BROADVIEW — Federal agents detained demonstrators while tear gassing and shooting pepper spray bullets and flash bang grenades at others throughout a series of large Friday protests outside of an immigrant processing center in suburban Broadview.
The first sizable crowds assembled early Friday outside of the barricaded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, 1930 Beach St. in Broadview, to protest the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz and Operation At Large campaigns in the Chicago area. Agents repeatedly attacked demonstrators, protesters said; an agent unholstered his gun while he stood near protesters during one scuffle, and protesters said they were pepper sprayed unprovoked at points.
By early afternoon, ICE said it had arrested three demonstrators that it accused of blocking the entrance to the Broadview building and assaulting agents, according to CBS2. Later Friday, a fourth person was seen being taken into custody after a shoving match with an agent in which she at one point was pushed to the ground.
That agent had to be held back on multiple occasions by his peers as he made movements toward other protesters who continued cursing at him. About 15 minutes after the woman’s arrest, an ambulance arrived at the facility and took her to a nearby hospital. It wasn’t clear whether she remained in custody.
“We were assaulted by ICE officers,” said A’Keisha, a protester leading chants with a megaphone. “They pushed people to the ground and shot us with pepper spray balls while we have remained peaceful.”
The agents assaulted protesters repeatedly starting in the early morning, with the scuffles coming as agents tried to drive vehicles — some apparently containing detained people — in and out of the facility while protesters tried to block the drivers.
One altercation came just after 6 a.m. when agents shot several demonstrators with pepper balls and detained others.
About 8:30 a.m., ICE and border patrol agents in unmarked vehicles opened the gates and slowly drove into a crowd of demonstrators who were blocking the exit.
Agents clad head-to-toe in military gear — some carrying large guns — tossed cans of tear gas into the crowd while an officer on the roof of the building fired off pepper balls. Another agent with a camera could be seen on the roof.
Officers — who yelled orders muffled by their gas masks — pushed several protesters onto the ground and onto the hood of an ICE vehicle.
At least one officer was seen with his gun unholstered and out at his side while he stood near the protesters.
“I’ve seen shocking violence,” said Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who was out with protesters. “I mean, throwing people to the ground, pepper balls, tear gas. … It seems gratuitous, right? They’re trying to intimidate. They’ve got guys up there on the roof with cameras.
“They’re trying to remind people that this is an administration that names and then targets its political enemies for physical and economic violence.”
Activist Kat Abughazaleh — who, like Biss, is running to lead Illinois’ 9th congressional district — said federal agents threw her to the ground.
“Thank you all for being here every Friday in support of the marginalized people that are inside,” Abughazaleh told the crowd. “We need to stand up for the federal government, so everyone across can see us take back our government from those who hate us.”
Another incident occurred about 11 a.m., when someone in an ICE van drove into the facility with at least two detained people. The crowd of protesters had shrunk by about half, but agents pepper sprayed remaining protesters unprovoked, said Scott Spear, one of the demonstrators.
An agent also shot Spear in his lip with a pepper ball, he said; an hour later, he was still bleeding.
Speaking at an unrelated press conference in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson said the city has been providing Know Your Rights information to residents and has emphasized people’s right to protest in recent weeks
“You can’t have a democracy if the people of this country cannot be permitted the authority to peacefully assemble and to petition its government,” Johnson said. “That’s what people are doing right now.”
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The facility serves as a processing center for people ICE has arrested. Detained individuals are taken from the facility to detention centers across the country.
Chicagoans have reported more sightings of federal immigration agents and more people being detained. In response, more people have been showing up at protests outside the Broadview detention center, hoping to help immigrant neighbors and raise awareness of what’s happening.
The Associated Press reported Friday that immigration enforcement officials had arrested almost 550 people as part of its Chicago-area operations.
Around noon, agents assembled into a line formation in front of the facility’s front gate. Gregory Bovino, a chief patrol agent for Border Patrol who led a similar enforcement campaign in Los Angeles, stood in the center of the line as protesters heckled the federal officers.
Throughout the late morning, agents fired pepper balls at protesters standing near DHS vehicles and the gate to the processing center. An agent sprayed pepper spray directly into the eyes of demonstrator Bryan Brannon, who later received medical attention form local law enforcement.
“I want to put my body on the line for those who can’t,” Brannon said shortly before he was sprayed.
The protest swelled to about 150 demonstrators and tensions raised again by Friday evening, with at least two people seen being arrested and agents again firing pepper balls at the crowd.
Matthew Perchess of Niles stripped off his second shirt of the day, which was soaked with a mixture of water and pepper spray. A red, quarter-sized welt on his lower left abdomen matched the red heart tattooed on his chest.
“They shot me three times in the back,” said Perchess, who pointed out that the agents’ pepper balls had left a deep mark on him, despite the heavy vest he wore to protect himself.
At one point Friday evening, protesters took a knee to remember Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant shot and killed by an ICE agent during a traffic stop last week in Franklin Park. But a moment later, protesters shouted “Roof, roof, roof!” and pepper balls rained down again.
As agents geared up in gas masks, Evanston resident Bryan Vaidis Brannon paced in front of the fence smoking a cigarette. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of goggles and the scrubs he got earlier that afternoon at Loyola Hospital after an agent pepper sprayed him in the face for taunting them, he said.
About 20 officers marched toward the protesters, a cloud of smoke obscuring them. They threw a flash bang grenade at the crowd while agents on the roof fired pepper balls. One demonstrator volleyed a flash bang back at the officers while red fireworks ignited in the middle of the street.
Jovany Parra, of Chicago, needed a half hour to feel well after a tear gas canister burst beneath his feet late Friday evening. He said he saw the canister launch at him and then separate into three pieces before a peppery explosion choked him.
“I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see,” said Parra, whose friend, KP, had aided him as he recovered.
“It’s definitely the worst I’ve experienced at a protest,” KP added.
The two friends, both first-generation Mexican Americans, were motivated to attend the protest after last week’s killing of Villegas Gonzalez.
“Because he looks like us,” KP said.
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