Following the arrest of a 70-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran at an anti-ICE protest over the weekend, fellow veterans are demanding that federal immigration agents end their harassment of both protesters and immigrants.
Dana Briggs of Rockford and four others are facing federal criminal charges after protesters clashed with federal agents outside the federal immigration facility in Broadview — one of the most intense since the Department of Homeland Security launched its “Operation Midway Blitz” deportation campaign.
Briggs, a member of non-profit organization Common Defense, was charged with felony assault of a federal officer after he allegedly “made physical contact with an agent’s arm while the agent attempted to extend the safety perimeter around the facility,” according to prosecutors.
Fellow veterans gathered outside of the facility Thursday and spoke out against the increasing presence of ICE and use of military force in communities.
Briggs’ arrest was just “another example of what continues to be a growing trend of ICE and supporting federal agencies escalating violence against peaceful protesters, simply exercising their First Amendment rights,” said Jermaine Collins, Common Defense organizer and U.S. Army veteran.
Video footage taken by a Sun-Times reporter showed federal agents telling protesters to back away before one pushed Briggs, causing him to fall.
Briggs is seen asking a man trying to help him up to take his cellphone as they are surrounded by agents.
Briggs then pushes the arm of a federal agent away and he is grabbed by multiple agents, handcuffed, and taken into the facility.
Briggs was released Monday and suffered scrapes and bruises, said Collins. “He’s tough, but naturally, he was a little bit shaken from the event.”
Collins and other veterans caution that the federal government’s escalation of force endangers communities — a concern heightened after Gov. JB Pritzker revealed Monday that DHS is requesting military troops in Illinois to guard ICE personnel and facilities.
“Our president wants to use the U.S. military as his personal police force to target his political enemies and our immigrant communities,” said Dylan Blaha, U.S. Army veteran.
American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka said military troops in Chicago are “the last thing we need.”
“It is incredibly dangerous to see the military used in a domestic situation like this,” Yohnka said. “It is dangerous that a president thinks that it’s a training ground for lethal force to be used in a city and in a major urban area in the United States, and it is disturbing to see a president who believes that sweeping people up off the street with military force somehow makes our country greater.”
