Protesters Friday morning will gather outside an ICE facility in west suburban Broadview, calling for its closure after the village said it would be used as a processing center for a “large-scale” immigration enforcement campaign led by the Trump administration.
The protest, from groups citing the Illinois Way Forward Act, are expected to gather as early as 7 a.m. Days earlier, Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson said in a letter to the village’s roughly 8,000 residents that federal officials said the two-story building, at 1930 Beach St., will be used for the operation for approximately 45 days.
The letter also warned residents that protests and demonstrations near the building, “like those seen earlier this year in Los Angeles, where property damage and assaults against law enforcement were reported,” could occur.
“We will defend the constitutionally protected right to peaceful protest and will accept no interference with that right,” village administrator LeTisa Jones told the Associated Press. “Simultaneously, we will reject any illegal behavior that puts Broadview police officers’ safety or the safety of local businesses and residents at risk.”
The Broadview processing center, which draws frequent protests, has been under fire recently for allegations that immigrants have been held for days instead of hours and forced to sleep on floors. The complaints led four Democratic members of Illinois’ congressional delegation to attempt an unscheduled visit to the site in June.
Immigration attorneys have previously told NBC Chicago that during the last round of scaled up ICE enforcement, it was difficult to make contact with their clients at the facility.
ICE stationed in Lake County
According to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, increased ICE enforcement in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs could begin as early as this weekend.
“In the coming days, we expect to see what has played out in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to happen here in Chicago,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a press conference Tuesday. “Many of these individuals are being relocated from Los Angeles for deployment in Chicago.”
At least 300 federal agents expected to come to the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago as part of the Trump Administration’s enhanced operations from ICE, Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security, officials said.
A joint statement from the Lake County Government and the City of North Chicago Wednesday called the planned federal operations at the Naval Station “unprecedented.”
“If the agents are stationed here in Lake County and they say they’re going to be in Chicago, who’s to say they won’t come in to our community?,” North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. said, who added that the community is approximately 40 percent Latino.
During his Tuesday press conference, Pritzker also said he was “deeply concerned” that ICE will target Mexican Independence Day.
“We have reason to believe that Stephen Miller chose the month of September to come to Chicago because of celebrations around Mexican Independence Day that happen here every year,” Pritzker said. “It breaks my heart to report that we have been told ICE will try and disrupt community picnics and peaceful parades. Let’s be clear: the terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anyone living here.”
In Chicago, organizers with El Grito, a popular Mexican Independence Day event slated for Sept. 13 and 14 in Grant Park, moved to cancel the festival due to the concerns.
“This was a painful decision; however, with the heightened political tensions and given our location in downtown Chicago, we need to keep our community safe,” organizer German Gonzalez said in a statement Thursday. “To proceed in spite of the advice we’ve received directly from city and state officials and potentially expose our community to becoming collateral damage would be irresponsible. That’s a risk we are not willing to take.”
A similar festival in Waukegan was also postponed until November over fears of the increased ICE presence.
Pritzker said agents could be fully assembled by Friday, with operations beginning Saturday, though his office hasn’t received official communication from the White House.
Last week, a report from The New York Times said Homeland Security officials requested to use Naval Station Great Lakes near North Chicago for their operations, which would include space for 250 department personnel plus a “Tactical Operations Center” and an “Incident Command Post,” as well as bathrooms, laundry, parking for 140 vehicles and storage space for medical supplies and weapons like rubber bullets and tear gas.
Mayor Rockingham said the agents will not be staying at the base, and will be housed at hotels in Lake County.
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