Pellets and peppers, grenades and gas: A look at the weapons ICE uses in Broadview and Chicago
- Staff Admin
- Nov 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 12
By Bob Chiarito
Nov. 2, 2025, 5:30 a.m.
For almost two decades, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operated its facility in Broadview without much notice, handling immigration check-ins and other administrative tasks. Most attention had come from a handful of faith-based objectors praying outside — until this fall.
After the agency told village officials the Beach Street building would be used for what Mayor Katrina Thompson described as a “large-scale enforcement campaign” operating seven days a week, protesters started to show up in droves.
Many held signs and yelled at ICE agents who came and went from the facility. Others sat on the ground and attempted to block government vehicles from entering and leaving.
In response, agents in masks and full tactical gear fired pepper balls, tear gas and other “less lethal” munitions, causing injuries and property damage while chemical irritants blew into the residential neighborhood just a couple blocks away.
In late September, ICE erected a steel fence that stretched across Beach Street without permission or knowledge of Broadview officials. The fence did keep protesters from blocking the building’s driveway, but protesters instead attempted to block government vehicles at Harvard Street and 25th Avenue. This moved confrontations closer to residential homes, causing even more chemical irritants to blow into the neighborhood. After a lawsuit, the fence was removed on Oct. 14.
By early October, Illinois State Police took over crowd control near the Broadview ICE facility. Until November, there were no reports of those officers using tear gas and pepper balls. Federal agents have continued to use the less-lethal deterrents in several Chicago neighborhoods, however — something a federal judge has since addressed by ordering federal agents to give two warnings before using tear gas or similar munitions.
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