Several demonstrators threw rocks at the ICE center’s glass windows, and a structure outside the building was also vandalized with a spray paint “Kill all Nazis” message featuring a giant swastika with a red circle and line drawn through it, according to photos of the incident featured by the Utah News Dispatch. Protest organizers sought to intervene and halt the vandalism, but the group smashed nearly 20 windows, threw rocks, and broke inside the building, KUTV reported.  A security guard said they identified themselves as “antifa” and had knives.

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Sergeant Gregory Wilking, the Public Information Officer for Salt Lake City Police Department, said that no one broke into the building and that he did not believe antifa was involved. “I viewed a bunch of the video,” Wilking said, “and I did not see anything along those lines.” Wilking said the rabble rousers were throwing rocks, and confirmed that “there was talk about people with knives.”

The larger crowd, of around 300 people, demonstrated peacefully for over an hour before the presence thinned. A group of about 60 participants broke from the main crowd, and a few of them participated in the acts of vandalism, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. A brief physical altercation broke out between several of the protesters and two agents who emerged from the warehouse.

Salt Lake City police officers with riot helmets arrived at the ICE center shortly before eight. However, around 20 protesters persisted past 8:30 p.m., despite being urged to back off and disperse, taunting officers. One individual was taken into custody at the entrance to the building’s parking lot, according to the outlet. 

The development comes after Salt Lake City ​​Mayor Erin Mendenhall has vigorously campaigned against the new ICE holding center, arguing that it will take an “enormous toll’ on local infrastructure. ICE formally acquired the property last week, in a $145 million purchase for the warehouse near Salt Lake City International Airport.

In a letter to the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, earlier this week, Mendenhall demanded a meeting with him over the matter. 

“While we are seeking additional information about the ultimate intended use for this building,” she wrote, “a large-scale detention facility is inappropriate for this location and does not have the support of Salt Lake City officials.”

In a statement given to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday in the context of similar local opposition to a new ICE holding center planned for Georgia, the DHS said opposition to such facilities is putting residents at risk. 

“Elected officials who are intentionally trying to obstruct DHS law enforcement are wasting law enforcement time, energy, and resources, while putting their own constituents in danger. Under President Trump, ICE is building the infrastructure necessary to arrest, detain, and remove criminal illegal aliens from American streets. Sites undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase,” an ICE spokesperson said.

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“Trying to prevent ICE from taking violent criminal illegal aliens off the streets and detaining them for removal goes to show who these ‘leaders’ really stand with,” the spokesperson concluded.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Salt Lake City Police Department for comment.