ICE 'launching enforcement action' after Broadview mayor urges agents to end 'siege' on protesters
Federal immigration agents have warned of potential enforcement actions targeting Broadview residents and first responders Saturday, following remarks from the village’s mayor accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of “making war on my community.”
Hourslong protests have continued outside the ICE facility at 1930 Beach St. since the Trump administration launched “Operation Midway Blitz” earlier this month, a campaign to ramp up immigration enforcement across the Chicago area.
On Friday, a crowd slowly grew to about 100 peaceful protesters before ICE officers started firing chemical irritants around 8 a.m. They were targeting demonstrators who were yelling at passing vehicles on the other side of a heavy-duty fence that ICE erected in the roadway this week.
Non-lethal ammunition and tear gas followed.
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson delivered a direct message to Russell Hott, director of ICE’s Chicago field office: “It has to stop.”
However, village officials said Saturday that ICE agents warned the Broadview Police Department there would be “a sh-- show” in Broadview in response to Thompson’s comments.
Agents wearing military fatigues were seen carrying boxes and buckets labeled as hazardous materials into the facility on Saturday morning.
“ICE agents told the BFD that they will be launching enforcement action throughout all of Broadview throughout the day,” village officials said. “Additionally, ICE informed BPD officials that ICE agents will be again deploying chemical arms, such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”
Village officials urged residents to take precautions to protect themselves and their families. A protest at the facility was planned for 6 p.m. Saturday.
In downtown Chicago Saturday afternoon, a couple hundred protesters gathered, chanting a familiar slogan: “No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here.”
The demonstration was hosted by the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and more than a dozen other groups. Like many recent protests in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, the demonstration brought attention to increased operations by ICE. But the rally stood apart from others, as organizers identified a specific target: Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke.
They called on O’Neill Burke to investigate the ICE facility in Broadview and the death of Silverio Villegas González, a Mexican immigrant who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent during a traffic stop in Franklin Park this month. They also demanded that she release those who have claimed to be tortured by police and wrongfully convicted.
“While it’s really easy and good to focus on what ICE is doing and what Trump is doing and what all of these federal authorities are doing, we also have to focus on the people that are rolling out the red carpet for ICE here in Chicago,” said Omar Flores, a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, “and one of those people is Eileen O’Neill Burke.”