CHICAGO – ICE officers continue to escalate the use of violence – including chemical agents and the firing of projectiles – against protestors around the Broadview Processing Center in suburban Chicago. Yesterday, protestors were met with repeated rounds of tear gas and other chemical agents and projectiles even when they were not posing any obstacle to ICE agents being able to conduct their operations.
In light of this escalating violence the ACLU of Illinois issued the following statement:
We are aware of the escalating force being directed at protestors who gather at the Broadview processing Center and continue to monitor the situation at that location. Let us be clear: no one should be targeted with chemical agents and projectiles for engaging in First Amendment activity. Simply because the Administration does not like the reality that many people in the Chicago area and around the country are fiercely opposed to their reckless, violent immigration enforcement policies is no reason to respond with these dangerous tactics that risk serious physical injury.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Trump Administration is attempting to run our country as though it is an authorian regime - using the criminal justice system to pubish political enemies, engaging in mass disinformation and limiting free expression and speech that opposed Administration policies. But Americans still have constitutional rights that must be respected and protected. Violence against protestors – and threatening to escalate that violence if protests continue – must be challenged. ICE officers should de-escalate their actions and honor the great tradition of free expression and protest in our country. The 2024 elections did not erase our rights or that tradition.