Fear and fury at ICE facility protest near Chicago / Photo: OCTAVIO JONES - AFP
Fear and fury at ICE facility protest near Chicago
The language was foul, the rage abundant: Thursday's scene outside an ICE facility near Chicago reflected the anguish gripping some Americans as their government unfurls its crackdown on immigrants.
The Midwestern city of 2.7 million, the country's third largest, has become a key target in President Donald Trump's campaign pledge to carry out the largest deportation in US history.
Tensions have boiled over recently as demonstrators clash with authorities near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the Illinois town of Broadview.
And Trump's deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops in the Chicago area -- purportedly to protect ICE agents and buildings -- has raised the temperature further.
On Thursday, roughly two dozen people hurled insults at those soldiers and the immigration staff.
"Go home Nazis!" yelled 37-year-old Kate Madrigal at ICE agents and National Guard members through the fence.
"Enough talking. It's time to put some action behind the words and the anger that I have," Madrigal, a stay-at-home mom who drove 35 miles (56 kilometers) from the Indiana state line to Broadview, told AFP.
"We have listened to so much bigotry and racism and overreach of power, that everyone is here to stand up and use our First Amendment right and protest against what's happening," Madrigal explained.
For Madrigal, the conditions are personal. She is married to a Mexican immigrant who recently became a US citizen.
"We're scared," she said.
The crackdown "has nothing to do with immigrants," she insisted. "They're targeting brown people."
Immigration agents have conducted violent arrests -- including deploying Black Hawk military helicopters in one raid -- while using tear gas in confrontations with protesters.
- 'We know what's next' -
Near the roadway leading into the ICE processing facility and detention center, three women prayed in Spanish.
Steps away, a cluster of surveillance cameras on a pole monitored the protesters.
Among them was Lee Goodman, whose attire -- a replica of a Nazi concentration camp prisoner's uniform -- stood out.
So did his sign: "We know what's next."
His breast pocket features a sewn blue triangle, the symbol that migrants in the camps in Germany were required to wear.
It proved to be quite a conversation starter.
"They understand the parallels to today, so it's been very effective," said the 72-year-old retired lawyer from nearby Northbrook.
As for ICE, Goodman remained unapologetic.
"This facility is part of the apparatus of putting people in concentration camps," he said. "We know from history what's next when you start putting migrants in concentration camps just because they're migrants."
Chicagoan Ryan Cuellar, 28, said the "use of force" deployed by ICE is "definitely scaring people away" and suppressing the number of protesters.
"People go to war and die for these liberties, so exercising them shouldn't be a crime. Exercising them shouldn't be at the cost of you being pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed, pepper-balled," he said.
Among the anti-ICE protesters stood one open supporter of Trump's immigration crackdown.
"He's doing the right thing," said Ali Wiegand, 45, who held a "We (heart) ICE" sign.
She said she has had "great conversations" with those who oppose the raids, and that they agree to disagree.
But oftentimes, tempers soar.
"I've had people scream two inches from my face and call me every name in the book," Wiegand said.
F.Thill--RTC
