At 5am on a warm September morning a small crowd of protesters assembles in the dark. They are gathering outside the Broadview immigration processing centre, a two-storey brick structure in the Chicago suburbs that has the ambience of a US outpost in a foreign war. Windows are boarded with plywood. Fences are lined with razor wire and black cloth. Masked Ice agents appear sporadically, dressed in military fatigues – tactical helmets, flak jackets and rifles.
The protesters begin to heckle each time an agent turns up for work or leaves through a chainlink gate. “Quit your job!” they chant. “Take off your mask!”
