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An ICE facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview has increasingly drawn protesters, federal agents and state police to the area.Jim Vondruska for NBC News
Immigration
How immigration enforcement turned sleepy Broadview into a chaotic, militarized town
An intensive immigration operation ordered by President Donald Trump has quickly transformed Broadview, Illinois, into the beating hot center of the resistance.
BROADVIEW, Ill. — Derrick Nash stood on his front porch, lit a cigarette and shook his head.
It was a drizzly Friday afternoon and a now familiar chaos spilled out just feet before him. Beside his home on 25th Avenue, a main traffic artery in this small town, demonstrators shouted profanities through bullhorns, antagonizing local police officers positioned outside the federal facility where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been bringing newly arrested immigrants.
Law enforcement officers wearing bulletproof vests stood in the street. Others were positioned in SUVs, blocking intersections and keeping people on the sidewalks. TV cameras set up steps away and reporters delivered their live shots.
The ICE facility is across the street from Nash’s house, and a throng of people were protesting there until some broke through a barricade. Illinois State Police troopers rushed in, batons in hand, and held back the crowd. A pair of officers re-emerged, now directing two new arrestees.
“It’s been a month,” Nash said. “This isn’t going to stop.”
Law enforcement officers have deployed tear gas and pepper balls in skirmishes with protesters.Jim Vondruska for NBC NewsIllinois State Police have confronted protesters, who have been limited to a designated First Amendment area. The mayor also set designated hours for demonstrations. Jim Vondruska for NBC News
Helicopters constantly whir overhead and the demonstrations often force traffic to come to a stop or to slow at major thoroughfares. Outsiders jam up street parking, leaving their cars there all day. Echoes of those shouting through bullhorns can be heard by those mowing their yards or working on their cars outside. Violent clashes have resulted in plumes of tear gas that send children and parents running inside even blocks away. On Saturday night over a week ago, a group of protesters blocked a nearby expressway.
“It’s just a disruption of people’s lives. We deserve a quality of life. This is our quality of life. Our people need their peace after working all day. They need to be able to rest at night,” Thompson told NBC News. “We have families that have children that have developmental disabilities. The emotional stress that they have to endure — because of the helicopters, the blaring lights from our public safety teams, whether it’s fire or police.”
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson said federal authorities are escalating clashes with protesters.Jim Vondruska for NBC News
Thompson said the ICE facility, which was intended to operate only as a processing center, has been tucked into the same industrial park area for decades. It was hard to find any resident or business owner who knew it existed before the recent demonstrations.
Thompson placed the blame on federal authorities for the escalating clashes. She said when protesters showed up about a month ago, they were peaceful. First Amendment groups have accused federal authorities of carrying out excessive tactics, including pelting protesters and the media with tear gas and pepper balls. A federal judge in Chicago ruled that federal law enforcement could not employ such tactics unless under serious threat.
Thompson said there was a certain irony in the Trump administration announcing a peace deal with the Middle East even as clashes in his own country have accelerated.
“I heard about the peace position in Gaza — we don’t even have peace in our own nation. The hypocrisy is so evident,” she said. “How do you go and say peace somewhere else, and you can’t say peace in America?”
DHS and ICE did not respond to a request for comment. Skirmishes and arrests persisted this past weekend, leading the mayor to announce on Monday that the village would further limit the designated area for protests.
To Nash, the scene on Friday was not nearly the worst of it. Weekends before, he saw an armored truck patrolling the area, as well as a mass of federal agents.
“It looked like an army. Like an army,” he said.
Residents of Broadview say the protests and confrontations have disrupted their previously peaceful neighborhood. Jim Vondruska for NBC NewsStreets have been blocked off and law enforcement vehicles are now regular presences in the town of 8,000.Jim Vondruska for NBC News
At one point, Nash said, an agent chased a man into his yard, breaking a fence and shooting rubber bullets. He said his kids and niece and nephew have not been able to get to school for the last four Fridays because the bus cannot get through to his home. Worse, plumes of tear gas deployed by federal agents have been so potent it’s irritated two of the children in the home who have asthma — even when they’re inside, Nash added. An autistic child who also lives in the home has struggled at the relentless thrumming of helicopters constantly flying overhead, he said.
Blocks away, Steven Vega and his wife, Jocelyn Ovellana, have had their own struggles. On a recent weekend, in a last gasp of summer warmth in October, they tried to have a backyard dinner with their three children. Suddenly, their kids began to complain that their eyes stung and they didn’t feel well. Ovellana and Vega then realized it was tear gas, they said.
“It got in your eyes, you can feel it,” Ovellana said, gesturing to her eyes and stomach. “We had to run inside.”
A couple of streets away, J.P. O’Connor said he could smell what he described as sulfur in the air on two separate nights.
“It’s scary,” O’Connor said as he held one of his children. He, too, made sure to keep his children indoors to spare them from the tear gas permeating the neighborhood. “People are afraid to go out. Nobody wants to deal with what’s going on.”
All of that is aside from the general fear, residents say, that aggressive immigration tactics could target them. It’s a fear many hold despite being citizens.
State police have also been deployed to the scene. Jim Vondruska for NBC News
“I feel unsafe to a certain extent now,” said Angela Flowers, who is African American and has lived in Broadview for 10 years. She referred to an overnight raid in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood where agents used a military helicopter. “ICE — they are doing a lot of extreme things now,” she said. “They raided a building a few days ago with African American people there.”
On one particularly intense night, when immigration officials launched gas bombs at the crowd, protester Bryan Brannon said he saw a couple of people in need of medical attention. He ran to 25th Avenue to ask Broadview Police if they could assist. They said they couldn’t because of the toxicity in the air, he said. The department employs just 24 officers, who work 12-hour shifts, according to the mayor.
“They didn’t even have masks. So I’m like, giving the police surgical masks,” said Brannon, who lives in the far northern suburb of Evanston. Broadview Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident described.
Bryan Brannon said he gave police surgical masks after tear gas was used.Jim Vondruska for NBC News
Brannon is among the crowd of protesters Broadview has drawn from all over the country. Levi Rolles, of North Carolina, known as “Spicy Jesus,” is a constant presence who sleeps in a tent along a First Amendment, or free speech, zone near the ICE facility. Rolles said he was arrested within 45 minutes of showing up, accused of slowing traffic. He says the red welts covering his back are evidence of his repeated clashes with law enforcement.
“I’ve been shot at by both pepper balls and rubber bullets. They tear gassed us on certain days, Fridays and Saturdays,” he said. Rolles said he traveled to Broadview to stand up for aggression against immigrants. “They basically have been functioning unobstructed and unimpeded.”
Near Rolles, a half dozen women stood by parked cars, rosary beads clasped, heads lowered in prayer. A man dressed in a green dinosaur costume blared the song “Baba O’Riley” and shouted at federal officers through a bullhorn. Seeing a lack of an audience, he retreated.
Levi Rolles, known as “Spicy Jesus,” shows the welts on his back from repeated clashes with law enforcement.
Jim Vondruska for NBC News
At rush hour, a handful of protesters near an expressway off-ramp held up signs denouncing ICE. One sign read, “Honk if you support the Constitution.” Numerous drivers tapped their horns, and some pumped fists in solidarity. On this day, a counterprotester drove by slowly and blared “God Bless the USA.” The man inside did a three-point turn and returned with “Born in the USA.” He and Julio Vilches, a Mexican immigrant, outside shouted at each other.
“Why don’t you come in the right way!” the man in the SUV said.
Just after him, another man employed the same tactic. He drove with music blaring and windows down. But he wore a large sombrero, played Mexican music and cheerfully honked his horn. At that, the nearby group smiled and cheered.
“This was a quiet place,” said Flowers, who lives about a mile from the scene. “It’s not quiet anymore.”
Law enforcement police the streets of Broadview, where immigration officials have launched gas bombs at crowds.Jim Vondruska for NBC News
