10/23/25

by Lee Goodman

Tears flowed down the girl's face as we stood talking outside the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. She didn't say anything to me. Her older sister, who was also tearful but more composed, did the talking.

They had come to see their father. He had been arrested by ICE at his workplace two days ago. They knew he was brought there when he was arrested, because he was allowed to make a phone call. They weren't able to find out if he is still there.

ICE didn't allow them into the facility. But an Illinois State Police officer who sat in his car outside the facility put through a call for them to ICE. Although the police officer wasn't able to find out for them where their father was now, he did get ICE to send out the key to their father's house, and he gave it to them.

The sisters don't live with their father. He is separated from their mother. He has been in the U.S. for fifteen years. He told them he expects to be deported back to Mexico, but the older sister said he didn't really have much of an idea what would happen. He doesn't have a lawyer. They are afraid he may sign papers without knowing what he is signing.

The sisters were grateful to have the key, because it would allow them to go into their father's house and take care of his cat and bird. As we talked, I asked what kind of bird it was. They didn't know, except they said it was very colorful and small.

ICE is letting the animals remain in the US. But their father has to go.

Just down the block, Gregory Bovino, who is in charge of the Chicago-area roundup of migrants, was posing for a video camera crew. He strutted around in front of the ICE facility, then went back to his starting mark and did it again so the camera could get a good shot of him looking virile and heroic, as if he was charging into battle. But there was nothing happening on the street except for the photo-shoot. There were no migrants around, and no pedestrians or vehicle traffic, because the street is blocked off by the state police. The only people there were the Border Patrol agents flanking Bovino. It was just play-acting as if they were on a back-lot movie set. The footage will probably be incorporated into some propaganda reel. Maybe it will be sent to TV stations to use in their reporting. When the video crew had the footage they wanted, Bovino went back inside.

As the sisters with the key said good-bye, the older one thanked the protesters for being there and showing support. They were losing their father, and yet they thanked us. Because that is the kind of people they had been raised to be. Children who would take care of their father, and who would, in a dark and frightening moment, thank strangers who were doing nothing more than being there. There wasn't much else we could do. There wasn't much more that they could do either. We were all trapped in helplessness. But we were there with one another.

Bovino did not come over to the sisters. He did not see their tears.