DHS-contracted Paragon security officer (left) makes eye contact with a National Lawyers Guild legal observer (right, green hat). Broadview ICE Staging Facility, Sunday, 8/31/25.

By Dominic Guanzon

Sunday, 8/31/25

BROADVIEW – Over 150 protesters gathered in front of the ICE Service Staging Facility at 1930 Beach Street, Broadview, IL to call for its closure, leading to a flashpoint with DHS-contracted security guards. Chanting and speeches began at noon. The crowd swelled in front of the street, as about a dozen local Broadview police officers were scattered up and down the street.

“The first message here is to the cowards that are in this building behind us, hiding behind their masks, in their unmarked vehicles,” said Bassem Kawar on behalf of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, amid a sun at high noon. “We don’t want you. We don’t need you on our streets. Because tearing families apart and kidnapping our neighbors is not a value of our city, our state, and our movement.”

By way of the 2021 Illinois Way Forward Act, all ICE detention centers in the state were shuttered, and are new ones are barred from operating. Illinois does not appear in the filter list on the ICE website.

However, the ICE facility in Broadview is classified as a “staging facility,” which is supposed to be where detained undocumented people are delivered from their arrests, held temporarily, and potentially processed via administrative and bureaucratic procedures, such as name-collecting. From there, undocumented people are distributed to official detention centers in different states that still allow the centers.

Protesters spilled onto Beach Street as the demonstration grew. Broadview ICE Staging Facility, Sunday, 8/31/25.

Diana “Dee” Balitaan of the Tanggol Migrante Movement (center, orange hat), in front of the facility entrance at 1930 Beach Street. Broadview ICE Staging Facility, Sunday, 8/31/25.

According to the American Immigration Council, “while these locations are not intended to be used for overnight stays, ICE has at times detained people in initial processing locations for multiple days. These short-term holding locations are not subject to traditional oversight or detention standards that more traditional detention facilities use.”

“This staging facility was not designed to house detainees for even a night, yet there have been reported and confirmed cases of individuals held in the facility for more than a week,” said Nadiah Alyafai of the Arab American Action Network.

*Nadiah Alyafai, of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), chanting with a megaphone. Broadview ICE Staging *Facility*, Sunday, 8/31/25.*

According to the 2011 Operations Manual ICE Performance-Based National Detention Standards (revised in 2016), under the “2.6 Hold Rooms in Detention Facilities” chapter:

“An individual may not be confined in a facility’s hold room for more than 12 hours.”

If this is ICE’s own standard for official detention facilities, then detainee hold time blowing past this at a staging facility, which is not equipped for long-term detention, presents a serious human rights violation.

Alyafai and others specifically called upon Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neil Burke and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to investigate and shut the Broadview facility down.

On Wednesday, June 18th, four Illinois congresspeople, including Chuy Garcia and Delia Ramirez, were denied entry into the facility. Since then, it has become a symbolic rallying point for anti-ICE sentiments in Chicagoland, as well as being a very real part of the logistics for President Trump’s agenda.

*Omar Garcia of the Coalition Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) talking to a Telemundo reporter. Broadview ICE Staging *Facility*, Sunday, 8/31/25.*

According to photojournalist Paul Goyette, “each Friday detainees are put on vans for transfer to out-of-state detention facilities.” On the previous Friday, August 29th, as per Goyette’s reporting, three people were arrested, and a fourth manhandled, while attempting to block the vans from leaving the staging facility.

During the August 31st protest, at approximately 13:00, an armed security officer from DHS-contracted Paragon Security emerged from the building. He initially told an elderly man sitting on the concrete steps to move one step down, then told gathered protesters to move down the accessibility ramp.

A few minutes later, a second guard came out of the building, and they both started telling the protesters to move back from the driveway gate. The first guard broke off to talk to the Broadview Police gathered on the street, then returned to go back into the gate entrance with the other guard.

Security officers from the DHS-contracted Paragon Systems. Broadview ICE Staging Facility, Sunday, 8/31/25.

The guards then opened the driveway gate as the protesters were in front chanting. No running vehicles were seen attempting to enter or leave the lot. This likely means the guards had opened the gate to bait protesters into coming into the lot, which would have likely resulted in a trespassing charge, if not something more severe.

Protest marshals formed a loose line, likely to prevent the momentum of the crowd from being pushed into the lot, and after a few minutes, the guards closed the gate.

With the gate open, seemingly as a bait, protest marshals formed a loose line, likely to prevent accidental arrest. Broadview ICE Staging Facility, Sunday, 8/31/25.

Protesters chant in front of the closed driveway gate. Broadview ICE Staging Facility, Sunday, 8/31/25.

Chanting continued for another fifteen minutes before the organizers declared an end to the protest, reminding them of the Coalition’s protest plan should the National Guard be called to Chicago.

Both security guards made no attempts to hide their faces with clothing. Paragon Systems (shortened to “ParaSys” on patches) has had a contract with DHS since 2008, and settled a lawsuit concerning an alleged kickback scheme for $52 million in 2004. Paragon traces their legacy to Allan Pinkerton, founder of the infamous strike-breaking Pinkerton Detective Agency. Paragon is a subsidiary of Securitas, which claims to be the second-largest private security company in the world.

Protest marshals in yellow vests – including some of the speakers, chant leaders, and organizers – were present. Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild were also in attendance, keeping track of both the security guards, the gate situation, and the moderate presence from the Broadview Police Department on the street.