What happened in Broadview this morning wasn’t immigration enforcement. It was a state-sanctioned assault on citizens, candidates, and journalists. It was the logical crescendo of Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz — his sadistic campaign to terrorize Chicago’s immigrant communities while flexing authoritarian muscle for the cameras.
Trump ran in 2024 promising mass deportations, and once back in the Oval Office he moved quickly to turn Illinois into his proving ground. He called it Operation Midway Blitz, a name that belongs on a Call of Duty expansion pack, not a federal government press release. DHS claimed the raids were targeting “the worst of the worst.” But when NBC Chicago dug through the records, they found the opposite: most of the people being seized had no criminal convictions at all. Students, workers, fathers dragged out of homes, stuffed into unmarked vans, “processed” through Broadview like cattle. For weeks, families have been camping outside the ICE facility in the western suburbs, begging for answers about their loved ones. They’ve been ignored. Activists began showing up every Friday morning, linking arms to block the vans. What they got back was escalation: camo-clad agents, helicopters, chemical sprays.
This morning it boiled over. By five a.m., protesters had gathered again at Broadview. About two dozen at first, holding signs, chanting, refusing to let ICE vans pass. Minutes later, the gates opened and the storm came. ICE and Border Patrol agents in masks and camouflage marched out and began shoving demonstrators aside. Then came the spectacle: federal officers on the roof of the facility, firing pepper balls and lobbing tear gas into the crowd. NBC’s Jenn Schanz reported choking, eyes burning, forced to flee while ICE sprayed chemicals near news vans. When a government starts targeting journalists, it stops being law enforcement and starts looking like fascism on parade.
Among those in the crowd were Kat Abughazaleh, Daniel Biss, and Bushra Amiwala — all Democrats running for Illinois’s 9th District. Abughazaleh was shoved to the ground by an ICE agent in full camo, then hit in the legs by pepper balls. She didn’t mince words: “We have no weapons, we have signs and chants and songs. They are treating us like it’s a warzone.” Biss and Amiwala confirmed they too were gassed. That’s right: Trump’s immigration army opened fire on a field of congressional candidates. Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton, also running for Senate, showed up before dawn. Her warning was clear: “People are here to peacefully protest. Look what we have been seeing over the past several weeks right here in Chicago. People are being snatched off the streets, stuffed into unmarked vans with no due process.” This isn’t rhetoric anymore. It’s happening in real time.
At least two protesters were arrested. Witnesses say one was thrown into a van and “taken God knows where.” Another was dragged into the facility. A sixty-year-old woman was shoved down despite following orders. Families outside the gate say this is the same story every day: people vanish into Broadview, and information dries up. ICE insists they were facing rioters. DHS accuses protesters of slashing tires and throwing gas canisters back. Yes, one CBS camera caught a protester puncturing a van’s tire. Yes, another hurled a smoking canister back after ICE launched it at his face. If that’s rioting, then Rosa Parks was a public menace for sitting in the wrong seat.
Today was the fourth Broadview protest in as many weeks. But it was the first where America’s authoritarian mask slipped completely. Journalists targeted. Peaceful protesters gassed and beaten. Candidates for Congress shoved, tear-gassed, bloodied. Families still left outside in the cold, begging for scraps of information about their disappeared relatives. Trump’s ICE didn’t just enforce immigration law today — they enacted a militarized purge theater, live-streamed on Chicago’s streets. Broadview, Illinois, September 19, 2025, is going to stick. Not because it was unexpected, but because it showed us exactly where this country is headed if nobody slams on the brakes.
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Where are the police? They should be protecting the peaceful protesters, congressmen and women and immigrants from illegal force and apprehension.
What on earth are these goons thinking? To grab people without knowing who they are, physically assaulting journalists and candidates. They need to be reminded that they don’t have to follow unlawful orders.
The media needs to find them and ask pointed questions.