Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson starts her day in the western suburb at 4 a.m. with silent meditation and prayer, but she ends the more stressful days belting out an Ice Cube diss track on her way home from the Village Hall. There’s been a lot of Ice Cube lately.
“It just charges me up when the attacks come and I know I don’t deserve that,” she says in her office near Tupac and Snoop Dogg prayer candles, both given to her by a constituent as a nod to her West Coast roots and love for hip-hop.
The morning meditation, the car karaoke, a strict 9:30 p.m. bedtime are all part of a regimen she’s keeping to help navigate a new national spotlight as President Donald Trump’s administration aggressively responds to protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center tucked into Broadview’s industrial corridor.
On Friday, Thompson almost came face-to-face with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who appeared unannounced at Village Hall asking for a meeting. In turn, Thompson went to the ICE center looking for Noem, but was told she was unavailable. Top U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino also visited the Broadview site on Friday.
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