LOOP — Protesters against the Keystone Pipeline were arrested at a downtown federal building Monday morning.

Some 22 people were arrested for blocking the doors to the Metcalfe Federal Building, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., police said. They were cited for criminal trespass and released, police said.

Protesters had planned the Chicago demonstration, in the hometown of President Barack Obama, to launch a campaign to pressure him to block the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would carry tar sands fuel from Canada to Nebraska on the way to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast and eventual export.

According to Elijah Zarlin, senior campaign manager for CREDO, a progressive group spearheading the movement along with several other environmental groups, more than 60,000 have signed a Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance to engage in civil disobedience against the pipeline.

Zarlin was on site, according to his Twitter feed, and was among those believed to have been arrested.