Cook County and state law enforcement agencies are using barricades to set up “designated protest areas” around a federal facility used to process detained immigrants in suburban Broadview to address public safety concerns.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement site, 1930 Beach Street, has become the center of recurring protests since President Donald Trump in early September launched “Operation Midway Blitz,” an aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area.
Barricades will be placed on each side of Beach Street, from Lexington Street to nearly the silver wire fence that the feds erected Sept. 23 across Beach Street, to keep protesters off the roadway and to allow vehicles to pass through.
The barricades will “protect the health and safety of all individuals, including nearby Broadview residents and businesses, and enable the peaceful expression of First Amendment rights,” the Cook County sheriff’s office said in a news release Thursday.
Federal officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night. It was unclear if state and county officials coordinated the barricades with the federal government.
The facility has become a de facto detention center, though it was never intended to be one. Protesters, often while trying to block ICE vehicles from entering and leaving the facility, have been met with numerous rounds of rubber pellets and chemical agents that Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson previously said endangers nearby residents and first responders.
Last week, two ICE agents chased a pair of protesters outside another area of the facility, across traffic on 25th Avenue and into a nearby resident’s yard, causing a piece of the home’s picket fence to break and leaving a rubber baton round in their yard.
Reveal Interiors, an independently owned cabinet manufacturer next door to the ICE facility, placed wooden barriers outside its building Monday in an effort to keep protesters — and clashes between them and ICE agents — off its property.
The new barricades are being erected at the request of the Broadview Police Department, and are being coordinated with Illinois State Police, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Cook County Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security, the sheriff’s office said.
Local uniformed officers will be at the site to direct protesters to the “designated areas” and ensure the roadway to the ICE facility is clear for people such as attorneys, consulate representatives and medical providers.
Thursday evening, Illinois state troopers and Broadview police officers stood outside of the facility, some striking up conversations with the protesters. The protest outside of the ICE processing center remained peaceful late Thursday as one man appeared to turn himself into immigration officials. About half of the area was barricaded off before workers ran out of barricades Thursday night.
Community activists, including two candidates for a congressional and a state representative seat, are expected to gather outside the facility Friday morning for a news conference.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere contributed.
Source link
