Broadview, Ill., Mayor Katrina Thompson (I) announced an executive order on Monday that will limit the number of hours in which people can protest an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in her town, a village 12 miles west of downtown Chicago.
Thompson’s executive order limits protests at the facility to nine hours a day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CDT, to provide relief to the community.
The order may be rescinded if it is determined to be “no longer necessary to protect residents’ health, safety, and welfare,” a press release from the mayor’s office said.
Protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions at the facility have drawn hundreds of people, as well as an unprecedented amount of law enforcement from Broadview and neighboring cities, Illinois state troopers and Cook County sheriff’s deputies.
“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,” the Broadview mayor said.
Tensions hit a high point on Saturday after a woman was shot by a federal agent in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago, not far from the Broadview facility. Demonstrators had boxed in a government vehicle, leading to the incident, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“I have repeatedly said that I intend to defend the protesters’ constitutionally protected free speech rights. I support their cause. But the repeated clashes with ICE agents in our town are causing enormous disruptions in the quality of life for my residents whose rights I have taken an oath to protect,” Thompson said in announcing the new order.
“We live here. Our residents live here and deserve dignity and respect,” she added.
