Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accompanied Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a raid on a local Walmart store in Chicago on Friday, as local leaders continue to speak out against the Trump administration’s targeting of the city for aggressive immigration enforcement.
Noem met with employees inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, and a crowd grew over several hours, some of whom were riled by newly installed barricades that separated them from law enforcement officers stationed outside. Outside the facility, multiple people involved in ongoing protests were detained at a location that’s become a target of demonstrations against federal agents’ presence in the city and President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.
Some protesters have attempted to block vehicles from entering or exiting the area in recent weeks, part of a growing backlash to a surge in immigration enforcement that began in early September. Federal agents have repeatedly fired tear gas, pepper balls, and other projectiles toward crowds in response, and at least five people have faced federal charges after being arrested in those clashes.
Local leaders have continued to lash out at Trump and his targeting of the majority Democratic city for his immigration agenda, including their aggressive tactics when dealing with protesters. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, took aim at the way federal agents, many of them masked to hide their faces, have been treating protesters over the past month, castigating their “inhumane” tactics, including slamming protesters to the ground, arresting a reporter, and firing chemical agents into the crowds.
Pritzker said the newly established “unified command” of the Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff’s Department and others on Broadview’s streets will control crowds while ensuring protesters their First Amendment right to free speech. “They show their faces, they have proper identification, and they are accountable to the people of Illinois,” Pritzker said.
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“It is clear federal agents cannot be trusted to act to protect the safety and constitutional rights of the public,” he added. On Thursday, Pritzker demanded that Noem face the public by answering reporters’ questions and divulging details about the ongoing operation.
Noem, alongside Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, appeared on the Broadview building’s roof, surrounded by armed agents and a camera crew while standing beside a sniper’s post, according to footage shared online by conservative media personality Benny Johnson.
Johnson also posted a video outside a Walmart store where he said agents, accompanied by Noem, had conducted a raid. Noem later posted to social media, claiming that she and her team were blocked from using the restroom at the Broadview facility.
“My team and I were just blocked from accessing the Village of Broadview Municipal Building in Illinois. We were stopping for a quick bathroom break. This is a public building. The Village of Broadview receives at least $1 million in federal funding every year,” Noem wrote on X.