Life in Broadview, Illinois, has been transformed amid the crackdown on President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement. Residents who handle tear-clouds say the ice is “war” in their communities.
Ice Agent fatally shoots the immigrants who attack him with a car
Ice Agent fatally shot Silver Vilgas Gonzalez.
Broadview, Illinois – Katrina Thompson, mayor of a small village outside of Chicago, is home to the US immigration and customs enforcement facility, and has denounced federal agents for their intense tactics saying their presence in the area would be a “siege.”
“You’re at war in my community, and it has to stop,” Thompson said in a letter to Russell Hot, the Department of Homeland Security’s field office director. “Residents of Beleaguered Broadview are pleading for relief from the siege of our neighbourhood centre.”
Thompson held a press conference in the village hall to seek relief. President Donald Trump’s false deadline for Chicago-area immigration enforcement enforcement agencies has changed Broadview. The small village of about 8,000 people has the area’s major immigration enforcement facilities, and has become a hotbed of clashes between federal agents and anti-immigration enforcement protesters.
The tense moments between the two sides were often concluded not only with protesters and journalists, but also with federal agents deploying chemicals and other crowd control tactics. Officials at Broadview say federal agents have launched several conflicts without provocation, and village police are investigating immigration enforcement agents in three separate criminal cases.
“A lot of rhetoric comes from the White House about being strict about crime, but from where I sit, Ice produced criminal activity on Broadview,” Thompson told reporters.
Police Chief Thomas Mills also told reporters that he “verbal assaulted” him when federal agents confronted them about offensive tactics. He said the agents used blasphemy to tell him that they would cause confusion in the village accordingly.
In a statement to USA Today, Homeland Security officials said Broadview leaders are attempting to “paint” the agency and are vehemently denying any blasphemed comments to Broadview Police.
Thompson replied, saying he trusted the words of the top village police officers.
“The Ministry of Homeland Security is running a disinformation campaign that even Russians blush,” the mayor said.
The spiral tensions in Broadview come about three weeks into Trump’s blitz operation. The president says the crackdown is aimed at catching “worst and worst” immigrant criminals. Illinois leaders say the White House is preparing power grabs in the area.
Tear gas and pepper spray fallout hit the neighborhood
The Broadview immigration enforcement facility is located on an industrial strip surrounded by residential streets. There, the grass and towering Halloween skeleton look like the rest of the suburban America.
But the smell of tear gas that remains in the air indicates that the place is not as peaceful as it looks.
“No one in Broadview or in the surrounding neighborhoods wants this,” local resident Cyrus Lopez said of the immigration enforcement facility. The 20-year-old said USA Today Gus had taken him out of breath at the point. He worries about the impact that smoke will have on his younger brother: “The wind blows it into the neighborhood.”
Thompson said village residents were emailing, telephones and displaying to complain about the impact the facility is having on the area.
Many residents also complained that protesters were occupying the parking lot.
“I’m happy to see the protest as long as it doesn’t get violent,” nearby resident Lonzia Casteel told USA Today. “But man, there’s a car parked everywhere.”
Rioters or protests?
Homeland Security officials say immigration agents are appropriate under harsh conditions.
“These rioters are laying sieges and obstructing legitimate law enforcement activities,” Todd Lyons, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a letter to Thompson. “If we fail to provide relief, we become a party to obstruct justice. There will be no change in our operational attitude until these illegal activities cease. The only siege of Broadview is what is happening against the US government.”
Homeland Security authorities say they have arrested 34 people in connection with the protest, including three people carrying guns. Agent officials did not immediately respond to requests for further information regarding those arrested.
Agent officials also investigated federal agents in connection with the two hit and run cases and distanced them from detectives’ allegations by Broadview police investigating federal agents in connection with the damages inflicted on the property of the news reporter’s vehicle.
“Not a week after the terrorist attacks at the Dallas ice facility, Mayor Katrina Thompson, Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills and fire chief Matt Martin have chosen to paint ice and launch a fake criminal investigation into brave ice law enforcement.” “Even after terrorist attacks and arrests on rioters outside the Broadview Ice Facility, these sanctuary politicians are disappointed that they chose to engage in political theatres to burn ice hatred.”
Federal agents are visually prominently using chemicals containing pepper spray and tear gas to disperse Chicago protesters blocking immigrant enforcement vehicles. On September 26, agents fired the chemicals to protesters and journalists standing on the road leading to an immigration enforcement facility on Broadview’s 1930 Beach Street.
