Sept. 20 (UPI) — Three protesters were arrested after U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents clashed with more than “100 rioters” outside a processing center in west suburban Chicago, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The incident occurred on Friday morning outside the Broadview processing facility, in which “rioters assaulted law enforcement, threw tear gas cans, slashed tires of cars, blocked the entrance of the building, and trespassed on private property,” the agency said in a news release.

The situation at the facility, located 13 miles west of downtown Chicago, escalated during the day.

During the morning, vans picked up and dropped off rioters “as an organized effort to obstruct ICE law enforcement,” the agency said.

On Friday afternoon, one woman appeared to be shot with a paintball gun at close range, WLS-TV reported. She was placed in handcuffs.

Just before 8 p.m., agents launched tear gas into the crowd outside the detention facility.

“Our ICE enforcement officers are facing a more than 1000% increase in assaults against them,” HHS said. “Disturbingly, in recent days, two ICE officers’ have had cars used as weapons against them.”

ICE has stepped up enforcement in Chicago as part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” which began Sept. 8. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who led an immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, was on hand at the facility.

Since personnel were added last week, the operation has “resulted in the arrest of hundreds of criminal illegal aliens, including Tren de Aragua gang members,” whom DHS said “prior criminal histories of” murder, sexual assault, drug trafficking, robbery and other offenses.

Chicago is a sanctuary city, meaning local, county or state law enforcement doesn’t need to cooperate with federal authorities to protect undocumented immigrants.

“Police under JB Pritzker’s sanctuary jurisdiction refused to answer multiple calls for assistance,” HHS said. “These rioters and sanctuary politicians are choosing to side with criminals over American victims.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Johnson are Democrats.

“The violent targeting of law enforcement in Illinois by lawless rioters is despicable and Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson must call for it to end,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect the people of Illinois and all Americans.

“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi Gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is going to get law enforcement killed. This violence against ICE must end.”

On Friday, two demonstrators were seen being detained by agents, WLS-TV reported. Agents were attempting to move vehicles, with the demonstrators in the way and not moving.

“We have here a federal government that is actively working against its people, that is doing everything possible to divide them,” Alderman Andre Vasquez said. “They are building the same system that they are going to use for everyone else.”

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly was among several elected officials outside the detention center.

“I had to come over, talk to some people and see for myself,” Kelly, who serves the 2nd Congressional District, which serves southern Chicago and suburbs. “People are being treated like animals. What ICE is doing is unconscionable. I know that they are doing what they are told to do. But they are treating people like animals not people. It’s a Gestapo-type action.”

Protesters have a right to make their voices heard, official with the American Civil Liberties Union said.

“What isn’t protested is the attempt to obstruct or to you know limit the building or the government employees from entering or leaving that building,” Ed Yhonka, ACLU of Illinois director of communications and public policy, told WLS. “Someone attempting to puncture the tire of a vehicle, that’s not speech. That’s an action, and that isn’t protected by the Constitution.”

An Illinois Democratic congressional candidate was shown in a video being shoved to the ground during an anti-ICE protest outside the location.

“This is what it looks like when ICE violates our First Amendment rights,” Kat Abughazaleh, a former reporter and Democratic candidate for Congress, posted the video to her X account on Friday.

She is running in the 9th Congressional District, which serves north suburban Chicago.

She later posted Friday that “Once last week, twice today, ICE has picked me up and thrown me on the ground. Honestly, it doesn’t compare to what our neighbors who are trapped inside the Broadview processing facility.”

McLaughlin accused Abughazaleh of seeking attention for her campaign by attempting to “obstruct justice.”

“This fame-hungry, cable TV candidate is so desperate for her 15 minutes of fame that she will go so far as to put our law enforcement at risk and obstruct justice,” she told Fox News Digital.

At Elgin Community College, federal agents allegedly took an undocumented student into custody in a parking lot outside a building on the main campus.

There are at least 150,000 undocumented immigrants living in Chicago, Rob Paral, a demographer at the Great Cities Institute of the University of Illinois Chicago, told The New York Times earlier this month. There are 2.7 million residents in Chicago and 9.26 million in the Chicago metro area.

Pew Research reported in August that there are about 550,000 unauthorized immigrants living in the state of Illinois, with a population of 12.8 million, according to 2023 data.