It was at least 15 people taken He was detained outside the Broadview Ice Detention Center in the Chicago area after heated confrontations between Illinois State Police and protesters on Friday.
Authorities ordered demonstrators to remain in designated “protest areas,” but tensions escalated when officers moved to clear the road.
According to Chicago TribuneAt approximately eight o’clock in the morning, the demonstrators advanced towards the building. Within minutes, dozens of soldiers equipped with helmets and batons moved to push back the crowd. Officers responded to several individuals and pulled them over. Much of the clash was captured on video and posted on Social media.
At one point, the protesters I tried to intervene One of his fellow demonstrators was also arrested. Later in the day, the groups sounded their sirens at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents entering and exiting the facility.
As the arrests took place, chants rose: “Who are you protecting?” This echoed through the crowd during tense exchanges with police Chicago Sun-Times I mentioned.
Demonstrator and congressional candidate Kat Abu-Ghazaleh expressed her frustration with the restrictions. “A free speech zone means that every other place is not a free speech zone,” she told the Associated Press. Abu-Ghazaleh said she was hit in the face with a baton and saw an officer push a woman to the ground.
Illinois State Police said the 15 arrested protesters were between the ages of 23 and 44 and faced a range of charges related to resisting, obstructing or disobeying an officer. I mentioned. The local station reported that some protesters remained after the curfew went into effect at 6 p.m., prompting officials to direct them to a public sidewalk near the detention center.
The Broadview facility has been the scene of repeated disturbances in recent weeks. Federal agents have previously used tear gas and other chemicals on protesters and journalists. Some participants blocked a nearby street on Friday and refused to move to the authorized protest area, state police said.
Local officials faced increasing challenges in dealing with hundreds of protesters gathering outside the detention center, especially on Friday and Sunday. Federal agents repeatedly used chemical irritants and so-called “less lethal” rounds to disperse crowds.
The protests began around 8 a.m. Friday and appear to violate Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson’s recent directive limiting demonstrations to the hours between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Thompson was vocal in her criticism of the behavior of federal agents, saying: “This is not Putin’s Russia,” and called on federal officials to cooperate with the ongoing criminal investigation.
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On Monday, Thompson reduced the size of the designated protest area, an arrangement previously coordinated with state and county law enforcement, noting that last week’s demonstrations had “turned chaotic” and disrupted the village’s 8,000 residents.
Friday’s clashes followed a court order issued the previous day requiring federal agents in Illinois to wear body cameras during immigration operations, after multiple incidents involving pepper balls, smoke bombs and tear gas against protesters and local police.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has criticized the deployment of federal troops in the state, praised the ruling.
“The idea that there is any justification for people firing tear gas in the context of popular protests, I think the judge responded to that appropriately by ordering that federal agents are now required to wear body cameras because they are clearly lying about what is going on,” Pritzker said.
The Trump administration targeted Chicago with federal law enforcement in August, falsely claiming there had been a rise in crime in the city in recent years. Since then, there have been reports of icing being increasingly applied in communities, including helicopter flyovers and apartment raids.