To close the facility, anti-immigration enforcement protesters have gathered outside local U.S. immigration and customs enforcement agencies almost every time.
Ice Officer removed after attacking Ecuadorian asylum seekers in New York
Ice officers were released from duties after slamming Ecuadorian asylum seeker Monica Moreta Galarza on the ground in a New York City courthouse
Broadview, Illinois – About 200 Chicago area protesters withstand immigration enforcement on September 26th, endured a barrage of chemicals and projectiles fired by federal agents outside the site at the heart of President Donald Trump’s crackdown.
The tense protest outside the US immigration customs facility in the Chicago suburbs of Broadview will take place over two weeks of Operation Midway Blitz, a White House effort to strengthen the deportation of longtime sanctuary cities. Trump has repeatedly said that crackdowns are aimed at “worst and worst” criminals, who are immigrants.
But the president’s crackdown, which saw one immigrant fatally shot and killed by federal agents, sparked almost 24 hours of protest at a facility about 12 miles west of Willis Tower.
“It feels like a chemical war,” Ricky Hendon Jr. told USA Today through a gas mask after a barrage of pepper balls fired by immigration agents. A tech worker in the Chicago area said he is protesting the inhumane conditions reported at the Deportation Processing Center. “This needs to be shut down.”
Homeland Security Deputy Director Tricia McLaughlin called the protesters “mob,” leading to the September 24 attack on immigration facilities in Dallas.
“The mob is what they are,” McLaughlin said. “This is just two days after seeing a vicious and disgusting attack on our facility in Dallas. And now we’re very wary of the fact that there are firearms or that there are firearms in Chicago.”
The protest organizers denied that anyone connecting to the group brought firearms.
Among the officials and leaders protesting on September 26 were Mayor Andre Vasquez, Mayor Evanston Daniel Biss and council candidate Kat Abugazare.
This is the latest in Trump’s Blitz on immigration in the Chicago area.
Suburban facilities act as main hubs
The small, pre-boarded fenced building in Broadview serves as a processing centre for detainees before being transported from Illinois. Data shared with USA Today by immigration enforcement researchers shows that the site has become a major hub for detainees in recent months.
Homeland Security officials said more than 700 immigrants have been arrested since the launch of the Blitz. Among them are “gang members, murderers, child rapists, drug traffickers.”
“These arrests reflect our commitment to targeting the worst and worst situations that pose a major threat to our community,” Covington said.
More than 6,000 detainees passed through the facility in 2025, according to data compiled by Transactional Records Access Access Clearinghouse, a research group tracking immigration enforcement data.
Immigration Enforcement Processing Centres play a role in growth
Susan Long, co-founder of Syracuse University’s research group, said the Immigration Enforcement Processing Center plays a crucial, but not widely known, role in immigration enforcement. They will grant immigration agents a place to register new detainees and hold them overnight if necessary.
The agency’s processing center was also targeted by a shooting that killed an immigrant, causing two detainees to be seriously injured.
Immigration agents are beginning to significantly increase the use of facilities in the Chicago area. The Freedom Act shows the information obtained by Long’sGroup.
No one had stayed at the facility overnight between 2024 and the previous year, Long said. By June 2025, the number of people staying overnight reached 30 per night. It is unclear how many people have stayed at the facility overnight since the start of the Blitz.
Conditions for lawyer slum facilities
According to Long, the immigration enforcement processing centre is supposed to only hold people for less than 72 hours. However, Chicago area immigration attorneys say they report that the site’s clients have been in custody there for five days.
Detainees also report overcrowding at the facility, according to local immigration law advocate Elendila Rendon. Rendon said his clients are reporting up to 200 people staying at the facility overnight. According to data obtained by Long’s group, the facility has a capacity of 123 people.
“We’ve seen a lot of abuse inside,” Rendon said at a press conference on September 25th.
Immigration officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the facility’s status.
Are immigration agents catching “worst and worst”?
Among those recently arrested in Chicago by immigration agents are men whose criminal history was convicted of child sexual abuse, domestic violence, and men who were arrested for worsening illegal use of weapons, according to agency officials.
According to agency spokesman Covington, “criminal and illegal alien from Mexico,” Carlos Barellavega, includes criminal history including sexual assault on a victim under the age of 13, home robbery and battery.
Jose Alex Guarneros Granados, also from Mexico, was sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted of multiple counts of domestic battery and strangulation. Covington said.
But Chicagoans say federal agents are indiscriminately targeting people who look like immigrants.
Jaime Perez of Chicago South Cider said his fiancé Laura Murillo was taken to an immigration agent early on September 25th, when he was selling Tamales on the streets. Perez said Murillo had been in the country for 20 years.
Perez said he called him while she was in custody: “You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me,” he heard her. Perez said he tried to talk to the agent who called him.
“I want her, we’re engaged,” Perez told the agent, “and he just shut the phone down.”
