Cook County prosecutors drop charges against 19 arrested during clergy-led protest at Broadview ICE facility

Prosecutors have dropped charges against nearly two dozen people arrested during a clergy-led protest outside the Broadview immigration facility last fall.

The Rev. Michael Woolf, one of the arrestees, said the charges were “always egregious.”

“The fact was that the people who were gathered there, myself included, were acting from a real standpoint, that what was going on in Broadview was a moral emergency and spiritual emergency, and we saw that play out, and we were met with pretty intense violence, and then we were prosecuted for that,” Woolf said in an interview.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in suburban Broadview became a hub for protests last fall as President Donald Trump's aggressive deportation campaign tore through the Chicago area. Local law enforcement took over crowd control outside of the building in October, drawing criticism from demonstrators who accused them of aiding federal agents and using harsh tactics.

Woolf and fellow faith members had set out to provide religious counseling to detainees at the facility on the morning of Nov. 14 but were denied entrance into the building.

As the demonstrators moved closer to the facility, in the hopes that those inside would hear their prayers, scuffles broke out with local law enforcement, and 21 people were arrested. The Cook County sheriff’s office said the group left the “designated protest area,” and was “unlawfully assembling in the roadway.”

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office has now dropped charges in 19 of those cases.

“Although sufficient evidence exists to support this prosecution, considering the totality of the circumstances, we are declining to proceed,” the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said in a statement Monday.

“Prosecutors must exercise discretion at every stage of a case, guided by the interests of justice, fairness and the responsible use of prosecutorial resources.”

All 19 people were arrested by Cook County sheriff’s officers and faced misdemeanor charges for obstruction, disorderly conduct and walking on a highway. These were cases filed directly by the law enforcement agency.

Woolf, of Lake Street Church of Evanston, said it shouldn’t have taken three months to dismiss the cases.

Of the two people arrested that day whose cases were not dropped, one is charged with mob action and the other is charged with resisting a police officer.

“We continue to pray for and think about the folks who haven't had their charges dropped,” Woolf said. “Anybody protesting that torture site was doing the right thing. I don't think that they should be prosecuted by the state of Illinois.”

Woolf said the entire ordeal has been a “stunning encounter with state violence,” and that Illinois has a lot of work to do to become the “moral leader that we want to be in this country.”

That November morning outside of Broadview, Woolf said officers threw him to the ground and pressed their knees into him. Video shows Woolf calmly standing in line with fellow protesters before an officer grabs him by the wrist from the crowd. He spent seven hours in custody following his arrest.

Multiple people were injured during the confrontation that day, including four police officers.

Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff’s and Broadview police launched a unified command in early October to handle crowd control at the near-daily demonstrations outside the immigration facility.

Local law enforcement agencies arrested at least 113 people outside the facility between early October and late November.

Protesters have accused the local agencies of violating the TRUST Act, which prohibits Illinois law enforcement from working with federal agents on immigration enforcement.

The majority of those arrest cases are still pending in Cook County Court.

There were also at least 13 people arrested by federal agents while protesting outside the Broadview facility last fall. Six have already had their cases dismissed.

The other seven, including the group known as the “Broadview Six,” still have pending cases. The "Broadview Six” are heading to trial in May.