Chicago attorney recalls being held 8 hours by ICE after being detained at protest in Broadview
A Chicago area attorney is telling the story of his detention inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, where immigrants have been taken pending deportation proceedings amid the Trump administration's ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration in the Chicago area.
On Saturday, at least five protesters were arrested outside the ICE facility in Broadview and charged in federal court. While several other people had been detained during protests there in recent weeks, those five were the first to face federal charges.
Robert Held, 68, was among the protesters who were detained but not charged with a crime. He said he was never one to regularly attend protests, but that changed recently.
"I started showing up about two weeks ago, roughly, because I'm outraged about what the administration and several agencies of this administration are doing; not just to immigrants, but to people with lawful status and people that were born here as well"
On Saturday, he and other protesters were in front of the ICE gate on public land when agents sought to clear the area. Agents shouted orders for people to move.
"I was backing up and filming what was happening, and eventually decided I needed to clear the street, and when I ran off the street, I was chased and arrested by federal authorities," he said.
Held continued filming as he was down on the ground, taken away in handcuffs, placed in a vehicle and taken into ICE custody.
"The vehicle was driving back into the facility, and they stopped. They opened the door and Greg Bovino, the chief enforcement officer of the Border Patrol, looked straight at me and he said, 'Now what do you want to say to me?' I didn't respond to that, but my sense was – and it was pretty obvious based on his tone and language – that he was trying to show his authority over me," Held said.
Held said, before demanding the crowd clear the street, Bovino and a group of masked agents wearing body armor and helmets had opened a gate outside the ICE facility to disperse the crowd "not to enforce any law, not for any immigration-related duty, or Border Patrol, or ICE, the FBI, the ATF, or anybody else."
"He opened it for political theater. He had his own cameras running," Held added.
Held said he was detained for eight hours along with eight or nine other protesters, and was treated humanely; given dinner, a phone call, and access to the bathroom.
However, he said it was harder to tell what was happening to other detainees in a different room nearby.
"There was another room that I saw that was jam-packed with immigrants who were jam-packed in a room," he said.
Held said is not aware of any charges against him. He said he was questioned about his citizenship status, fingerprinted, then released from custody around 1 a.m. Sunday.
"All I committed was the exercise of free expression under the First Amendment," he said.
He returned to the Broadview facility on Thursday to protest ICE alongside his daughter and her boyfriend.