An attorney filed a lawsuit this week challenging an order by the Village of Broadview that imposed a curfew on protest activity at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility earlier this month.

Attorney Robert Held filed the lawsuit against the Village of Broadview, Mayor Katrina Thompson, and police Chief Thomas Mills in U.S. District Court on Monday.

Three weeks earlier, Mayor Thompson issued an executive order limiting protests outside the ICE facility at 1930 Beach Street and the designated protest area at 2000 S. 25th Av. In Broadview to between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily.

According to the order, the mayor decided to set a limit on protest times "due to the recent escalation of violence by ICE" outside the facility, including "needlessly deploying tear gas, pepper spray, mace, and rubber bullets at individuals and reporters, thereby injuring Village residents, Village police officers, and Village firefighters."

The mayor said the order is needed to balance the constitutional rights of protesters with the needs of Broadview residents and businesses.

"People have to go to work, they have to get their children ready for school, our businesses have to serve their customers, and our residents with developmental disabilities, who have sensory issues, have suffered emotional meltdowns because of the chaotic environment when protests get disruptive," Thompson said on Monday, Oct. 6.

In the lawsuit attorney, Robert Held reported that at 7:49 a.m. that same day, he was protesting alone on a public sidewalk in the designated protest zone outside the ICE facility. Broadview police officers came up and told him he was violating the executive order by protesting before 9 a.m. and had to leave, the lawsuit said.

Held refused, and asserted he had a constitutional right to protest, the lawsuit said. For this, he was cited for disorderly conduct, the lawsuit said.

Held's lawsuit said the executive order restricting protest hours violates the First Amendment by "imposing a blanket prohibition on protest for the majority of each day regardless of any demonstrable threat to public safety," and by restricting people from coming to protest during mornings and evenings when they may have free time.

The lawsuit said Held already served the Village of Broadview with a motion to dismiss the executive order imposing the protest curfew on Oct. 13, and hand-delivered a follow-up letter a week later when the village did not respond. The village also has not responded to the follow-up letter, nor other attempts to engage the village and its police department, the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the executive order imposing a protest curfew is unconstitutional, and to have the citation against Held tossed.

In addition to the curfew, Thompson has also issued an executive order shrinking protest zones near the ICE facility. The orders have been the subject of their own protests — to the point where a Broadview Village Board meeting was cut short last week.

Response to the lawsuit from the Village of Broadview was not immediately available.