A “wall” has been built around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, overseen by the U.S. Secret Service and federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
The “restricted area” extends around both the United Center, the main venue for the convention, and the McCormick Place Convention Center, where other events are taking place.
The security measures follow the threat of massive pro-Palestinian protests at the convention and come a month after Donald Trump was assassinated at a political rally. In July, Trump-appointed District Judge Brett Ludwig ruled that demonstrators at protests at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee could not cross a “hard” security perimeter.
Only “persons with identification or tickets” are allowed on the DNC grounds, which are protected by a makeshift wall of metal fencing and vehicles, including snow plows.
According to the Secret Service, two levels of security went into effect Friday around the United Center and McCormick Place Convention Center. The first and most comprehensive of these is a “vehicle screening area” where vehicles are only allowed to enter through certain entrances, but pedestrians remain unhindered.
Further back there is a “pedestrian area” to which only “persons with authorization or tickets, such as conference participants or volunteers” have access, who must pass through special checkpoints.
Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to attend the DNC, which runs from August 19 to 22. Many of them are angry about the Biden administration’s response to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The campaign group March on the DNC has organized two large demonstrations against the event on August 19 and 22, both starting in Union Park.
On Sunday evening, a welcoming party for DNC delegates at the Navy Pier Ballroom was disrupted by a number of pro-Palestinian protesters.
Videos and photos showing the construction of metal fences around DNC grounds, taken by both professional media and private individuals, spread like wildfire on social media.
And conservatives mocked the wall by comparing it to the anti-immigration border construction that Donald Trump promised during the 2016 presidential election.
Jim Vondruska/GETTY
Before the 2016 presidential election, Trump promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” along the US-Mexico border to stop illegal migration. According to a Wall Street Journal According to one analysis, only about 500 miles of border fencing were built along the approximately 2,000-mile border with Mexico during Trump’s presidency, much of it to replace existing structures.
Trump has once again made the fight against illegal immigration a central pillar of his 2024 presidential campaign. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recorded approximately 8.1 million encounters with migrants along the Mexican border between Biden’s inauguration and June 2024.
Conservative-leaning commentator Blaire White shared a photo of a fence being built on X with a DNC banner in the background, adding, “The DNC is building a wall to keep enemies out before telling you walls don’t work to keep enemies out.” White’s post received more than 6,700 reposts and was viewed over 630,000 times.
The X-account “Wall Street Silver,” which has 1.4 million followers on the platform, shared a graphic showing fences being built, along with the caption “Democrats are suddenly for walls.” They added, “What do they expect from the Democratic convention in Chicago?”
Separately, the account “amuse” X, with over 380,000 followers, posted a local news report showing a physical barrier being erected around one of the convention venues using fencing and multiple snow plows.
They wrote: “The Democratic Party wants to build an impenetrable wall around its convention in Chicago and require photo ID from anyone who wants to attend. That would be laughable if it weren’t so hypocritical. Yes, you read that right. The same party that spent years branding walls as racist and denouncing voter ID laws as discriminatory is now resorting to both when it serves its interests.”
Newsweek The Democratic National Committee requested comment outside of regular office hours on Monday via the online request form on its official website.
