Protesters arrested outside Broadview ICE facility in Illinois as governor slams DHS Secretary Noem’s visit
By Bill Kirkos, Alisha Ebrahimji, Taylor Romine, CNN
Broadview, Illinois (CNN) — At least 18 people were arrested outside the Broadview Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Chicago Friday, where protesters have gathered several weeks in a row amid bubbling tensions as the Trump administration’s larger immigration enforcement efforts continue.
Protesters filled the streets outside the facility Friday as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was perched on the rooftop of the controversial building, surrounded by armed agents and a camera crew, according to CNN affiliate WLS. Friday’s protests mirror demonstrations seen at the ICE facility in recent weeks.
Broadview police officers and Cook County sheriff’s deputies held the line near a large group of protesters and were instructed at one point to put on gas masks. The crowd briefly diminished during the afternoon hours but regained size in the evening as a crowd took hold of the corner across from the facility.
At least five people have been arrested for aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting and obstruction, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office told CNN. DHS reported 13 additional arrests Friday evening.
Following the protests at the Broadview ICE facility and the arrest of conservative influencer Nick Sortor near an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, Noem has requested assistance from the Pentagon, she said while speaking with right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson.
“We’re not just going to be rolling out of Chicago here, but we’re sending in the Department of War at the request that I made to Secretary Hegseth. They’re going to be rolling in here within the next 24 hours. They’ll be coming to Chicago too, I put in a request in today for them to come to Chicago,” Noem told Johnson. “What we saw happen to that journalist will not happen again,” she said in reference to Portland.
There are no written orders for the National Guard to be deployed to Chicago, and there is no unit preparing for that mission, a US Northern Command spokesperson told CNN.
Later in the day, Noem said that she and her team were blocked from entering the Village of Broadview Municipal Building, calling the incident “absolutely shameful” in a post on X.
“We were stopping for a quick bathroom break. This is a public building,” Noem said in the post. The building is less than a mile from the local ICE facility.
“This is how JB Pritzker and his cronies treat our law enforcement,” she said in the post.
Village of Broadview spokesperson David Ormsby told CNN in a statement, “We are distressed to hear that the bathrooms are unavailable at the ICE facility.”
Noem visited Broadview’s Village Hall unannounced to ask for a meeting with Mayor Katrina Thompson, who was out at the time, the spokesperson said.
“The mayor returned her visit,” Ormsby said. “Mayor Thompson went to the ICE center, accompanied by the Broadview Police Chief Thomas, and officers, to ask for the illegal fence to be dismantled. The mayor was told by agents at the gate the secretary was unavailable to meet.”
The facility, about 10 miles west of Chicago, has been the site of demonstrations against ramped-up ICE enforcement and aggressive tactics for several weeks. Similar protests have flared across the country, including this week in Portland, Oregon, as the White House has aimed to crack down on crime more broadly in Democratic-led cities, often citing the need to protect ICE sites.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker warned of a constitutional crisis during a speech Friday, saying the Trump administration wants people “to get used to the idea of the military roaming our streets.”
“Our house is on fire, and our firefighters are using their hoses to water the lawn outside,” Pritzker said while speaking at a fundraiser held by Georgia Democrats. “My message of alarm is that the constitutional crisis is not on its way; it is here, and we all better start acting like it.”
The protests near Chicago began after local leaders got word in early September that “a large-scale enforcement campaign” would soon be underway in the Windy City as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration agenda.
The Midway Blitz Operation has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests, the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release Friday.
“Federal agents reporting to Secretary Noem have spent weeks snatching up families, scaring law-abiding residents, violating due process rights, and even detaining U.S. citizens,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote on Facebook on Friday.
Federal agents are also “acting with impunity,” the governor said in a statement provided to CNN.
“In addition to their inhumane tactics on immigration enforcement, they have grossly mishandled and incited tensions at the Broadview facility. This includes firing chemical agents at protesters and media, arresting a reporter, slamming people to the ground, and wreaking havoc on Broadview residents and nearby businesses,” the statement said in part.
The governor criticized Noem’s visit to the state in the Facebook post, saying she “should no longer be able to step foot inside the State of Illinois without any form of public accountability.”
“It’s been nearly 45 days since Secretary Noem has held an official press conference, so it’s time she faces the public and takes questions from the press to be held accountable for the Trump Administration’s gross misconduct,” Pritzker said in the Facebook post.
Local, state and federal agencies have a large presence at the facility, and have closed multiple streets, including 25th Avenue, a major street in Broadview.
Protesters outside the facility Friday morning held signs and chanted. One sign read, “ICE melts under resistance,” meanwhile another said, “Hate has no home here.”
Protester Nicole Bandyk lives in a nearby suburb and decided to join the demonstrators after watching coverage of the protests in news reports and online.
“I’m not gonna look back and say I sat at home and did nothing,” Bandyk told CNN. “It’s wrong … It’s just wrong what they’re doing. We are becoming a fascist authoritarian state and it’s wrong.”
El Centro Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino accompanied Noem on the roof, according to WLS, and was later seen on the ground directing protesters and media away from the area.
Protests have been building for weeks
The latest round of arrests come two weeks after a Democratic Chicago-area mayor running for Congress in Illinois said federal agents teargassed him outside the same facility.
Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, spoke about the incident in a video on his X account, saying: “Not only did they come with weapons and violence, show of force and drive a van into us, but then they teargassed us, and I have to tell you, it was terrifying.”
At least one other person, who identified herself on social media as Kat Abughazaleh, a former journalist also running for Congress, landed on the ground during that same protest after she was pushed by a federal law enforcement agent in a camouflage uniform wearing a full face covering, sunglasses and a helmet, video by CNN affiliate WBBM showed.
“We stood in front of the van and they (an officer) came out and picked me up and threw me on the ground,” Abughazaleh told CNN at the time, adding that federal agents fired pepper balls at her and weaponless protesters carrying signs.
Sidney Wright IV, Kara Devlin and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
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