For Immediate Release Contact:
04 February 2025 David Ormsby
312-342-9638
Thompson Wants Broadview ICE Center Closed;
Gets Mayors Group, Harvard Fellowship
Envisions Future Museum on the ICE Site
(Broadview, IL) - The United States Conference of Mayors and the Just City Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Design have selected two Illinois mayors among only eight mayors nationwide to serve as 2026 Just City Mayoral Fellows.
City of Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati and Village of Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson will begin their fellowship in Spring 2026.
The 2026 Just City Mayoral Fellowship supports mayors in advancing local projects during a time of rapid change, and Thompson has chosen the closure of the ICE processing center in Broadview as her long-term project.
“Being selected for this fellowship is not just an honor, it’s a responsibility,” said Thompson. “And my long-term priority is clear: we must permanently close the Broadview ICE Detention Center and reimagine that site as something that reflects our values a place for education, culture, and community well-being.”
Last month, Broadview’s Board of Trustees adopted a new zoning ordinance that would, in practice, prevent ICE from expanding its operations in the community and establishing a detention center.
The fellowship aims to equip cities and small villages, like Broadview (Pop. 8,000) to maintain a strong vision of equity, injustice, that are safer, healthier, and more inclusive. Over the course of a semester, Rayapati and Thompson will engage with national experts across architecture, planning, housing, public policy, and community design.
Thompson envisions a potential museum for the ICE facility in the future.
“Potentially, this facility could serve as a museum and a civic space that tells the full story of Broadview’s resilience and the experience of those who disappeared behind the ICE facility’s walls,” said Thompson. “We cannot allow the harm inflected by ICE to define our modern history and future. Through this fellowship, I will bring back tools and partnerships to help us repair past injustices.”
Using the Lab’s Just City Index, mayors and their teams examine how inequities show up in the social, economic, and physical infrastructures of their cities and develop clear, action-oriented strategies to address them. This year’s cohort will focus specifically on reparative development embedding justice and equity into efforts that repair disinvestment, restore neighborhood identity, and ensure growth benefits long-time residents.
In additional to Rayapati and Thompson, other 2026 Just City Mayoral Fellows include:
- Columbia, MO — Mayor Barbara Buffaloe
- Durham, NC — Mayor Leonardo Williams
- Fairbanks, AK — Mayor Mindy O’Neall
- Gresham, OR — Mayor Travis Stovall
- Salem, MA — Mayor Dominick Pangallo
- Santa Monica, CA — Mayor Caroline Torosis
About the Program
The Just City Mayoral Fellowship is made possible with additional support from the Kresge Foundation. The United States Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization representing cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The Just City Lab, based at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and led by architect and urban planner Toni L. Griffin, advances research and tools that demonstrate how design and planning can address longstanding social and spatial inequities.
Learn more at www.usmayors.org and www.designforthejustcity.org