Police arrested 14 women outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview Friday morning in the latest act of civil disobedience outside the west suburban facility that’s become a major flash point of opposition to the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Just after 9:30 a.m., the women hopped the concrete barricades that have proliferated around the processing center, sat down in the middle of the street and held hands. Illinois State troopers, Broadview Police and Cook County Sheriff’s police immediately walked over, hauled each person off the sidewalk and put handcuffs on them. None of the protesters appeared to resist their arrests, which took about five minutes to complete.
As police walked the women down Beach Street toward the boarded-up processing center, a caravan of cars bearing American flags, “Hands off Chicago” signs and other anti-Midway Blitz imagery rolled past, honking their horns and blowing whistles.
The women are most likely to be charged with misdemeanors and released, similarly to the majority of people who have been arrested at demonstrations around the processing center. Some of the charges have been more serious. A congressional candidate was one of six people federally indicted for allegedly conspiring to forcibly impede an ICE agent and resisting arrest last month and a University of Chicago professor is facing felony charges for allegedly spitting on a state trooper.
As police began to process the arrestees, another woman grabbed a megaphone and yelled that the women had “exercised their First Amendment Rights in opposition to what this government is doing to out communities.”
“Stop abducting our community members,” she said. “Stop separating families.”
Following the arrests, the mood of the protest remained upbeat. Someone in an inflatable dinosaur costume held a sign that read, “Hey ICE/CBP, google “Nuremberg.” Other demonstrators chanted and sang in both Spanish and English.
Hundreds participate in procession to Broadview ICE facility to condemn detentions and deportations
Another person banged a drum as the crowd chanted at the state and local police standing in the middle of Beach Street. Federal agents, whose pepper balls and tear gas put a national spotlight on early demonstrations outside the building and were roundly condemned in a series of court orders, were nowhere to be seen.
“Quit! Your! Job!” they called.
“Be a social worker!” A man interjected.
“Quit! Your! Job!” The chant continued.
“Be an office worker!” The man responded again.
“Quit! Your! Job!” An electric guitar pealed in the background.
“Be an engineer!”
Charges and names for the women arrested were not immediately available.