They were arrested at an ICE protest outside of Chicago. Here’s what happened to them next

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN

(CNN) — As demonstrations outside an immigration enforcement facility near Chicago have ramped up over the past couple of months, so has the number of protesters being led away in restraints and facing a court date.

Since September, protesters have rallied weekly outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview against President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago.
Early on, federal agents guarding the building deployed tear gas and shot pepper balls in clashes with protesters and arrested some of them, including some charged with felonies on suspicion of assaulting or blocking officers.

But by early October, state, county and local law enforcement officers took a larger role in policing the protests at the facility. These agencies have made 68 arrests in connection with Broadview protests since October 3, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said on October 28.

The arrests sometimes expose a tension between demonstrators’ desire to exercise their constitutional free speech rights and the intention of authorities – who say some protesters have resisted their attempts to keep paths to the building clear – to let ICE agents and others travel safely to and from the facility.

CNN talked to some arrested demonstrators or, in one case, a protester’s representative, to ask about their experiences in getting arrested on accusations ranging from petty to felony offenses. Here are their stories.

Chicago woman held for hours after a crowd scuffle with police

A’Keisha Lee was standing and chanting with a crowd of protesters near the Broadview ICE facility on October 17 when she saw a swarm of police officers hop out of police vans wearing helmets and carrying batons, she said.

“I was sickened,” the 30-year-old Chicago resident recalled. “And I remember feeling really scared.”

The officers walked toward her and the other demonstrators in a “militarized fashion” and began pushing them back, she said. Video of the encounter shows Lee at the front of the crowd when officers with Illinois State Police patches on their sleeves pushed in an apparent attempt to clear them from a paved area, and some demonstrators tried to hold their ground.

Chaos ensued. There was yelling, people falling, and some who appeared to get hurt in the scuffle, Lee said.

She was hit in the face with a baton, and wasn’t sure whether the strike was intentional, she recounted. She’d later discover a bruise on her face.

Lee fell to the ground, and officers helped her up, according to Lee and the video, which was distributed by Reuters. An officer then detained her, putting zip ties around her wrists, she said; that moment is not shown in the Reuters video. Lee couldn’t understand why she was being arrested.

“I was asking them to let me go,” Lee said, “and reinforcing that I hadn’t did anything I wasn’t allowed to do.”

She was escorted to a curb to sit, and moments later placed in a police vehicle that took her to the Broadview Police Department. Lee’s mind raced as she rode in the police car. She worried about going to jail and whether the conditions would be clean and safe. She also worried about whether she’d be treated differently as a Black woman in the legal system.

At the police station, she was booked, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell with other female protesters for about five hours before being released.

Illinois State Police had arrested her on two Class A misdemeanor counts of resisting a police officer – punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500 – Cook County court records show. She also was cited on suspicion of disobeying a police officer, a petty offense that carries a fine. Her court appearance is scheduled for November 25.

The court documents do not offer details about what led to the arrest, but Lee denies resisting and says it was never made clear to her how she was disobeying police.

“From my understanding, it was in my rights to be there,” she said.

Illinois State Police did not directly answer CNN’s questions about this specific incident, including Lee’s assertion that she did nothing wrong or why officers pushed back this crowd. However, they did issue a statement generally addressing the approach of the state, county and local officers who’ve been policing the protests since early October – a group they call the “Unified Command.”

These officers in Broadview “give loud, clear, consistent, and repeated directions and commands to crowds and provide individuals numerous opportunities to comply with the law,” state police said.

“It’s important to note that since the establishment of the Unified Command, there have been no violent confrontations between ICE and protesters in Broadview involving the use of chemical agents, which is a significant departure from operations prior to their presence,” the statement reads.

Lee has protested at the Broadview ICE facility on several recent Fridays, taking issue with how ICE is picking up allegedly undocumented immigrants in the Chicago area, and how federal agents are deploying tear gas during protests in neighborhoods.

“I think how this country has treated immigrants is one of our original transgressions,” Lee said. “And this is the first tester for what we will allow as a people.”

Lee, who works for a local nonprofit, worries about the fate of her court case; however, she stands by her decision to protest.

“There’s always a fear of being treated like an example when these things happen,” Lee said. “But I do believe that I did not break the law.”

He was arrested while trying to enter the ICE facility

Sean Mills says he is not happy about how immigrants have been treated since the Trump administration started aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration earlier this year.

To voice his frustrations, Mills, 37, of Chicago, has become a weekly demonstrator at the Broadview ICE facility. He shows up every Friday and Saturday – sometimes wearing an American flag draped around his shoulders – and joins other protesters outside the facility.

But on October 17, Mills was arrested for the first time in his life, he said, after he tried to enter the building. Mills had become increasingly concerned with claims by local activists that the facility’s conditions were inhumane. So, Mills wanted to view the building’s interior himself.

“I just had the urge to walk over and test my luck,” Mills said. “I walked over to see if I could investigate as a citizen and enter the facility to ask questions and document.”

Officers surrounded Mills near the facility’s entrance, and one told him he was not allowed inside, Mills said. That same officer told Mills to “go back immediately” or be arrested, according to Mills.

“I tried to explain myself a little bit further,” Mills said, adding he told the officers he was a concerned citizen who wanted to go inside. “And I think about five or 10 seconds later, he (the officer) said ‘OK, you’re under arrest.’”

Mills was shocked because he didn’t believe he had done anything wrong. He also felt the officers had not given him enough time to explain himself before restraining his hands with what he believes were zip ties.

Three other protesters who also were trying to enter the building were arrested, he recalled.

“I think it’s just an over-policing example, because I walked up there with my hands out to my side, declared myself very openly, and said I’d like to enter the facility,” Mills said. “One hundred percent it was just to show an example of us.”

Mills was escorted to a nearby curb, where he waited roughly 10 minutes for a police van that took him to the Broadview police station, where he was processed and given a citation, he recounted.

Illinois State Police cited him on suspicion of disobeying a police officer – a petty offense punishable by a fine – Cook County court records show, and is scheduled to appear in court November 25.

The court documents do not offer a narrative of the arrest. State police did not directly respond to CNN’s questions about this specific incident, including about Mills’ claim that he did nothing wrong. Instead, they provided the same general statement they gave for Lee’s arrest.

Mills has no regrets protesting and getting arrested because he’s standing up for his beliefs.

“It’s a shame that us peaceful protesters are being targeted instead of being encouraged to exercise our First Amendment rights,” Mills said.

Mills objects to law enforcement officers being able to stop and ask people about their immigration status based at least in part on their apparent ethnicity. A US Supreme Court ruling in a California case last month appeared to clear the way for a person’s ethnicity to be a factor behind immigration stops by law enforcement.

Mills also does not support ICE’s roundups throughout Chicago of people accused of being in the country illegally.

“We are doing the least that we can do to keep our neighbors safe, which is so important to us right now,” Mills said.

School cafeteria worker tackled after threatening agents, authorities say

Paul Ivery is a Chicago-area man with an intellectual disability who works at a high school cafeteria and admires and respects the police and first responders in his community – even saluting officers when he passes them – people who know him say.

So it may have surprised acquaintances that for two weeks, he faced a felony charge of assaulting a federal officer at a protest at the ICE facility in Broadview.

The case would draw numerous supporters, including his own mayor, to one of Ivery’s court hearings in an attempt to persuade a judge he wasn’t a threat. Ivery declined to be interviewed for this story, but a family representative, court filings and bystander video help chronicle a case that the government wanted prosecuted one moment but dismissed the next.

Ivery walked from his home in Oak Park to the Broadview ICE facility on September 27 to join the demonstrations, family spokesperson Scott Sakiwama said.

Ivery would later tell investigators he was there to “protest against ICE” because he believed that “ICE agents were disrespectful towards the Broadview Police Department and veterans,” a criminal complaint filed against Ivery in federal court said, without elaborating on his motivation.

Ivery was also upset that federal agents had been deploying tear gas and shooting pepper balls at protesters at Broadview, according to Sakiwama.

At some point during the protest, Ivery approached a US Border Patrol agent and shouted something at him, according to the complaint. While the agent couldn’t recall what was said, Ivery would admit to investigators later that he said, “I’ll (expletive) kill you right now,” and, “do something,” according to the document.

After the shout, Ivery ran and jumped on top of an occupied vehicle as agents chased him, the complaint says.

Video from a bystander shows Ivery jumping off the vehicle, and an agent tackling him as he hits the pavement. Ivery yells as several agents restrain him. Nearby, other agents fire chemical irritants into the ground to keep bystanders away, appearing to cause some people to cough, the video shows.

An onlooker asks Ivery for his name. Ivery yells it and says, “Help me!” Minutes later, after agents tied his hands behind his back and sat him up, an agent helps Ivery drink from a water bottle. Ivery is eventually pulled to his feet and led into the back of an unmarked vehicle.

The complaint alleges that as agents were restraining Ivery, he grabbed an agent’s helmet and pulled it down, hurting the agent’s chin and exposing the agent to pepper spray.

Ivery was arrested and charged in federal court with felony assault on a federal officer, according to court documents.

Ivery was temporarily held at the Broadview ICE facility on the day of his arrest and transferred to the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago that evening, Sakiwama said.

Ivery was held for several days. But by October 1, prosecutors asked to have him released from jail and put on house arrest pending trial, acknowledging his disability, CNN affiliate WLS-TV reported.

At a hearing that day, a judge released Ivery on his own recognizance. Many of Ivery’s supporters, including Oak Park Mayor Vicki Scaman, were there to back him, according to WLS.

In a letter to the judge, Scaman said Ivery is a “valued member of our community” who stops and salutes police when he sees them on the street. She wrote that Ivery is not a threat to the community, and she hoped the judge would consider Ivery’s “special needs diagnosis.”

On October 9, prosecutors moved to dismiss the charge altogether, and the judge ordered the dismissal the next day. The court records did not say why the case was dismissed.

The US attorney’s office for Illinois’ northern district did not respond to CNN’s request for information about the dismissal. Ivery’s court-appointed attorney declined to be interviewed about the specifics of the case.

“I am happy for Mr. Ivery and the just resolution of his case and hope that others who are also having their First Amendment rights trampled by the government receive justice as well,” Ivery’s attorney and federal public defender Johanathan Brooks said in an email to CNN.

CNN’s Bill Kirkos and Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.

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