Arrests and Protests at the Broadview ICE Facility

The Department of Homeland Security says that eleven people were arrested Saturday at a protest outside of the Broadview ICE facility.

Dana Briggs, a 70 year old US Air Force veteran, was one of the protesters who was taken into custody. Briggs is now facing a felony charge for assault on a federal officer. After conducting another arrest, agents were backing into the facility, nearing the gate to the grounds. Just as they reached the fence, they changed course and began moving forward, yelling at protesters to get out of the road. Briggs asks why, and an agent appears to push him, knocking him to the ground.

According to the complaint, while Briggs was on the ground, he swung his arm and hit an agent, “which resulted in an audible slapping noise.” This, according to an interview of the agent who was hit by Briggs’s arm, “caused [him] to experience pain in [his] wrist.”

Here is a video I took of the arrest (it is also on YouTube):

In the wake of Briggs’s arrest, all agents retreated back behind the fence. I was unable to determine why the agents needed him to move in that moment.

Tear gas in the air a block from the Broadview ICE facility, Saturday September 27

Hours after Briggs was taken into custody, agents (including ATF and US Border Patrol), decided they had had enough of asking protesters to move out of the street at various intervals. They very abruptly unleashed an excessive amount of tear gas, impacting people over a block away, including the area where television press had staged their cameras and vehicles (seemingly far away from tear gas). Many people were wearing paper masks, N95s, or nothing at all, not expecting such an abrupt move. The gas was so thick and covered so much land that gear that had been adequate earlier, like vented ski goggles, would have done very little to protect people.

Throughout both Friday and Saturday, it seemed very clear that press were being targeted. Agents frequently shot pepper balls at us to keep us from filming their arrests. On Sunday, they allegedly shot into a reporter’s vehicle even though there were no protesters around (Broadview police are now investigating).

DHS denies any wrongdoing.

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