Federal law enforcement agents used teargas and pepper balls to disperse a group of about 100 protesters, including two Democratic candidates for Congress, during a series of early morning clashes outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) building in Chicago on Friday.

Demonstrators had attempted to block a number of government SUVs from entering and exiting the facility, which has become an operating hub and detention location during an immigration crackdown in the Democratic city dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz”.

At least three protesters were arrested during the scuffles, which saw masked homeland security agents, dressed in riot gear, fire pepper balls at protesters from a rooftop and launch multiple canisters of teargas. One agent stood with what appeared to be an unholstered firearm. The facility is lined with razor wire, and its windows are boarded with plywood.

Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate for Illinois’s ninth congressional district, had sat at an entrance to the facility, alongside dozens of other protesters, before teargas was launched into the crowd. Earlier in the morning she was shoved to the ground by a masked agent as a group of vehicles entered the facility.

She described the episodes as a “violent abuse of power” in a later post on social media, adding: “It’s still nothing compared to what they’re doing to immigrant communities.”

Video of the incident was later reposted by the Department of Homeland Security’s [DHS] official account on X with the caption: “Individuals and groups impeding Ice operations are siding with vicious cartels, human traffickers, and violent criminals.”