![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/FPAOJ4NXVCMFBJUC5X46CHKZVY.jpg\")
People protest outside a federal immigration enforcement building in Broadview, Ill. on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. Laura Bargfeld\/Associated Press<\/p>\nBROADVIEW, Ill. (AP) \u2014 Federal agents fired pepper balls and tear gas at protesters near an immigration enforcement building in suburban Chicago on Friday.<\/p>\n
The conflict over several hours is the latest pushback by federal authorities against protesters focused on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Broadview, about 12 miles west of Chicago, amid a surge of immigration enforcement that began early this month.<\/p>\n
Agents repeatedly fired chemical agents toward a crowd of over 100 protesters after some of the group attempted to block a car from driving down a street toward the ICE building. The pepper bullets and tear gas canisters went into the entire crowd, most of them standing far back from the fence and not blocking any traffic.<\/p>\n
Protesters fell to the ground and ran as agents repeatedly fired, dispersing most of the crowd. Some protesters pulled one another off the ground and poured water in each other\u2019s eyes when out of the parking lot by the facility.<\/p>\n
In previous weeks, protesters had also tried to block agents\u2019 vehicles from moving in or out of a yard next to the building. A fence installed Tuesday pushed Friday\u2019s demonstrators farther away.<\/p>\n
Activists and family members of detainees have raised concerns in recent days that the facility meant to process arrestees is a de facto detention center plagued by inhumane conditions. Advocates say up to 200 people are being held there at a time, with some held up to five days in a space that doesn\u2019t have showers or a cafeteria. Immigrants report they are being given little food, water and limited access to medication.<\/p>\n
People protest outside a federal immigration enforcement building in Broadview, Ill. on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. Laura Bargfeld\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Earlier in the morning, a handful of protesters yelled and rang bells at a section of the fence closer to the building. Agents shot the first round of pepper bullets Friday morning toward protesters using ribbons to tie handwritten messages of support for detainees onto the fence, including \u201cNo human is illegal,\u201d and \u201cWe stand with you! You are not illegal!\u201d<\/p>\n
Protesters and agents yelled expletives at one another when federal immigration agents pulled signs and flags off the fence surrounding the building.<\/p>\n
Bushra Amiwala, a 27-year-old elected official on the Skokie Board of Education, said an agent on the roof of the facility shot her with pepper bullets while she tied notes on the wall, causing her to cough and have trouble breathing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey caught us so incredibly off guard,\u201d she said as remnants of the white powder clung to her pants and hijab. \u201cWe literally were just tying notes on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amiwala called the use of chemical agents \u201cfully unprovoked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Village officials have demanded the \u201cillegally built\u201d fence be removed over security concerns from the fire department. It remained in place Friday.<\/p>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3ILOUBLKPRI2TNH24QPX7ZK7FQ.jpg\")
People protest outside a federal immigration enforcement building in Broadview, Ill. on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025.Laura Bargfeld\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear if anyone was arrested. Federal officials said multiple people were arrested in last week\u2019s protests at the same location and characterized those arrested as \u201crioters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROADVIEW, Ill. (AP) \u2014 Federal agents fired pepper balls and tear gas at protesters near an immigration enforcement…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,57,5386,1818,409,80,402,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-256744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-general-news","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","15":"tag-u-s-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}