Protest at Illinois ICE facility draws tear gas, accusations of violence

In a Chicago suburb Friday, the Department of Homeland Security said more than 200 protesters blocked a gate at the ICE facility in Broadview

Another 30 people went to a different gate and were allegedly trying to illegally enter federal property

Federal agents used tear gas and pepper balls on the protesters amid ongoing clashes related to increased immigration enforcement, several news outlets reported

One federal agent was seen firing from a nearby rooftop. The confrontation comes just two days after a gunman shot and killed a detainee and injured two others at an ICE facility in Dallas

Just days after the vile terrorist attack on an ICE Dallas facility, over 200 rioters gathered outside the Broadview Processing Center in Illinois, and some began chanting, shoot ICE

These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop. There is no place in American politics for violence, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement

According to the Associated Press, a few protesters tried to block a car heading toward the ice

building. Now, this prompted federal agents to fire tear gas and pepper bullets multiple times

at a crowd of more than 100 protesters hitting people who were standing back and allegedly not involved in blocking traffic The Chicago Sun reports one of its photographers was hit by rubber pellets One processor who also an elected member of the

Skokie Board of Education said the chemical agents caught her and others off guard. This truly caught

us so incredibly off guard. We literally were just tying notes on the wall and for a minute like I

was obviously coughing. It was very hard to breathe. I was disoriented for a second. I just didn't

understand what happened fully unprovoked. As agents fired, protesters either fled or fell to

the ground, most dispersed. Some rinsed tear gas from their eyes outside the facility, according to

the AP. Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson wrote a letter to Russell Haught, the Icefield office

director on Friday, calling for relief from ICE's, quote, siege of our neighborhood. In effect, you

are making war on my community, she wrote, and it has to stop. The AP reports that in recent weeks

protesters have tried to stop agents' vehicles from entering or leaving an area next to the building

On Tuesday, that fence was put up, keeping protesters farther away from the facility

Thompson demanded the federal government take down the, quote, illegal fence. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan

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