway Blitz is winding down.
Chicago Tribune’s Madeline Buckley, Lake County News-Sun freelancer Steve Sadin and The Associated Press contributed.
