By Mandy Taheri

Copyright newsweek

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.

Federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection walk along West Wacker Drive in the Loop on September 28 in Chicago. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

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.”

ARRESTS ARE BEING MADE:11 violent rioters were arrested last night in Chicago outside the ICE detention facility: These are two guns that were taken off rioters in Chicago right against the fence at our ICE detention facility. An investigation is underway into what appears… pic.twitter.com/pLPfSIcA4p— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 28, 2025

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…