ICE fires anti-crowd projectiles at Chicagoans aiming to shut down Trump's Midway Blitz

Source: USA Today

Updated Sept. 26, 2025, 10:48 p.m. ET


BROADVIEW, IL — Around 200 Chicago-area protesters rallying against immigration enforcement endured a barrage of chemical agents and projectiles fired by federal agents on Sept. 26 outside the site at the heart of President Donald Trump’s crackdown.

The tense protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility located in the Chicago suburb of Broadview comes over two weeks into Operation Midway Blitz, the White House’s effort to ramp up deportations in the longtime sanctuary city. Trump has repeatedly said the crackdown is aimed at "the worst of the worst" criminals who are immigrants.

But the president’s crackdown, which has seen one immigrant fatally shot by a federal agent, has sparked nearly around-the-clock protest at the facility located about 12 miles west of the Willis Tower.

"It feels like chemical warfare," Rickey Hendon Jr. told USA TODAY through a gas mask after a barrage of pepper balls fired by immigration agents. The Chicago-area tech worker said he was protesting against inhumane conditions reported at the deportation processing center. "This needs to be shut down."

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/26/chicago-resists-trumps-midway-blitz-ice-fires-projectiles/86376942007/