Oct. 3 (UPI) — Protesters clashed with law enforcement agencies outside a U.S. Immigration and Enforcement detention site near Chicago hours after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited.
At least five people were arrested and are facing charges of aggravated battery to a police officer, as well as resisting and obstruction, a Cook County Sheriff’s Office official told CNN.
Surrounded by armed agents and a camera crew, Noem was on the rooftop of the center in Brookview, which is about 20 miles west of Chicago, WLS-TV reported.
She was accompanied by El Centro Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino.
Noem was seen directing protesters and media away from the area after arriving at 8 a.m. She left at 9:45 a.m.
The situation escalated shortly after 9 a.m. with pushing, shoving and arrests, WLS reported.
Not used were tear gas, pellets or other chemical substances but have utilized in the past, the Sun Times reported.
Counter-protesters were also in the area in support of ICE and federal agents.
Aldermen, previously arrested demonstrators and political candidates, during a 9 a.m. news conference there, demanded transparency and safety protocols.
About 100 to 200 protesters were in the area during the morning but by 11 am., there were more law enforcement officers than demonstrators, WBBM-TV reported.
During the protest, Broadview police officers, Cook County sheriff’s deputies and Illinois State Police troopers held them back.
Protesters chanted and held signs, including ones that said “ICE melts under resistance” and “Hate has no home here.”
“I’m not gonna look back and say I sat at home and did nothing,” Nocole Bandyk, who lives in a nearby suburb, told CNN. “It’s wrong … It’s just wrong what they’re doing. We are becoming a fascist authoritarian state and it’s wrong.”
ICE, under the direction of President Donald Trump, has ramped up enforcement in Midway Blitz Operation, which began Sept. 8. Since then, there have been more than 800 arrests, according to Homeland Security.
Protesters said they wanted to know about the conditions inside the ICE facility, and for officials to be allowed inside to inspect it.
Illinois Gov. JB Prizter again on Friday criticized the operation.
“Federal agents reporting to Secretary Noem have spent weeks snatching up families, scaring law-abiding residents, violating due process rights, and even detaining U.S. citizens,” Pritzker wrote on Facebook. “Secretary Noem should no longer be able to step foot inside the State of Illinois without any form of public accountability.”
In a statement to WLS-TV, he said: “Last time when the secretary was here, she snuck in during the early morning to film social media videos and fled before sunrise. Illinois is not a photo opportunity or war zone, it’s a sovereign state where our people deserve rights, respect and answers.”
Noem earlier went to Broadview Village Hall, asking to meet with the Mayor Katrina Thompson, but she was out of the building, village spokesperson David Ormsby said.
Noem posted on X that she was going into the municipal building “for a quick bathroom break.”
The mayor then went to the detention sites, accompanied by Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills and other officers, and asked to have the fencing around the site to be removed.
On Thursday, a free speech zone that consists of barricades was erected. Instead of congregating there, protesters went to another entrance, WGN-TV reported.
The village’s fire department describes it as “illegally built” fencing, and it would block firefighters’ access to areas on that street during an emergency.
Also, village officials have launched three criminal investigations into ICE actions.
The Department of Homeland Security sent a memo to the Department of Defense — which the Trump administration has informally changed to Department of War — requesting 100 active-duty troops be deployed across Chicago for the protection of ICE agents.