The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an X post on Sunday that it arrested “11 violent rioters” and confiscated two guns and a potential explosive device from protestors outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in the Chicago suburbs this weekend.
Newsweek has reached out to the DHS for comment via email on Sunday.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement in Chicago through Operation Midway Blitz, which started in early September and seeks to target individuals in the country without legal status who have criminal records or pending charges. On Sunday, dozens of armed federal agents in tactical gear patrolled the city.
Thousands of immigrants residing in the country illegally and legally, with valid documentation, including green cards and visas, have been detained. Individuals without proper documentation have been asked by the DHS to self-deport.
Protesters demonstrating against ICE raids, arrests, and detention conditions have at times clashed with law enforcement. In Los Angeles this summer, officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds during several nights of demonstrations.
What To Know
Over the past two days, over 200 protesters have gathered outside the ICE detention center in the suburbs of Chicago, Broadview Processing Center. DHS officials have called protestors “violent rioters,” and used tear gas on the crowd, according to local news station Fox 32.
Protesters were met with gas canisters and pepper pellets, Fox 32 reported. In its X post on Sunday, DHS announced “arrests are being made” in relation to the protests, announcing that “11 violent rioters were arrested last night in Chicago outside the ICE detention facility.”
The statement noted that officers confiscated two guns from “rioters in Chicago right against the fence at our ICE detention facility,” as well as having launched an investigation into “what appears to be some sort of explosive device.”
Kat Abughazaleh, a former journalist running for Congress, shared a video on X on Friday of a reported ICE vehicle driving through the crowd of protesters.
“At the Broadview ICE facility, an ICE agent tried to run dozens of protesters over with an SUV as we walked on a public crosswalk. He kept driving for about a full football field until ICE barraged us with pepper balls,” she wrote in the post.
In a Friday press release, DHS said, “Our ICE law enforcement officers are facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them,” and noted the recent shooting at a Dallas facility. One ICE detainee was killed, and two more were in a serious condition, after the shooting at the ICE field office early Wednesday morning. No law enforcement officers were injured, authorities said. The gunman who was fatally shot, was identified as Joshua Jahn.
On Friday, DHS said a federal immigration officer in New York City was relieved of duty after video surfaced showing him pushing a woman to the ground outside an immigration court.
“The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin previously told Newsweek in a statement. “Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation.”
What People Are Saying
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement: “Just days after the vile terrorist attack on an ICE Dallas Facility, over 200 rioters gathered outside the Broadview Processing Center in Illinois, and some began chanting ‘shoot ICE.’ These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop. There is no place in American politics for violence.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in Saturday video posted on X: “Now more than 200 violent rioters were at a Chicago ICE facility chanting ‘Arrest ICE, Shoot ICE.’ At least one had a gun. We’ve seen this before, we saw it in Portland and with the LA riots. These are not peaceful protests. These are coordinated attacks by radical extremists and they end now. Anyone who threatens or assaults our federal officers will be arrested and charged federally, not in some liberal state court.”
The Village of Broadview said in a statement: “ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview. We will not be intimidated. We are Broadview strong.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said in a Sunday X post: “The Trump Administration’s DHS officers appear to be carrying large weapons around downtown Chicago in camouflage and masks. This is not making anybody safer — it’s a show of intimidation, instilling fear in our communities and hurting our businesses.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Illinois said in a September 13 statement regarding a different protest outside Broadview: “Like millions of Americans, the protestors gathering at the Broadview ICE processing center oppose the Trump Administration’s reckless and ruthless immigration enforcement policies. Those protestors – like everyone in our country – have the right to express themselves about government policy. Federal officers should not respond to First Amendment activity with physical force and the firing of projectiles.”
What Happens Next?
DHS said investigations into arrests and weapons are ongoing.