Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson signed an executive order Monday setting designated protest times outside a federal facility used to process detained immigrants in the west suburb.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center at 1930 Beach Street has become a hotbed for protests since President Donald Trump’s administration aggressively ramped up his deportation campaign in the Chicago area last month under the name “Operation Midway Blitz.” Since then, protesters have arrived at the facility in the early morning hours, sometimes as early as 5 a.m., and have clashed with federal authorities into the late night hours.
The new protest hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, according to the executive order, which cites public safety concerns. The executive order is in effect immediately and will be until it is “deemed no longer necessary to protect residents’ health, safety, and welfare.”
Protesters have sometimes been met with federal agents spraying tear gas, pepper spray and shooting various forms of rubber pellets.
“People have to go to work, they have to get their children ready for school, our businesses have to serve their customers, and our residents with developmental disabilities, who have sensory issues, have suffered emotional meltdowns because of the chaotic environment when protests get disruptive,” Thompson said in a statement.
The fixed protest hours could bring into question first amendment infringement. The Village of Broadview’s curfew is 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka said the organization hopes “no one limits free speech,” and he said the ACLU will monitor how the protest hours will be enforced.
He cast blame for the fixed hours on the “increasingly militarized tactics and behavior of ICE and other federal officers.”
“These officers have turned dangerous weapons on protesters, fired projectiles indiscriminately and used chemical agents against protesters and journalists,” Yohnka said. “The solution to this situation is for ICE and the Trump administration to end the escalation of these tactics both at Broadview and when doing civil immigration enforcement in neighborhoods across the area.”
In a statement, the Chicago Activist Coalition for Justice said it “heavily disagree[s]” with the designated protest time.
“It secretly silences our voices to be heard,” Rabbi Michael Ben Yosef, leader of the coalition, said in a statement. “This executive order by the mayor is a win for the Trump administration who rejects our presence as activists for human rights.”
Last week, the Illinois State Police stepped in to control protest crowds and erected concrete barriers to form “designated protest areas” outside the facility’s main entrance on Beach Street and near another entrance on 25th Avenue.
Protesters marched down 25th Avenue Saturday night and tried entering Interstate 290, causing state police to temporarily block the interstate exit, while 25th Avenue was closed to traffic between Lexington Street and Roosevelt Road for most of the protest.
In another recent instance, federal agents in military dress chased two protesters across traffic on 25th Avenue and into a nearby resident’s yard, breaking a piece of their fence while shooting rubber baton rounds. One federal agent appeared to injure himself during the chase and was helped back across the street by another agent, who pointed a Taser at motorists, protesters and journalists as they made their way back to the ICE facility.
A business next door to the ICE facility last week placed wooden barricades outside its building in an effort to keep protesters — and clashes between them and ICE agents — off its property.
The Village of Broadview last week filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE, citing serious public safety concerns over an 8-foot fence erected outside the immigration facility’s Beach Street entrance last month.
Thompson has spoken out in recent weeks against federal agents’ use of chemical agents against protesters outside the facility, which is tucked into an industrial corridor, with residential homes lining the 25th Avenue entrance. She previously called on Russell Hott, director of the ICE Chicago field office, to stop “making war on my community,” saying the “relentless deployment” of chemical agents and rubber bullets endanger nearby residents and first responders.
“The residents, our business[es], all of the visitors — we’re responsible for them,” Thompson said in a recent interview with WBEZ. “We’re responsible for the protesters, their well-being, their safety. We are responsible for the journalists that come to our town.”
In her statement Monday, Thompson said she supports the protesters’ First Amendment rights, but she emphasized the need to balance those rights with public safety.
“I support their [protesters] cause. But the repeated clashes with ICE agents in our town are causing enormous disruptions in the quality of life for my residents whose rights I have taken an oath to protect. We live here. Our residents live here and deserve dignity and respect,” Thompson said.
The Village of Broadview Board of Trustees were scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a statement from the Chicago Activist Coalition for Justice