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Demonstrators are getting more familiar with their tactics. When the masked and unmasked federal agents surfaced on the rooftop of the red-brick building in suburban Broadview, some armed with pepper ball guns, protesters began to put on their protective gear — masks, goggles, helmets.

As federal agents, some with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and some with U.S. Border Patrol, approached the ICE facility’s main gate, some demonstrators moved in closer. Others stood further away; they know what’s coming.

The gate opened around 8:30 a.m., and a white cargo van inched out. The rooftop agents shot round pellets filled with chemical irritants into the crowd. More masked federal agents ran out and surrounded the van, pushing and shoving demonstrators who used their bodies to block the van’s forward motion.

Then came the tear gas.

The crowd retreated, coughing and reaching for their eyes. Those with heavy-duty protective gear kept pushing. Agents grabbed two of them, forced them to the ground, and rushed them inside the metal gates. Federal agents did this in front of the news cameras and helicopters. They did this in front of elected officials and political hopefuls. They did this in a tucked-off industrial park off 25th Avenue, the main thoroughfare that connects this occupied corner of Broadview from the otherwise quiet suburb just 12 miles west of Chicago.

Rickey Hendon Jr., an activist and organizer, joined the demonstration at 8:00 a.m.

“This particular facility has been one of the worst that we’ve heard about for a long time. They have people sleeping on the floor here,” Hendon Jr. said. “They’re supposed to be here for 12 hours; sometimes they’re here for days and even weeks.”