Federal agents including CBP and ICE chased and arrested anti-ICE protesters outside the Broadview, Illinois ICE facility under the command of Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino on Saturday night.
As the evening progressed, federal agents would exit the facility through a gate and push into protesters, forcing them off the street and making several arrests while firing sting balls into the crowd.
Federal agents including ATF could be seen piling confiscated wooden boards and umbrellas taken from the protesters into a truck following a search of activist tents outside the facility.
More activists could be seen taken away in handcuffs, and at least one journalist.
“Wooh!” exclaimed one federal agent, apparently in jubilation following the arrests. “Wooh!”
Agents pulled back behind the fence, and the remaining protesters returned to the streets and chanted “This racist system, shut it down!”
“This whole damn system, shut it down!”
As the sun set, CBP and ICE agents exited the fence, firig sting balls and tear gas into the crowd, leaving the entire street outside the Broadview facility in a painful cloud.
Protesters retreated for blocks, gasping for breath.
Broadview’s local police department has largely stayed out of the conflict between protesters and the feds.
“They gassed us really bad,” a protester told a Broadview Police officer, who walked through the scene offering help.
“Anyone here need an ambulance?” he asked.
When the tear gas cleared, only a handful of protesters found themselves face to face with an intersection full of federal agents.
Gregory Bovino remained on the front line, watching as protesters, some in black block, ridiculed ICE: “Go home and look into the mirror, it’s not me that’s making your friends and family be upset to be related to you!”
Protesters with their vehicles parked on the public street adjacent to the facility were allowed past the federal agents to drive home only if they consented to a search of their body and their car.
Several did so, putting their hands against a fence and being patted down.
When federal agents pulled back into a position leaving the adjacent intersection open, the remaining protesters began drumming, dancing, and twirling umbrellas.
Border Patrol agents ultimately returned some medical supplies and water to the protesters that had been left during the tear gas push.
Protesters were told that they could keep their supplies, but their tents were searched, dismantled, and discarded.
