Federal law enforcement agents used teargas and pepper balls to disperse a group of about 100 protesters, including two Democratic candidates for Congress, during a series of early morning clashes outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) building in Chicago on Friday.
Demonstrators had attempted to block a number of government SUVs from entering and exiting the facility, which has become an operating hub and detention location during an immigration crackdown in the Democratic city dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz”.
At least two protesters were arrested during the scuffles, which saw masked homeland security agents, dressed in riot gear, fire pepper balls at protesters from a rooftop and launch multiple canisters of teargas. One agent stood with what appeared to be an unholstered firearm. The facility is lined with razor wire, and its windows are boarded with plywood.
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate for Illinois’s ninth congressional district, had sat at an entrance to the facility, alongside dozens of other protesters, before teargas was launched into the crowd. Earlier in the morning she was shoved to the ground by a masked agent as a group of vehicles entered the facility.
She described the episodes as a “violent abuse of power” in a later post on social media, adding: “It’s still nothing compared to what they’re doing to immigrant communities.”
Illinois’s lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, a frontrunner in the race for US Senate next year, was also present earlier on at the protest, although had left before law enforcement officers deployed teargas.
“Protesters showed up today with handmade signs and cellphones. They were singing, chanting, praying, and linking arms to stand up for their neighbors and to speak out against the cruelty happening inside Ice’s Broadview facility and across Illinois,” Stratton said in a statement.
“The fact that DHS responded with tear gas and by throwing protesters on the pavement tells you everything you need to know – this isn’t about safety. This is about fear, control, and the Trump administration’s attempt to intimidate Illinoisans into silence. We will never be silent.”
Bushra Amiwala, another candidate for Illinois’s ninth congressional district, was also present when agents fired teargas.
“There was no justification for using such violence against peaceful demonstrators,” she said. “What happened in Broadview today is an affront to our democracy.”
Protesters chanted the name of the Silverio Villegas González, a 38-year-old father of two who was fatally shot by an immigration officer during a traffic stop in the Chicago area last Friday.
Earlier in the morning agents arrested a protester after a group swarmed out from the facility to escort another vehicle. The protester was dragged inside by two masked agents after being slammed to the floor and pinned to the ground.
The demonstration comes as immigration enforcement in Chicago ramped up after the city was targeted by Donald Trump’s administration in an ongoing crackdown involving Democratic cities. While Trump has not sent the national guard to Chicago, as he has to Washington DC and Los Angeles, California, the city has seen a surge of Ice raids in several neighborhoods.
