Federal agents fire chemicals as protesters try to block car at
immigration site outside Chicago
[September 27, 2025]
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
BROADVIEW, Ill. (AP) — Federal agents fired pepper balls and tear gas at
protesters near an immigration enforcement building in suburban Chicago
on Friday.
The conflict over several hours is the latest pushback by federal
authorities against protesters focused on the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement building in Broadview, about 12 miles (19
kilometers) west of Chicago, amid a surge of immigration enforcement
that began early this month.
Agents repeatedly fired chemical agents toward a crowd of over 100
protesters after some of the group attempted to block a car from driving
down a street toward the ICE building. The pepper bullets and tear gas
canisters went into the entire crowd, most of them standing far back
from the fence and not blocking any traffic.
Protesters fell to the ground and ran as agents repeatedly fired,
dispersing most of the crowd. Some protesters pulled one another off the
ground and poured water in each other's eyes when out of the parking lot
by the facility.
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson slammed ICE for “the relentless
deployment of tear gas, pepper spray, mace, and rubber bullets,” which
she said has endangered local police, firefighters, residents near the
facility and protesters. Thompson in a letter sent Friday to the
Department of Homeland Security said Broadview residents are texting and
calling her “looking for help” as chemical agents spread through their
neighborhood.
Thompson also demanded that ICE remove the fence she said was “illegally
constructed” around the facility, preventing firefighters from accessing
the area.
“You are making war on my community,” she said in a statement. “And it
has to stop.”
In previous weeks, protesters had also tried to block agents' vehicles
from moving in or out of a yard next to the building. A fence installed
Tuesday pushed Friday's demonstrators farther away.
Activists and family members of detainees have raised concerns in recent
days that the facility meant to process arrestees is a de facto
detention center plagued by inhumane conditions. Advocates say up to 200
people are being held there at a time, with some held up to five days in
a space that does not have showers or a cafeteria. Immigrants report
they are being given little food, water and limited access to
medication.
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People protest outside a federal immigration enforcement building in
Broadview, Ill. on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld)
ICE officials on Friday accused protesters of blocking access to the
gate and attempting to trespass on federal property. They said
agents confiscated a gun from one of the protesters. The presence of
a gun could not be immediately independently confirmed.
Tricia McLaughlin, ICE assistant secretary, called on state and
local officials to “to condemn these riots and tone down their
rhetoric about ICE” in a statement to The Associated Press. She did
not confirm any arrests of protesters Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the morning, a handful of protesters yelled and rang
bells at a section of the fence closer to the building. Agents shot
the first round of pepper bullets Friday morning toward protesters
using ribbons to tie handwritten messages of support for detainees
onto the fence, including “No human is illegal,” and “We stand with
you! You are not illegal!”
Protesters and agents yelled expletives at one another when federal
immigration agents pulled signs and flags off the fence surrounding
the building.
Bushra Amiwala, a 27-year-old elected official on the Skokie Board
of Education, said an agent on the roof of the facility shot her
with pepper bullets while she tied notes on the wall, causing her to
cough and have trouble breathing.
“They caught us so incredibly off guard,” she said as remnants of
the white powder clung to her pants and hijab. “We literally were
just tying notes on the wall.”
Amiwala called the use of chemical agents “fully unprovoked.”
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