"Early Friday mornings in September, before most people have had breakfast, protesters outside of the ICE processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, were dodging projectiles from federal agents. By 7 am, Border Patrol agents would be tossing protesters to the ground, and blanketing the area, including homes and businesses, in tear gas. On Saturday afternoons, more protesters would show up-and the feds outside the facility would increase the show of force accordingly."
"For the two months US Border Protection chief patrol agent Gregory Bovino led Operation Midway Blitz in and around Chicago, the suburban village of Broadview, a dozen miles west of the city, became a testing ground-not just for how the federal government could terrorize local communities, but for how people would fight back. Facebook groups sprouted up early in Bovino's reign of terror to track the movements of agents on the ground."
"But Laura Loomer, a far-right provocateur and close ally of President Donald Trump, complained about them, and Facebook's parent company, Meta-one among a growing cohort of media empires now keen to do Trump's bidding-started shutting some down. But a host of new on-the-ground life hacks followed. In Chicagoland's Hispanic neighborhoods, restaurants began locking their doors against potential immigration raids, letting customers in individually. Signal chats and Facebook groups enable the rapid distribution of 3D-printed whistles to alert residents that Bovino's troops were nearby."
Early Friday mornings in September protesters outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, faced projectiles and tear gas from federal agents. By 7 a.m. Border Patrol agents tossed protesters to the ground and escalated shows of force during weekend demonstrations. Operation Midway Blitz, led by chief patrol agent Gregory Bovino, turned Broadview into a testing ground for aggressive enforcement and local resistance. Community members used Facebook and Signal to track agents, distributed 3D-printed whistles to warn neighbors, and restaurants locked doors during raids. Local officials urged residents to carry whistles as informal early-warning brigades against immigration raids.
Read at The Nation
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