A group of more than a dozen women from Chicago’s near west suburbs arrested after staging a sit-in protest in the driveway of ICE’s Broadview detention facility appeared for their scheduled court date last week, only to find they weren’t on the docket.
The group of “suburban moms,” several from Oak Park, were arrested after reportedly hopping barricades and sitting down in a circle in the middle of the Beach Street driveway leading into the federal facility on Friday, Nov. 7. The women were arrested by Cook County Sheriff’s deputies less than a minute later, processed, and released with notices to appear in court at the Maywood Courthouse Wednesday, Dec. 3.
When the women arrived at the courthouse last week for what they expected to be their first appearance, they learned they weren’t on the docket for an appearance, and that their cases were in limbo, according to Nikki Kidd of River Forest, one of the defendants in the case.
The protestors and their attorneys left court last week unsure of how their case would proceed, if at all.
“Essentially what we’ve been told is that the charges were not filed, and they could either stay un-filed, or could potentially be filed at some point in the future,” she said.
Kidd said the protest was driven by a need to “do something” in the face of the sharp immigration crackdown felt across Chicagoland, including in the Oak Park area. Residents reported widespread ICE activity in Oak Park the day following the protest Nov. 8, with Oak Park police called to the scenes of reported ICE encounters in the 500 block of N. Lombard, the 800 block of S. Gunderson, the 700 block of S. Elmwood, the 1100 block of S. Gunderson and the 400 block of N. Euclid that day, according to the village.
The group includes some of the latest Oak Park residents to be arrested at protests at the facility, which has been the subject of several court orders issued by federal judges concerning the reported inhumane treatment of detainees.