Juan Munoz, a trustee of Oak Park Township, was detained on Oct. 3 at the Broadview U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, according to a post on the township’s official Facebook page. No charges were filed against Munoz, and he was released from custody later the same day.
Munoz was attending a protest outside the Broadview ICE facility alongside many Oak Parkers, including Village President Vicki Scaman.
In a separate Facebook post, Munoz described being pulled to the ground and detained by Commander-at-Large of the U.S. Border Patrol Greg Bovino. Munoz was never told why he was detained, he wrote.
According to the post, he was then led to a black ICE van with other protesters and brought inside the Broadview ICE facility. Munoz spent the majority of the day in a group detention cell, which he described having “shared toilets, overfilled trash cans and a foul odor.” Later, the ICE agents dropped him and other detained protesters at a gas station across the highway. He described the incident as an “unprovoked show of force toward peaceful protesters.”
Operation Midway Blitz, a crackdown on illegal immigration led by the Department of Homeland Security, has been taking place in the Chicago area since Sept. 8. The Broadview ICE facility has been the site of many protests, including on Sept. 27 when Oak Park and River Forest High School cafeteria worker Paul Ivery was arrested and charged for assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
On Oct. 3, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited the Broadview facility and was seen on the roof, according to ABC7 news.
