Around 75 people turned out for a dildo-themed protest—dubbed “Operation Dildo Blitz”—near the Broadview ICE facility on Saturday afternoon as part of a national “Fuck ICE” day of action. 

The spectacle saw hundreds of phallic items, big and small, flood the designated free speech zone—a small barricaded area where people have been permitted to demonstrate since President Trump’s mass deportation blitz swept through Chicagoland. Anti-deportation activists in Minneapolis and Los Angeles joined in using artificial members to mock federal agents and local police. 

“Are those regulation dildos?” asks a contestant of a dildo-flipping competition. Just two weeks ago, they were arrested during a protest against the “processing center” where detainees are held before leaving the state for more permanent detention.

“No, these are my juggling ones. They’re about six inches, and I cut the suction cups off for less drag,” responds their opponent, wearing a bandolier of plastic penises, who waited five hours for the first protester outside the Broadview police station as part of a jail support group two weeks prior.

The event came as a day of levity after an entire month of weekly civil disobedience and over a dozen arrests at the ICE facility, including eight on the day of the March 28 “No Kings” protests that drew millions nationwide.

“It’s a really good example of a way to show ICE that we can fuck them if we want to,” one volunteer helping with setup remarked. “We want to offer them a dildo and make sure they know that these cocks are bigger than theirs…If they want one of these, they’re welcome to have one. I’m happy to hand them one, and they can do what they want with it.”

“Everything that they’re doing to that building, putting the boards over the windows, it’s all to inspire fear,” another volunteer, who goes by the name ‘Quick,’ said. “So yeah, the dichotomy is intentional.”

The day’s organizers were protest regulars who largely operate in a flat and decentralized structure. Several have been arrested at Broadview by either feds or the local Unified Command—the all-Illinois, multi-agency police force whose crowd control efforts have allowed the unobstructed passage of DHS vehicles into and out of the facility since large demonstrations erupted last year

“Six of my friends were arrested,” one protester who was at the dildo-throwing demonstrations at Minnesota’s federal Whipple Building back in February, told Unraveled. “We were discussing where we were going to take this, if we were going to take this to the same level we did back then, or be more peaceful. Today, we’re taking this seriously, but not taking [the Village of] Broadview seriously.”

Community building amidst cock tossing carnival

The carnival-themed protest featured an assortment of games seen at state fairs, including ring toss (onto dildos), the Bozo bucket game (using dildos), and “dickhole,” a cornhole variant where contestants threw dildos instead of bags.

Some protesters expressed a hesitation with the emotional dissonance of the crude theme against the horrors of detention and deportation going on at the ICE facility just a couple hundred feet away.

Ally Galvan, who was assisting with a table where protesters could paint penis-shaped ICE alert whistles, co-founded Grito Latino Addison.

“That was something I was struggling with on my way here,” Galvan said. “I had just dropped off food to a family member whose husband was detained in Schaumburg. I went from feeling so serious, very emotional, to showing up here and various penile objects being all around.”

She laughed, gesturing to a pair trying to flip large dildos upright like water bottles.

“It reminded me that ‘community’ looks different in every which way. We can criticize how community looks in different communities, but that’s what also brought us to this same situation. We’re already dividing people based on race, based on where they were born,” Galvan explained. “Just being here provides a sense of community for a lot. Many of us here are enjoying ourselves, because the majority of the time, we’re up at four or five in the morning just to keep our community safe.”

There was also an initial fear of the sex toys uncomfortably contrasting with the memorial of victims of DHS violence such as Alex Pretti and Silverio Villegas González, on a nearby fence.

This never came to fruition. The previous Wednesday protester Guy Young said he witnessed a counter-protester waving a “Support ICE” flag rip down all of the photos and throw them to the ground. Young picked up the photos for safekeeping and brought them back in a bag on Saturday.

Even though the photos did not return to the memorial during the event, posters of Gregory Bovino, Tom Homan, and other right-wingers were taped to the same fence for blindfolded protesters to play “pin-the-shit [sticker]-on-the-fascist.”

Underneath the utter ridiculousness of the afternoon, organizers took advantage of the event to promote community-building and mutual aid concepts. One table was dedicated to teaching people how to properly apply a tourniquet, using dildos as practice limbs. All proceeds from a pay-what-you-want merchandise table went to support families suffering from a detained loved one, such as legal resources and food assistance. Crafters also handed out bracelets with the National Lawyers Guild hotline.

As the carnival continued, participants leaned into the absurdity.

Musicians in the center of the protest area set up drums and speakers to play along to protest songs such as “don’t fuck a fascist” and “Bird-Legged Ho,” the latter of which is in reference to Kristi Noem. Drummers attached a ring of dildos to the sides of a floor tom as a woman with a keytar soloed.

“I’ve seen her here so many times playing church songs,” one person said. “I’ve been waiting for her to rip on that thing.”

Police respond to barricade infraction, protesters respond with fake penises

At approximately 1:15PM, Unified Command stationed on the southern end of Beach Street arrived in vehicles on the south end of the designated protest zone. Protesters had been heckling passing ICE and police vehicles all afternoon, but the increased police presence came after a handful of protesters had hopped over the barricade and loitered just on the other side.

“Where’s your sense of culture?” a protester sarcastically asked.

The officer-in-charge issued a five-minute warning to the chanting crowd with no audio amplification equipment.

About a dozen dildos were tossed from the crowd at police vehicles. Officers did not appear to react, but some did put on latex gloves.

Earlier, volunteers had stressed to protesters not to physically throw the dildos at police while distributing them.

“Police brutality is pretty fucking real here,” one volunteer said. “Some of the other detention centers in the country, they may have a little more luck with that today, but here we’re trying to tell everybody, ‘do not actually throw these at ICE.’ They’re a symbol, but definitely not meant to actually be thrown at ICE. Trying to not get a felony today.”

“Are you mad these dicks are way bigger than yours?” one protester yelled at the police.

The incident eventually ended with no arrests observed. Officers escorted the protesters back into the zone, with one person helicopter-spinning a pink dildo in the air as they walked. The encounter lasted about 10 minutes.

Unified command (local cops) arrived allegedly in response to protesters standing on the sidewalk on the other side of the free speech zone barricades.Inflatable phalluses wave along to a chant of, "suck a dick!"

— unraveled (@unraveledpress.com) 2026-04-11T18:51:18.308Z

As the crowd thinned out around 3PM, volunteers distributed awards sporting a litany of penile modifications to game winners. Several were police marksmanship trophies, modified to depict a police officer aiming a penis instead of a pistol.

Teammates held a dildo between their hips as part of a three-legged race, which was won by an amputee with an artificial leg.

“I guess I won the ‘Dildo Dash Championship,’” the three-legged race winner said. “Coming here is kind of like a reset for me…seeing that I’m not alone in feeling like absolutely everything going on is insane. It’s the only time I look forward to, honestly. Protesting.”

The winner of the dildo flipping competition held up their penis-laden trophy in front of photographers with cigarette in hand.

A photographer suggested putting the cigarette in their mouth.

“I don’t want to look like an idiot,” the winner shot back.