Broadview Ill. police chief and officers enduring verbal attacks by ICE agents, teargas, and ICE making false 911 calls

BROADVIEW, Ill. (WGN) — Broadview police have announced they are conducting three criminal investigations into actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at their facility in the western suburb.

During a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Katrina Thompson and other village officials accused ICE of ‘hostile actions’ that are endangering residents, first responders, and protesters. Meanwhile, ICE is pushing back, and says federal agents continue to face unlawful activity and violence by ‘rioters’ at the facility.

“Broadview police officers are routinely being exposed to ICE agents’ tear gas, forcing them out of action until they recover. Broadview firefighters and ambulance personnel are being exposed. Nearby residents are being exposed,” said Thompson.

“We are experiencing an immediate public safety crisis,” Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills said. “Our own Broadview police are routinely being exposed to tear gas, forcing them out for an amount of time so they can decontaminate, get their breath, clear their eyes, which takes them out of service.”

“Our personnel responded to emergency calls during protests, providing first aid and transports to the hospital. My men and women have been exposed to chemical agents and attacks while performing their duties,” said Broadview acting fire chief Matt Martin.

https://wgntv.com/news/operation-midway-blitz/broadview-ice-criminal-investigations/

Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills told the ABC7 I-Team he was verbally attacked by an ICE agent during a protest outside of the facility earlier this month.

"I've been doing this job a long time now, but I was shocked," Mills said. "I was shocked. I've never been spoken to by a fellow law enforcement officer in such a way."

Mills said that confrontation comes on top of requiring 75% of his department's manpower now being used for crowd control outside of the ICE processing facility in the west suburban city.

"But again, I'm a leader of a department," Mills said. "I know my officers are looking at me for guidance and leadership, and I had to ensure that I would stay calm, and not engage in unprofessional behavior."

Mills then detailed that as he was walking across a skirmish on September 12, he endured multiple expletives by an ICE agent, calling him a coward, accusing him of neglecting his duties during protests that got physical.

"Allegedly an ICE agent struck someone and continued on into their location, and during that, while trying to gather information, there was pepper spray release with my officers right there," Mills said. "They felt the effects of that pepper spray it altered their vision. They were coughing I was on the phone with them and they had to leave the area so they can decontaminate themselves."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/broadview-police-chief-says-he-was-verbally-attacked-by-ice-agent-mayor-criticizes-ice-in-letter/ar-AA1NofkW




On Thursday, Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills said ICE agents are draining the resources of his department and the community by making false 911 calls.

Body camera video footage obtained by the CBS News Chicago Investigators shows several Broadview officers responding to a 911 call claiming someone was tampering with a gate at the ICE detention facility.

The gate in question is where ICE takes detained immigrants for processing, but when police arrived, all they found was two people and a camera. A CBS News Chicago photographer was filming the exterior of the building, with a CBS security guard by his side.

The 911 call from an ICE agent claimed someone was tampering with the gate.

According to an incident report, an ICE agent called police for help. Mills believes it was a bogus call.

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/broadview-police-chief-thomas-mills-ice-agents-false-911-calls/




...this Trump republican federal anti-immigrant force of mostly new recruits untethered to any military standards of civilian engagement are fomenting civil war in our communities, ostensibly for the purpose of consolidating their presence and activity where they have been deployed without permission or request from the state; hoping to provoke the citizenry and manufacture the conditions and context to claim National Guard or other military forces are needed to protect their own destabilizing forces.