Federal agents deployed tear gas and pepper balls Friday to disperse an unruly mob of anti-ICE protesters — including a Democratic mayor — attempting to blockade an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility outside Chicago.
More than 100 protesters surrounded the ICE Broadview Processing Center as they “assaulted law enforcement, threw tear gas cans, slashed tires of cars, blocked the entrance of the building, and trespassed on private property,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement.
Federal law enforcement agents made three arrests related to the protest, according to DHS.
Agents tossed several canisters of tear gas and fired less-lethal pepper or sting balls into the crowd as protesters attempted to stand in the way of ICE vehicles leaving the facility, a video posted on social media showed.
The video shows authorities quickly apprehending one protester — donning a helmet, gas mask and Captain America shield — who hurled a canister of tear gas back at agents during the skirmish.
DHS described the protest as an “organized effort to obstruct ICE law enforcement,” and said throughout the day vans were observed picking up and dropping off protesters.
Daniel Biss, the Democratic mayor of Evanston, Ill., was among those taking part in the demonstration.
“We. Will. Not. Be. Intimidated,” Biss wrote on X.
The mayor also described the chaotic scene outside the facility as “terrifying” and attempt by the Trump administration to “intimidate” protesters.
“It was impossible to breathe and really, really scary,” Bliss said in a video accompanying his social media post.
Local law enforcement “refused to answer multiple calls for assistance,” DHS claimed, citing Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s sanctuary policies.
“The violent targeting of law enforcement in Illinois by lawless rioters is despicable and Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson must call for it to end,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect the people of Illinois and all Americans.”
McLaughlin went on to blame several Democrat politicians for “contributing to the surge in assaults of our ICE officers through their repeated dehumanizing and demonization of ICE.”
“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is going to get law enforcement killed,” she argued.
“This violence against ICE must end.”
The clash comes as a crackdown on criminal migrants in Chicago, dubbed Operation Midway Blitz, is underway.
The ICE operation targeting illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds has resulted in “hundreds” of arrests, including Tren de Aragua gang members and migrants with previous convictions for murder, child sexual assault, drug trafficking, armed robbery and other violent crimes, according to DHS.
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