Nearly two dozen arrested as faith leaders protest outside Chicago-area ICE facility

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By Eric Cox and Diana Novak Jones

CHICAGO (Reuters) -Nearly two dozen people were arrested as faith leaders protested on Friday outside a federal immigration facility near Chicago, authorities said, the latest sign of tensions over the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement push.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that 21 people had been detained outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, Illinois, but did not provide identities and charges. Michael Woolf, minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston, was among those arrested, a Reuters photo showed.

The ICE center in Broadview has become a flashpoint for Chicago activists opposed to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city, a Democratic stronghold that limits its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Since Trump intensified ICE operations in Chicago in September, demonstrators have regularly clashed with authorities, who have fired tear gas, less-lethal rounds, flash-bang grenades and pepper balls.

A federal judge in October reined in some aggressive crowd-control tactics used by ICE and Border Patrol in the city, including the deployment of tear gas without adequate warning.

The latest standoff came as a separate federal judge ordered a group of 13 alleged immigration offenders detained by ICE in the Chicago area to be released by noon local time (1800 GMT), with the possibility of more releases to follow. U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the releases after he found that ICE violated a 2022 legal agreement that limits warrantless arrests and the use of traffic stops as a pretext to arrest.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Friday’s protests.

(Reporting by Eric Cox and Diana Novak Jones; Writing by Ted Hesson; Editing by Alistair Bell)