BROADVIEW, Ill. — Federal agents detained multiple people Friday near an immigration facility outside Chicago that has frequently been targeted by protesters during the Trump administration’s surge of immigration enforcement this fall.
As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with employees inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, a crowd grew over several hours, some riled by newly installed barricades to separate them from law enforcement officers stationed outside. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the protests and any detentions at the scene.
Noem, whose visit to Chicago was confirmed by Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, also accompanied agents Friday on a raid near a local Walmart store, according to conservative media personality Benny Johnson. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Noem’s visit to the area.
Some protesters have aimed to block vehicles from going in or out of the area in recent weeks, part of growing pushback to a surge of immigration enforcement that began in early September. Federal agents have repeatedly fired tear gas, pepper balls and other projectiles toward crowds in response, and at least five protesters have faced federal charges after being arrested in those clashes.
Local law enforcement stepped up its own presence Friday at the facility about 12 miles west of Chicago. Several streets around the site were closed, patrolled by Illinois State Police officers wearing riot helmets and holding batons on patrol. The state police set up concrete barriers Thursday night to segregate protesters and designate spaces to demonstrate.
It was unclear how many people were detained Friday. One man was seen struggling on the ground with agents after he appeared to break through a line into the roadway and in front of a vehicle.
“Every week, ICE escalates its violence against us,” said Demi Palecek, a military veteran and candidate for Congress. “With this level of escalation, it’s only a matter of time before someone is killed.”
A spokesperson for Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker lashed out at President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday afternoon for the way federal agents, many of them masked to hide their faces, have been treating protesters over the past month, saying that they have “grossly mishandled and incited tensions at the Broadview facility.” The spokesperson said in a statement that the agents had engaged in “inhumane” tactics including slamming protesters to the ground, arresting a reporter and firing chemical agents into the crowds.
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Pritzker’s spokesperson said a newly established “unified command” of the Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff’s Department and others on Broadview’s streets will control crowds while ensuring protesters their First Amendment right to free speech.
“They show their faces, they have proper identification, and they are accountable to the people of Illinois,” the governor’s spokesperson said in the statement. “It is clear federal agents cannot be trusted to act to protect the safety and constitutional rights of the public.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations from the governor’s spokesperson.
On Thursday, Pritzker demanded Noem face the public by answering reporters’ questions and divulging details about the ongoing operation.
Noem, alongside Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, was surrounded by armed agents and a camera crew while standing beside a sniper’s post, according to footage shared online by Johnson. Johnson also posted video outside a Walmart store where he said agents, accompanied by Noem, had conducted a raid.
Noem said in a post on social media on Friday afternoon that she and her team were blocked from accessing the Village of Broadview Municipal Building in Illinois.
The village of Broadview said in a statement Friday afternoon that since Noem had appeared that morning “unannounced, at Broadview’s Village Hall asking for a meeting while Mayor Katrina Thompson was out of the building, the mayor returned her visit.”
“Mayor Thompson went to the ICE center, accompanied by the Broadview Police Chief Thomas, and officers, to ask for the illegal fence to be dismantled,” David Ormsby, the village’s spokesperson said in the statement. “The mayor was told by agents at the gate the secretary was unavailable to meet.”
Several demonstrators said they were frustrated by the designated protest zone, saying keeping them off public streets violated their First Amendment right to free speech. Others were angered by officers from local or state agencies standing shoulder to shoulder with federal officers, including Homeland Security Investigations, ICE, the Bureau of Prisons and others.
Most ignored the zone to protest on the other side of the facility, where Illinois State Police officers held them back.
Jonny Bishop, a 28-year-old former teacher from Palatine, Illinois, who is from a Mexican immigrant family, said he has been hit by tear gas and pepper balls at previous protests. He said the main contrast between Friday’s protests and earlier efforts is local, county and state law enforcement agencies working alongside federal agents.
“ICE acts with impunity,” he said. “They know that they can shoot at us. They can tear gas us. And Broadview Police Department is not going to do anything.”
The Broadview Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At one point, state police officers joined Border Patrol in advancing toward protesters, forming a larger perimeter around the building. Some protesters yelled in law enforcement officers’ faces while the officers grabbed them by the shoulders and pushed them back.
