Broadview ICE agents fired pepper balls at protesters 'as though for sport', Evanston mayor claims

BROADVIEW, Ill. - Federal agents used pepper pellets and gas canisters to disperse protesters outside the ICE facility in Broadview on Friday morning, where demonstrators were attempting to block operations tied to a recent enforcement sweep.

By Friday afternoon, tensions had eased, before reintensifying later in the evening. 

Broadview ICE protest

What we know:

Protests began around 7 a.m. at two locations near the facility, including Beach Street and 25th Avenue. Some demonstrators surrounded an ICE vehicle as it tried to reach the building, prompting agents to deploy pepper spray and bring in a military-style vehicle.

At least 50 protesters were seen midday Friday at the facility. 

"The reality is, as you can see, these are neighbors that are protecting neighbors that are actually being terrorized," said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th Ward.

An ICE spokesperson told Fox News that two demonstrators were arrested, one of whom was carrying a firearm.

"One of them is one of our neighbors from Pilsen, one of our community leaders, and the other person is a veteran," Sigcho-Lopez said. 

Parts of 25th Avenue were temporarily locked down as gas lingered in the air and officials prevented access to the area.

Bushra Amiwala, a congressional candidate who joined the protest, said she was struck by pepper pellets while attaching signs to a security fence. 

"The residue that comes up makes it incredibly difficult to breathe," Amiwala said. "There was nothing provoked on our side. The three of us were literally signing on the fence and we were the direct targets of the shooting."

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who was also present, said agents fired without warning.

"We were standing here with a group of people literally doing nothing," Biss said. " There was no disturbance. There was no chaos. There was no effort to move a car in or out. They just shot at us as though for sport. They are trying to dominate and intimidate, and we are not going to be intimidated."

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson has warned that use of the facility as the primary location for Operation Midway Blitz could last approximately 45 days and might disrupt nearby businesses and emergency routes.

On Friday, Thompson issued a letter to DHS Field Office Director Russell Hott, in which she wrote that "beleaguered Broadview residents are begging for relief from your center’s siege of our neighborhood."

Thompson added, in part: "The relentless deployment of tear gas, pepper spray, mace, and rubber bullets in the vicinity of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in the Village of Broadview is endangering nearby village residents and harming Broadview Police Officers, Broadview Firefighters, and American citizens exercising their 1st Amendment constitutional rights."

Between Friday, Sept. 19 and Friday, Sept. 26, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) of Chicago reports that 16 demonstrators were arrested.

NLG Chicago said it offers free legal aid as often as it can, and is representing some of the demonstrators who were taken into custody.

"These responses are excessive, these were peaceful, nonviolent demonstrators, and the level of force that was used was completely unnecessary and inappropriate for the situation," said Benjamin Meyer, attorney, National Lawyers Guild Chicago. 

Meyer said he sees ICE's response to protests as an assault on the 1st Amendment. 

"I think it's really important for law enforcement agencies to show restraint in these situations," Meyer said. "I think these are pretty clear violations of people's rights of free speech and assembly. There were no warnings issued and there was no order to disperse given."

By late Friday evening, protesters marched from Beach Street to the facility's 25th Avenue access point, where they were met by a local police presence. 

When approaching secure fencing near the facility from another angle, protesters were met by ICE agents, and a few loud pops were heard in the area. 

Dig deeper:

One of those being held at Broadview ICE facility is Laura Murillo. She was detained Thursday morning near a BP gas station at 47th Street and Western Avenue in the city's Back of the Yards neighborhood, according to her fiancé, Jaime Perez.

Murillo is originally from Tamaulipas, Mexico but has lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, Perez explained.

He shared that Murillo often sells tamales on that corner, but on Thursday, he received a frantic call from her at 7:32 a.m.

"She was being detained and there was somebody behind her," Perez said. "I told her to hold on, that I was going to come to her, I’m only a few blocks away but traffic was so bad and all I kept hearing her saying was, ‘You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me.’"

Perez told FOX 32 that Murillo does not have a criminal record. Since her arrest, he learned she is being held at ICE’s processing facility in Broadview.

"She's a single mother and she just is out there trying to make a living," Perez said.

What's next:

Demonstrators plan to return to the Broadview ICE facility on Saturday. 

Of the 16 people arrested, according to the National Lawyers Guild of Chicago, 12 of them have been released.