Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson addresses reporters at a news conference on Sept. 30 in the suburban Chicago village hall. Thompson is calling on the federal government to lift "siege" of the small community that has been transformed by clashes between immigration enforcement agents deploying chemical weapons and anti-immigration enforcement protesters. Also at the news conference was former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Federal agents and protesters speak through a fence outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., on Sept. 29, 2025. The facility is at the heart of President Donald Trump’s Operation. Midway Blitz, an effort to crackdown on immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.
Anti-immigration enforcement protesters rally on Sept. 26 outside a U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois.

BROADVIEW, IL – Katrina Thompson, mayor of the small village outside Chicago home to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, is slamming federal agents for heavy-handed tactics, saying their presence in the area amounts to a "siege."

"You are making war on my community. And it has to stop," Thompson said, in a letter addressed to Department of Homeland Security Field Office Director Russell Hott. "Beleaguered Broadview residents are begging for relief from your center's siege of our neighborhood."

Thompson held a news conference at the Village Hall to call for relief. President Donald Trump’s Chicago-area immigration enforcement crackdown known as Operation Midway Blitz has transformed Broadview. The small village of some 8,000 people is home to the region’s main immigration enforcement facility and it has become a hotbed of clashes between federal agents and anti-immigration enforcement protesters.

Tense moments between the two sides have frequently ended with federal agents deploying chemical agents and other crowd control tactics on protesters as well as journalists. Broadview officials say federal agents are initiating some confrontations without provocation and village police are investigating immigration enforcement agents for three separate criminal cases.

"A lot of rhetoric comes from the White House about being tough on crime, but from where I sit, ICE has generated criminal activity in Broadview," Thompson told reporters.

Police Chief Thomas Mills also told reporters that federal agents "verbally assaulted" him when he confronted them about the aggressive tactics. He said agents, using profanity, told him they would bring chaos to the village in response.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Homeland Security officials said Broadview leaders were attempting to "smear" the agency and vehemently denied making the profanity-laced comment to Broadview police.

Thompson responded, saying she trusted the word of the village’s top cop.

"The Department of Homeland Security is running a disinformation campaign that would make even the Russians blush," the mayor said.

Spiraling tensions in Broadview come about three weeks into Trump’s blitz operation. The president says the crackdown is aimed at catching "the worst of the worst" immigrant criminals. Illinois leaders say the White House is preparing a power grab in the region.

Tear gas, pepper spray fallout hits neighborhoods

The immigration enforcement facility in Broadview lies on an industrial strip surrounded by residential streets, where trim lawns and towering Halloween skeletons make the neighborhoods look like any other in suburban America.

But the smell of tear gas lingering in the air signals the place isn’t as peaceful as it seems.

"Absolutely nobody in Broadview or the neighborhood around wants this here," Silas Lopez, a local resident, said of the immigration enforcement facility. The 20-year-old told USA TODAY gases have left him out of breath at points. He worries what impact the fumes will have on his younger siblings: "The wind blows it right into the neighborhood."

Thompson said village residents have been emailing, calling and showing up in person to complain about the impact the facility is having on the area.

Many residents also complain that protesters are taking up parking.

"I’m glad to see protests as long as it doesn’t get violent," Lonzia Casteel, a nearby resident, told USA TODAY. "But, man, there’s cars parked everywhere."

Rioters or protests?

Department of Homeland Security officials say immigration agents are appropriately under tough conditions.

"These rioters are laying siege and interfering with legitimate law enforcement operations," Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said in a letter addressed to Thompson. "Failure to provide relief makes you a party to the obstruction of justice. There will be no change in our operational posture until these unlawful activities cease. The only siege in Broadview is the one being waged against the United States government."

Homeland Security officials say they have arrested 34 people in connection with the protests, including three who had loaded guns. Agency officials did not immediately respond to requests for further information on the people arrested.

Agency officials also distanced themselves from criminal allegations made by Broadview police who are investigating federal agents in connection with two hit-and-run incidents and in connection with damage done to the property of a news reporter’s vehicle.

"Less than a week after a terrorist attack at an ICE facility in Dallas, Mayor Katrina Thompson, Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills, and Acting Fire Chief Matt Martin chose to smear ICE and launch a bogus criminal investigation into our brave ICE law enforcement," said agency spokesperson Emily Covington. "It’s disheartening that even after the terrorist attack and arrests of rioters with guns outside the Broadview ICE facility, these sanctuary politicians chose to engage in political theatre to inflame hatred of ICE."

Federal agents have used chemical agents, including pepper spray and tear gas, in plain sight to disperse Chicago protesters blocking immigration enforcement vehicles. Agents on Sept. 26 also fired chemical agents at protesters and journalists standing in a road leading up to the immigration enforcement facility located at 1930 Beach Street in Broadview.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'You are making war': Chicago suburb tells ICE they want them out

Reporting by Michael Loria, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect