Federal agents hurled tear gas and pepper spray into a crowd of about 100 protestors who attempted to block vans from entering and exiting a U.S. Immigration and Customs holding facility in Broadview Friday morning.
Protestors flocked to the west suburban building, which has its windows and door boarded up, early in the morning to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown known as “Operation Midway Blitz.” The group chanted, sang and screamed at a group of agents in military fatigues and masks who walked back and forth on the building’s roof.
At around 8:30 a.m., agents threw multiple gas canisters and fired pepper-spray balls to disperse the crowd as a group of people were trying to block a van from leaving the building. Agents grabbed one man who appeared to be charging up the driveway, pinned him to the ground and hustled him behind the gate with his hands behind his back.
Protestors said two other people had been detained that morning.
An ICE spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is the second Friday in a row protests have escalated as activists stage hours-long demonstrations outside the facility. Agents had forcefully cleared the crowd at least twice Friday morning.
Shortly after that standoff, Curtis Evans stood directly in front of the gate with an American flag. The 65-year-old Evanston resident heard about the first protest on social media and came to represent “the ideals that our country stands for.” He said tear gas and pepper balls hurt, but “five minutes later, you’re fine.”
“None of us have ever done this before,” he said. “All of this is new, and I just wanted to stand up as American and be seen and make my presence felt.”
Among those protesting were two Democratic candidates seeking to represent the 9th Congressional District, progressive content creator Kat Abughazaleh and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss. The district includes parts of the North Side as well as many northern and northwest suburbs. Broadview is in the 7th Congressional District, many miles away.
Other elected officials, including Lt. Gov. Julianna Stratton and Chicago aldermen Andre Vazquez and Byron Sigcho-Lopez, also showed up.
Abughazaleh posted footage to her 117,000 followers on Instagram of an agent shoving her to the ground.
“The last time today was rough,” she told the Tribune. “I believe a car was coming out or coming in. I stood up and this guy picked me up around my chest and threw me to the ground.”
Abughazaleh said behavior by agents at the protests have continued to escalate each week, including the “sheer force in how they threw me to the ground.”
“This week has been atrocious, the fact that they were content to run us over, tear gas us, shot us with pepper balls,” she said. “But what we are dealing with is not as bad as what the people in that building, that are being trapped in there, are dealing with.”
ACLU of Illinois said in a statement last week that Broadview protesters “have the right to express themselves about government policy.” They said federal officers shouldn’t respond to First Amendment activity with “physical force and the firing of projectiles.”
Biss also said “it’s obvious these guys are trying to intimidate.” He said the agents, who were armed and masked, rushed out into the crowd. He could be seen at one point on his knees on the street.
“They drove the car into us,” he said. “I couldn’t breathe.”
