National Guard members were spotted early Thursday at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Broadview, hours before a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from deploying the troops in Illinois.

The Texas National Guard, which arrived in the area earlier this week, had been expected throughout the Chicago area, but were rarely in plain view at Broadview. Those troops were federalized by the Trump administration following a series of intense confrontations between protesters and federal immigration enforcement officers taking part in “Operation Midway Blitz,” the mass deportation mission being carried out in Chicago and the suburbs.

It was unclear whether the troops will remain at the federal property in Broadview following the ruling from U.S. District Judge April Perry, who said that National Guard troops are “not trained in de-escalation or other extremely important law enforcement functions that would help to quell these problems,” and that allowing troops to come into Illinois “will only add fuel to the fire that the defendants themselves have started.”

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment after the court hearing.

A spokesman for U.S. Northern Command, overseeing the National Guard deployments, would not say Thursday morning whether the troops had actually been deployed to the streets in view of the general public, saying instead in a statement that as of Wednesday, “elements of the Texas National Guard, under Title 10 authority and the command and control of U.S. Northern Command, are employed in the greater Chicago area.”

“These soldiers are employed to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property,” the statement said.

Broadview police Chief Thomas Mills told the Tribune he was notified overnight that his officers spotted personnel at the ICE facility in the suburb that has been a magnet for protests who said they were with the National Guard awaiting further instruction.

The village issued a statement Thursday.

“Three vans with approximately 45 Texas National Guard soldiers arrived at the Ice Facility in the Village of Broadview late last night,” the statement said. “During their patrols, Broadview police officers observed the vans parked in the rear of 2000 25th Ave and all of the guards were sleeping. We let them sleep undisturbed. We hope that they will extend the same courtesy in the coming days to Broadview residents who deserve a good night’s sleep, too.”

Gov. JB Pritzker late Thursday morning said he still hadn’t received any “official reports” of troop activity overnight in Broadview, including whether the Guard were caught napping. The state still isn’t getting any information from the federal government, he said.

The governor added he didn’t know why the Trump administration wanted to deploy troops to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse downtown, as a late-night court filing from the Trump administration suggested had been requested.

“What I can tell you is that none of it surprises me anymore,” he said at a news conference downtown.

Trump is looking to provoke people, Pritzker said, by putting “troops or agents in places where there might be the prospect of people being upset — and by the way, there’s a high prospect in the city of Chicago, in fact, across the state of Illinois, of people being upset about having troops posted in front of them.”

For the most part, National Guard members were not visible to the public or protesters who watched intently for any movement from federal officials. Troops occasionally could be seen from the so-called free speech zone set up by state officials as they walked around the Broadview ICE property, but they mostly stayed out of view.

It was relatively quiet near the ICE facility on Thursday morning except for the occasional SUV driven out of the facility by masked agents and the sounds of protests.

A man with a bullhorn stood near a fence separating the street from the ICE facility taunting and criticizing officials.

“The National Guard is in the wrong side of the fence,” he said. “Why are you protecting kidnappers?”

Mark Hooks, an Oak Park nurse, said he came out to witness what was happening after hearing that the National Guard was coming.

Hooks said it was his first time visiting the Broadview protest. He said he was driving past a Berwyn elementary school during school drop-off and it hit him that some of the Latino kids might get out later and their parents won’t be there to pick them up.

“I do feel like I need to become more active and not just be watching all of this unfold without taking some action and making my voice heard, just showing up to say that none of this is OK,” he said.

As the scene remained quiet in Broadview into the afternoon, protesters brought in a large makeshift banner that read in bold orange lettering: “No troops in our streets.” The sign, which was strung together with black nylon netting and tall yellow poles, towered above members of the media and a handful of demonstrators standing in the designated protest area.

Behind the banner a few feet away, three women recited the rosary in Spanish.

In a letter sent to Broadview residents Wednesday night, Mayor Katrina Thompson offered no new specifics on the already heavily publicized plans but condemned the move as “messed up” and said it was “rooted in the historic intimidation of African-American communities by government officials waving guns in our faces.”

Thompson on Monday signed an executive order limiting protest hours outside the processing center, nodding to the disruption the demonstrations and agents’ heavy deployment of chemical crowd controls have caused for Broadview residents.

“I understand that the provocation of the Texas National Guard in Broadview will inspire people to speak out against their presence,” she wrote. “I support that.”

She closed the letter with a plea to protesters to voice their opposition “with understanding and respect for the people who call this village home.”

The Guard’s presence in Broadview came on the same day a federal judge in Chicago heard arguments from a legal challenge by the Illinois attorney general’s office, which argued Trump’s deployment of the troops over the objections of Gov. Pritzker is unconstitutional. In addition to deploying some 200 Texas National Guard members to the Chicago area, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered 300 Illinois National Guard members to be federalized as part of the deployment.

In court documents filed Monday, Illinois officials argued “the American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor.”

The Trump administration has argued that escalating violence against immigration officials during the deportation operation justifies the deployment of National Guard troops.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and combat veteran from Illinois, announced Thursday that the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing in coming weeks to question the Department of Defense about the decision to deploy the troops as part of immigration enforcement missions.

"I look forward to asking tough questions of the Trump administration about their unconstitutional National Guard deployments to American cities against state and local officials’ objections,” Duckworth said in a statement.

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(Chicago Tribune’s Olivia Olander contributed.)

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