Politics
Broadview Officials Say ICE Waging ‘Disinformation Campaign’ Amid Protests as Local Officers ‘Shell Shocked’
The mayor of suburban Broadview said her constituents are “begging for relief” from federal immigration agents who have placed residents and first responders in danger by their use of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets against protesters.
Mayor Katrina Thompson on Tuesday accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of waging a “disinformation campaign” amid their continued use of chemical and less-lethal munitions directed at crowds outside the agency’s Broadview processing center.
“It all has to stop,” she said during a press conference alongside other Broadview leaders. “ICE has to stop putting our residents, our police officers, our first responders and American citizens in harm’s way.”
Thompson on Tuesday morning stood beside village leaders as well as former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot and the mayors of Oak Park and Forest Park, who have loaned their officers to assist in Broadview.
Broadview officials claimed the ICE facility and its personnel have put a tremendous strain on the village community.
Thompson last week called on ICE to stop “making war on my community” and on Tuesday said the village police department has launched three separate criminal investigations into ICE activity. That includes an incident in which CBS Chicago reporter Asal Rezaei claimed an agent fired a “direct shot” of chemical munitions at her car over the weekend when no protesters were present.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied that incident occurred and claimed protesters have themselves thrown rocks, slashed tires and tossed tear gas cans outside the facility.
In response to her statements last week, Thompson said ICE agents promised a “shitshow” in the village over the weekend, though they acknowledged the agency has denied any such statements were made.
Marina Galindo, a Maywood resident who was demonstrating outside of the facility Tuesday, said federal agents in recent days made those gathered feel like they were getting attacked.
“People were protesting, we were just standing there, they would come out and just start pushing people, they were pushing people,” Galindo said. “They weren’t giving people the chance to move back. They were like, ‘Get back,’ but not everyone can walk backwards.”
Village officials have claimed Broadview police officers have been forced out of action while they recover from their exposure to ICE’s tear gas, while firefighters, first responders and other ambulance personnel have also been exposed.
Police Chief Thomas Mills said his officers — many of whom are working their first ever job in law enforcement — have been “shell shocked” by the confrontations. He said he’s been on calls with officers as they were “literally choking” from the gas as they attempted to explain what was going on.
“It’s very hard on my officers,” he said. “This is unprecedented times when we’re actually having to try and do our job against the federal law enforcement who’s doing their job.”
Mills and Thompson also pushed back against claims by ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, who’ve claimed Broadview police have refused to answer calls for service made by federal agents.
They claimed officers have responded to the few calls they’ve gotten, while Thompson claimed DHS is “running a disinformation campaign that would even make Russia blush.”
Acting Fire Chief Matt Martin said fencing erected by ICE around the processing facility was constructed illegally and is blocking the Broadview Fire Department from accessing businesses in that area in the event of an emergency.
Though the village has called on ICE to take that down, Martin said they have received no response.
“Each day this fence remains, the risk of tragedy increases,” he said. “That is the law of probability and it applies to everyone, including the federal government.”
Five people were arrested during protests outside the processing center over the weekend, including two who allegedly had firearms in their possession.
Federal prosecutors claimed they were among a large group that descended on the facility’s entrance Saturday evening and allegedly “made criminal physical contact” against federal agents working outside of the facility.
Four of those five face felony assault charges after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo instructing Chicago’s federal prosecutors to seek “the highest provable offense” against protesters who are arrested.
Following those arrests, the Trump administration is now planning to deploy around 100 military troops in Illinois in order to protect ICE agents, Gov. JB Pritzker said Monday, though it remains to be seen when or where those soldiers could be sent out.
On Tuesday, Pritzker said he’s been in “constant and consistent communication with Broadview” police and officials, and is offering whatever assistance available to them.
“We want to keep the people of Broadview, especially, safe,” he said at an unrelated news conference. “Not just protesters, we’re talking about people who are just walking their kids to school, living their lives in Broadview. They deserve peace. That is why ICE needs to back off and that is why the President of the United States should not send troops to the state of Illinois.”
President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces, with U.S. military might being deployed against what he described as the “invasion from within.”
Addressing an audience of military brass abruptly summoned to Virginia, Trump outlined a muscular and at times norm-shattering view of the military’s role in domestic affairs. He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to “woke” culture and announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.
The dual messages underscored the Trump administration’s efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but enlist military resources for the president’s priorities and in everyday American civic life, including by quelling unrest and violent crime on city streets.
“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” Trump said. He noted at another point: “We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”
Pritzker called it “appalling” that Trump “would even suggest such a thing,” saying it’s offensive that the president is using cities as a playground for his “militarized obsession.” Pritzker claimed Trump is “copying tactics of Vladimir Putin” by sending troops into cities, "thinking that that’s some sort of proving ground for war.”
“We don’t want them here,” Thompson said when asked about the possibility of a military deployment in Broadview. ‘That’s how I feel.”
Eunice Alpasan, Joanna Hernandez, Nicole Cardos and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
