Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday that she and members of her staff were denied access to a bathroom in a federally funded building in Illinois during a recent visit.
The petty altercation is just the latest flashpoint in an increasingly personal feud between the Trump administration and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
According to Noem, her team had been traveling through the area when they pulled into the nearby Village of Broadview Municipal Building shortly before noon.
“My team and I were just blocked from accessing the Village of Broadview Municipal Building in Illinois,” Noem wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We were stopping for a quick bathroom break. This is a public building. The Village of Broadview receives at least $1 million in federal funding every year. This is how JB Pritzker and his cronies treat our law enforcement. Absolutely shameful.”
The treatment of Noem isn’t likely to sit well with President Donald Trump, who has already surged federal officers to Chicago despite opposition from the city and Illinois Democratic leaders.
A short video shared online by a DHS staffer shows Noem and aides standing at the door of the municipal building. A woman inside can be heard refusing their request to use the restroom. “No, you cannot,” the person says through the glass. “OK, all right, thank you,” Noem responds calmly before walking away.
Village officials, however, disputed Noem’s account, claiming she appeared without warning, seeking a meeting with Mayor Katrina Thompson.
“Since DHS Secretary Kristi Noem appeared this morning, unannounced, at Broadview’s Village Hall asking for a meeting while Mayor Katrina Thompson was out of the building, the mayor returned her visit,” said village spokesman David Ormsby. He said Thompson and the local police chief later went to the ICE facility to confront agents about a recently erected perimeter fence, calling it “illegal.”
“Mayor Thompson went to the ICE center, accompanied by the Broadview police chief and officers, to ask for the illegal fence to be dismantled,” Ormsby added. “The mayor was told by agents at the gate the secretary was unavailable to meet.”
The Department of Homeland Security pushed back sharply. “She didn’t ask for a meeting. She asked to use the restroom,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News. “This is insane.”
The incident unfolded as federal agents confronted anti-ICE protesters outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, Illinois, roughly 12 miles west of downtown Chicago. Demonstrators clashed with agents throughout the morning as officers deployed pepper balls, tear gas, and rubber bullets to clear blocked entrances to the federal facility. More than a dozen arrests were reported.
The spat came just hours after Pritzker accused Noem of sanctioning “gross misconduct” by federal agents in Illinois, charging that the Trump administration’s tactics had violated the rights of immigrant families.
“Last time when the secretary was here, she snuck in during the early morning to film social media videos and fled before sunrise,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “It’s been nearly 45 days since Secretary Noem has held an official press conference, so it’s time she faces the public and takes questions from the press to be held accountable for the Trump administration’s gross misconduct.”
The statement continued, “Illinois is not a photo opportunity or a war zone. It’s a sovereign state where our people deserve rights, respect, and answers.”
Noem’s office dismissed Pritzker’s comments as “political theater” and accused him of ignoring crime and immigration crises in his own state.
“Grow up and start protecting the people of your own state,” McLaughlin shot back. “Federal law enforcement has to be here because JB Pritzker refuses to do his job and has allowed violent illegal alien criminals to terrorize Illinois communities for years.”