Broadview’s top cop says he’s opened an investigation into federal agents following an allegedly unprovoked attack on a CBS Chicago reporter’s vehicle Sunday.
Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills said in a statement that chemical agents were “fired from the direction” of federal agents toward a reporter’s vehicle. The reporter who was targeted declined medical attention.
“The Broadview Police Department expects the full cooperation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into our criminal investigation,” Mills said in the statement.
DHS officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
The news comes a day after Chicago journalist Steve Held was detained by Border Patrol agents for several hours as he filmed an arrest during a protest Saturday night. He was released without charges.
The National Lawyers Guild Chicago confirmed five of the 11 people detained Saturday night were still in federal custody. The group called agents’ attacks on the news media and protesters alike “alarming and violent.”
“The violence was an indiscriminate, unprovoked, and illegal use of force,” said Amanda Yarusso, a volunteer attorney with the National Lawyers Guild Chicago. “These unlawful actions by federal agents demonstrate this administration’s complete disregard of constitutional standards.”
Robert Held — a protester also detained Saturday night who is unrelated to Steve Held — said the actions of federal agents, including multiple “photo ops” downtown, were all meant to instill fear and infringe on demonstrators’ rights.
“What ICE is doing here has nothing to do with immigration or law enforcement,” he said. “What they’re doing is political theater designed to intimidate protesters exercising their First Amendment rights and nothing else.”
Federal agents at the facility interacted with protesters very little during the day Sunday, largely only coming to the fence on Beach Street when demonstrators used bullhorns to get their attention for family members dropping off medication and legal documents.
Kelly Rivera, 26, came from Belmont Cragin to drop off medications for her dad, who was recently arrested in Melrose Park.
He was on his way out of the corner store when they picked him up. She found out about his arrest through a video she saw on Facebook.
Rivera said he had “trauma” but was on a path to treatment, though it had never stopped him from being there for his loved ones.
“He’s always been a hard worker, a family person,” she said. “He needs treatment.”
Rivera got some numbers to help track him from agents and had spoken to him on the phone the day prior, but still didn’t have much information.
She said she had been in contact with another woman whose father was taken last week and has been moved to several facilities across the country since.
“It’s unfortunate but I feel like it’s safer for them to go back to their countries than be here in these conditions,” she said, pointing at the boarded-up windows of the facility. “I just want to follow his steps and make sure my dad is okay, that he gets home safe. … The last thing we want is for him to disappear.”
Pepper balls flew as the sun began to set, just as Mexican Consul General in Chicago Reyna Torres Mendivil arrived with members of her staff to speak with federal agents about Mexican nationals, as they have been doing regularly.
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