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{
"title": "Photojournalist struck by projectiles, tear-gassed at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-struck-by-projectiles-tear-gassed-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-06T20:17:13.159988Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-31T14:41:12.326190Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-31T14:41:12.137100Z",
"date": "2025-09-27",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qow1i\">Chicago Sun-Times photojournalist Anthony Vazquez was struck with projectiles fired by federal agents and tear-gassed while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"23e5b\">The incident happened during one of a series of demonstrations held outside the facility where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"dm0t\">In an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Vazquez said he didn’t believe he was intentionally targeted, as he was photographing among protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"8e0c9\">“It was three separate instances of conflict among protesters and federal agents that resulted in me getting hit by a total of five of the rubber bullets/pellets and once by a pepper ball on top of the tear gas.”</p><p data-block-key=\"76ujn\">Vazquez <a href=\"https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/chicago-ice-raid-apartment-journalists-immigration-trump/\">told Poynter in an interview</a> that Chicago police are trained more to control big crowds compared to federal agents, who are instead more likely to disperse crowds with riot-control weapons than let them freely protest. Because of that, he wears extensive personal protective equipment when covering protests, including a full gas mask, a vest and a helmet. He also carries wipes for tear gas and a first aid kit.</p><p data-block-key=\"doof4\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, DHS described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b6flo\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gokq\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"72b5n\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3s786\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">later arrested a reporter.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"11r8a\"><i>Editor’s note: This article was updated to identify photojournalist Anthony Vazquez and include his comments.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-10-03_at_1.40.22P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"yjl59\">Federal agents at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025. Chicago Sun-Times photojournalist Anthony Vazquez was struck with projectiles while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Anthony Vazquez (Chicago Sun-Times)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist shot with pepper balls by federal officers at Illinois protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-with-pepper-balls-by-federal-officers-at-illinois-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-22T19:20:54.572238Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:36:01.610490Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:36:01.447561Z",
"date": "2025-09-27",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jjmnv\">Independent journalist Wali Khan was shot with multiple pepper balls by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"cd4ak\">The facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation, has drawn escalating protests and federal response since early September, following the Department of Homeland Security’s <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/08/ice-launches-operation-midway-blitz-honor-katie-abraham-target-criminal-illegal\">launch</a> of Operation Midway Blitz.</p><p data-block-key=\"ckduk\">In response to an <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-26&date_upper=2025-09-26&city=Broadview\">aggressive federal response</a> to protests Sept. 26, Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">sent a letter</a> to the DHS accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3qqj2\">According to a Sept. 27<a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\"> news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6berg\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p><p data-block-key=\"llfr\">Khan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering protests Sept. 27, despite having been <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-hit-by-crowd-control-munitions-at-illinois-protest-gear-damaged/\">shot with multiple crowd-control munitions</a> by federal officers at the facility the previous day.</p><p data-block-key=\"bs1vo\">As officers advanced from a fenced entrance at the facility and into the assembled demonstration, Khan said they were aggressive and did not hesitate to target the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"2idnq\">Khan told the Tracker that an officer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-targeted-with-tear-gas-by-dhs-agent-at-illinois-immigration-protest\">deliberately deployed tear gas</a> in front of him and another journalist, then grabbed Khan by the shoulder and forced him to walk through the chemical irritant.</p><p data-block-key=\"ceof9\">Federal officers were also indiscriminately firing pepper balls and other crowd-control munitions into the crowd, Khan said. “They were shooting everyone at random,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"b3b9q\">He <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPIkg4PjRyp/?igsh=dzI1cmc5bXIxZTg2\">wrote on Instagram</a> that he was struck multiple times, and told the Tracker that at least one pepper ball hit his leg.</p><p data-block-key=\"b2ol1\">Khan said that his extensive exposure to chemical irritants over two days of covering the protests in Broadview has taken a lasting toll.</p><p data-block-key=\"f94e8\">“My breathing has not been right since those days. I feel like I’ve had this nagging cough. I think I breathed in way too much,” he said. Khan added, “It was incredibly difficult to do my job. All this deployment of CS gas and stuff: Yeah, you can use a gas mask. But if they keep shooting you, you really just can’t do your work.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bjr81\">ICE did not respond to requests for comment. Bovino<a href=\"https://x.com/CMDROpAtLargeCA/status/1972733132295283050\"> posted a video package</a> of the Sept. 27 protest response on the social platform X two days later, set to Duckwrth and Shaboozey’s song “Start a Riot.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a73nr\">“Wave your signs, chant your slogans, hurl your verbal insults, and exercise your First Amendment rights— we’ll protect that,” Bovino wrote. “Lay a finger on our agents, impede our mission, endanger those in our custody and we have a front row seat for you to our justice system.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Khan_IL_assault_927.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"5aziv\">Journalist Wali Khan, at front, and others hold crowd-control munitions gathered after federal officers’ response to protests outside an immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Khan was struck with a pepper ball the next day.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Wali Khan (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist tackled, arrested by federal agents at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-03T18:44:08.722368Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-06T21:26:34.664270Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-06T21:26:34.564028Z",
"date": "2025-09-27",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"bxf4h\">Journalist Steve Held was arrested by federal officers while reporting on protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"du3g8\">Held, co-founder and reporter for the investigative outlet Unraveled Press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators had gathered for weeks outside the facility, where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"424fg\">Held arrived shortly before 6 p.m. and saw a few dozen federal agents repeatedly clearing protesters from outside the facility, which was now walled off by a new fence blocking public access. Officers warned protesters to clear the road or face arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"7i3jl\">With limited space to stand, protesters and journalists scattered onto narrow grassy areas to avoid being in the road, Held said.</p><p data-block-key=\"13f00\">About an hour later, during another sweep of the road, the situation grew more chaotic as agents became more aggressive, shoving protesters and seizing items from them. As tensions escalated, Held stepped back and stood on the roadside grass to film on his cellphone.</p><p data-block-key=\"6puja\">He had just recorded someone else’s arrest when a group of agents began moving quickly in his direction, appearing to pursue someone behind him. They passed in front of him, then circled behind, shouting “Get back!” As he tried to step aside, Held was suddenly tackled by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent and handcuffed.</p><p data-block-key=\"ecluj\">“They didn’t really care that I was a journalist, or didn’t care that they had left me no actual way out, or even an instant to think about how to get out,” Held said. “He basically just said I didn’t move fast enough for his liking, even though it was like a second, and he was taking me in.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a97nu\">Held said he was wearing a white helmet and backpack with press markings, as well as media credentials issued by the Chicago Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"a8hmv\">After his arrest, he was brought inside the ICE facility, where he was fingerprinted, photographed and held for more than six hours without being allowed to make a phone call.</p><p data-block-key=\"6l24u\">No charges were filed, and his cellphone and other belongings were returned to him when he was released.</p><p data-block-key=\"eaqo0\">Held said the arrest left him with a headache, and a stiff neck and back.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqn9i\">“It kind of just feels like I was in a mild car accident,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5q7ti\">Held said the arrest removed him from covering the protests that night and disrupted the work of his colleagues, who were making phone calls and contacting lawyers on his behalf. He and his colleagues had been going out there nearly every day for weeks, but haven’t been back since.</p><p data-block-key=\"5oh4n\">“It’s not going to deter me from going out there,” he said. “It’s going to make me probably think a little more about situational awareness and exits, and probably not getting quite as close to the fray as I was.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7vbse\">This wasn’t the first time Held or Unraveled Press staff faced violence while covering the mass protests outside the facility. On Sept. 19, Held was <a href=\"/all-incidents/journalist-grabbed-hit-with-pepper-ball-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">grabbed by one federal officer</a>, and another shot a pepper ball at his groin. And on Sept. 26, Unraveled co-founder <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-in-the-face-with-pepper-ball-at-illinois-ice-facility-protest/\">Raven Geary was shot in the face with a pepper ball</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"18be\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, DHS described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6o95g\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aoojp\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"282bj\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"duurm\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Steve_Held_image.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"2j0rj\">Steve Held, a journalist with Unraveled Press, at center, is taken into custody while reporting on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "U.S. Customs and Border Protection",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2025-09-28",
"detention_date": "2025-09-27",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": "1:25-cv-12173",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [
"(2025-10-09 21:06:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win temporary restraining order against federal government",
"(2025-11-06 21:25:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win injunction against federal government",
"(2025-10-06 20:59:00+00:00) Chicago journalists sue over violent federal response to Illinois protests"
],
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"ongoing"
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"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
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],
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},
{
"title": "Photographer shot with pepper balls at Illinois ICE facility, camera damaged",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-shot-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-ice-facility-camera-damaged/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-03T13:20:13.431881Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:31:19.937694Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:31:19.831436Z",
"date": "2025-09-27",
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"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"e703t\">Freelance photojournalist Dave Decker was shot in the lower legs with pepper balls by federal officers and one of his camera lenses damaged while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"58b85\">Decker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was on assignment for Zuma Press to cover protests at the facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation. While covering protests the day before, he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shot-repeatedly-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-immigration-facility/\">shot with pepper balls</a> at least four times.</p><p data-block-key=\"8thop\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security following the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-26&date_upper=2025-09-26&city=Broadview\">aggressive response</a> to that protest, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cpicj\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eifj\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f5d3v\">Decker told the Tracker he was covering protests again Sept. 27 and said the federal officers were especially aggressive. But he added that he felt targeted by the officers both days.</p><p data-block-key=\"1r3g9\">As officers advanced from a fenced entrance to the facility and into the assembled demonstration, Decker said they were aggressive: shoving people, throwing them to the ground and firing crowd-control munitions at anyone stepping into the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"4juid\">Decker, referring to a <a href=\"https://x.com/FordFischer/status/1972089649788342519\">livestream</a> broadcast by News2Share founder Ford Fischer, said, “Ford has it on video where they just pointed to me and said, ‘Get him.’ And they peppered my legs, just shot me, because I had my foot sitting off a curb.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3rg3o\">At 1:52 in the footage, a group of journalists can be seen filming from between two vehicles as federal officers advance through the street. One of the officers is then seen pointing to one of the journalists, and another officer then fires at least two pepper balls at the journalist, confirmed to be Decker.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Live: Anti-ICE protesters outside Broadview, IL ICE facility <a href=\"https://t.co/YMAHuHlMl6\">https://t.co/YMAHuHlMl6</a></p>— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/1972089649788342519?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 28, 2025</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"e703t\">Decker is then seen retreating from the street before resuming his coverage. He added that he was also shoved by an officer later that night, and has six welts all over his body from being shot both days.</p><p data-block-key=\"4mhgv\">He told the Tracker that at some point, a pepper ball also directly struck his camera, leaving a “massive imprint” on the lens and damaging one of the switches on it. “So I may have caught a stray pepper ball or they just aimed for my camera,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"d8iah\">The strangest thing for him, Decker said, was individuals in DHS uniforms on the roof with cameras, filming as U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino walked detainees in and out of the processing facility.</p><p data-block-key=\"ck16c\">“I think the whole point of that weekend — and why they went so hard on Saturday — is because they were doing a hype video, a recruitment video,” Decker speculated. “I feel like they’ve lowered the standards that they want for use of force based on the entertainment value they can add to the content they’re trying to create. And they just trolled the protest folks to get them close enough so that they could have their ‘shit show.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"7k8p0\">ICE did not respond to requests for comment. Bovino <a href=\"https://x.com/CMDROpAtLargeCA/status/1972733132295283050\">posted a video package</a> of the Sept. 27 protest response on the social platform X two days later, set to Duckwrth and Shaboozey’s song “Start a Riot.”</p><p data-block-key=\"73ie3\">“Wave your signs, chant your slogans, hurl your verbal insults, and exercise your First Amendment rights— we’ll protect that,” Bovino wrote. “Lay a finger on our agents, impede our mission, endanger those in our custody and we have a front row seat for you to our justice system.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/ICE_Broadview-12.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"amaoi\">Photojournalist Dave Decker was shot with multiple pepper balls and his camera damaged while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, seen above, in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
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"Dave Decker (Zuma Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist shot with pepper balls, threatened at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shot-with-pepper-balls-threatened-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-06T17:40:34.258969Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T19:13:41.291407Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T19:13:41.195719Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vmdfj\">An unidentified photojournalist with the Chicago Sun-Times was struck in the legs with pepper balls after being threatened earlier by federal agents with a baton-round launch and a Taser, all while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"1935f\">The incident, which appeared to be targeted, occurred during one of a series of demonstrations held outside the facility where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation, according to information shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker by the Chicago News Guild. The journalist is not being named due to safety concerns.</p><p data-block-key=\"buuvk\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, DHS described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7t9tf\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3gf0t\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9nuij\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aks2i\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">later arrested a reporter.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-10-03_at_1.35.29P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"8pdnf\">Federal agents at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. A Chicago Sun-Times photographer was struck with pepper balls and threatened by agents while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Unidentified photojournalist 42 (Chicago Sun-Times)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist shot in head, face with pepper balls at Illinois immigration facility",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-in-head-face-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-immigration-facility/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-02T16:20:50.219199Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:39:48.181017Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:39:48.078898Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3g8nm\">Independent journalist Leigh Kunkel was shot with crowd-control munitions in the face and back of the head by federal officers while reporting on protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"1bllh\">Kunkel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that protests aren’t her regular beat, but she decided to go by after hearing about demonstrations that had been taking place outside the facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"ct8a6\">“People were standing around the fence and — I cannot express strongly enough — doing literally nothing. Just standing there. There wasn’t even chanting going on,” Kunkel said. “It started with this guy on the roof just sniping people with pepper balls.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5jas1\">Kunkel, who was not struck in the initial volley, said that while she hadn’t been planning to document the protest, “Once things started going a little sideways, the whole journalism thing just kicked in.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bmutg\">She told the Tracker that she eventually went around to the other side of the facility, where several journalists had gathered in an informal gaggle.</p><p data-block-key=\"1egbp\">“A man came out and said, ‘Hey, we’re not ICE. We need to move our trucks or our cars out this way.’ And everyone says OK, and so the crowd parted to let them through,” Kunkel said. “But when they did that, the gates had to open, so these ICE agents came out with this convoy of non-ICE trucks and just started shooting at people with pepper balls.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3qa8p\">Kunkel and a second journalist, photojournalist Dave Decker, had taken cover behind a van when she said she heard someone shout something about an ambush.</p><p data-block-key=\"891h\">In <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/unraveledpress.com/post/3lzqmyodenc2w\">footage of the incident</a>, a group of journalists can be seen documenting officers approximately 50 feet away when suddenly pepper balls start exploding near them, shot from behind. Kunkel and Decker can be seen crouching behind the van 16 seconds into the clip.</p><p data-block-key=\"2h29v\">“I felt something hit the back of my head, and a pepper ball had hit me from behind,” Kunkel told the Tracker. “I crouched down, and I was just patting the back of my head to see if I was OK. Then I heard someone yell again, and all of a sudden I got hit in the face and my nose was bleeding.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f3s2r\">Decker, who was also <a href=\"/all-incidents/photojournalist-shot-repeatedly-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-immigration-facility/\">struck with multiple pepper balls</a> during that volley, told the Tracker that he looked down and saw blood gushing from Kunkel’s nose.</p><p data-block-key=\"78js\">“You can’t really tell what’s going on in that situation. I just looked at her and she was in shock from getting shot in the face, and I just grabbed her,” Decker said. “I stopped being a photographer and I just grabbed her, put my arm around her, turned around and ran.”</p><p data-block-key=\"53v7o\">After quickly documenting her injuries, Decker brought her to a medic at the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"8evk8\">Kunkel said that the respirator she was wearing took the brunt of the blow.</p><p data-block-key=\"eiqdn\">“A bunch of people got it on film,” Kunkel said of the incident, “and you can very clearly see these agents aiming directly at us and then directly at me while I’m on the ground touching my head.</p><p data-block-key=\"7scea\">“It was wild. It’s hard to describe how strange it was and how clearly eager they were to enact violence on everybody there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dhqm8\">ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “Shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d96fr\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"719nu\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f8ahu\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5undl\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a>, and later <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">arrested a reporter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"en4dt\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5j0uj\">On Oct. 6, Kunkel joined a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?case_number=1:25-cv-12173\">federal lawsuit</a> brought by a group of journalists, press organizations, newsrooms, ministers and protesters against President Donald Trump and various federal agencies. The suit requested an emergency <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559589/21/chicago-headline-club-v-noem/\">temporary restraining order</a> that would impose restrictions on the defendants’ use of physical force and crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"26ivi\">While Kunkel was listed among the plaintiffs as a protester, she reaffirmed to the Tracker that her activities at the Sept. 26 demonstration were journalistic and that the decision to describe her otherwise was made by her attorneys in the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"dslta\"><i>Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include details about a federal lawsuit filed against President Donald Trump and various federal agencies.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Kunkel_IL_assault_9_26.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"g4mgh\">Journalist Leigh Kunkel is treated by a medic after federal officers shot her in the face and back of the head with pepper balls outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"name": "Illinois",
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"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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{
"title": "Photojournalist hit with pepper balls, tear gas at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-pepper-balls-tear-gas-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-03T13:36:07.864970Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:39:02.864644Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:39:02.777672Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x166c\">Photojournalist Jon Stegenga said he was struck in the arms and chest by crowd-control munitions and overwhelmed by chemical irritants while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"2t4c4\">Stegenga, co-founder of the independent outlet Humanizing Through Story, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a tense standoff between federal agents and demonstrators when a group of officers came out of the facility and began firing what he described as propellants of all types toward the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"360lb\">“I got hit several times,” Stegenga said, adding that tear gas and flash bangs were also deployed. At one point, officers fired multiple rounds of tear gas behind a vehicle where press and legal observers had gathered.</p><p data-block-key=\"ck8l7\">“They were very, kind of just firing everywhere,” said Stegenga, who added that he was unsure if he was targeted by the officers who fired the munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"111rr\">Stegenga said federal agents fired tear gas canisters that shattered glass and went inside nearby businesses. He also witnessed and photographed another journalist, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-in-head-face-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-immigration-facility/\">Leigh Kunkel</a>, get shot in the face with a pepper ball.</p><p data-block-key=\"24ckp\">Stegenga said he was wearing clothing and a badge that clearly identified him as press, and he carried camera equipment throughout the protest. The physical toll of the chemical irritants — which got into his eyes, lungs and mouth, and caused several minutes of coughing and gagging — affected his ability to work.</p><p data-block-key=\"8q9in\">“It limits me how I could document what was unfolding around me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c11ou\">Later that day, a federal agent <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-targeted-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-illinois-ice-protest/\">shot pepper balls</a> directly at him. While covering a similar protest outside the facility the next day, Stegenga <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-loses-camera-lens-while-covering-illinois-ice-protest/\">lost a telephoto lens</a> that he stored near his van by a security barricade. He told the Tracker the gear was missing when he returned after being forced away by federal agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"eik5n\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on the same day, DHS described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ev1v5\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"594s8\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7altd\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ft51l\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and <a href=\"/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">later arrested a reporter.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"e6ohu\">A federal agent deploys a crowd-control munition at a protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Photojournalist Jon Stegenga said he was struck by pepper balls while covering the demonstration.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Jon Stegenga (Humanizing Through Story)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist shot repeatedly with pepper balls at Illinois immigration facility",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shot-repeatedly-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-immigration-facility/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-02T16:58:14.626531Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:38:03.865870Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:38:03.772224Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jk9zx\">Freelance photojournalist Dave Decker was shot multiple times with pepper balls by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"2o3ti\">Decker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was on assignment for Zuma Press to cover protests at the facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"kvc1\">He said some demonstrators arranged a walking protest akin to a picket line in front of one entrance, while others were standing near another entrance, exchanging insults with the federal officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"bgkq9\">“Suddenly the agents just came out and started shooting again, because they wanted people — I guess — to leave the parking lot,” Decker said.</p><p data-block-key=\"57sfa\">He and a second journalist, Leigh Kunkel, took cover behind a van to document from relative safety, as officers shot crowd-control munitions at the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ch75\">In <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/unraveledpress.com/post/3lzqmyodenc2w\">footage of the incident</a>, a group of journalists can be seen documenting officers approximately 50 feet away when suddenly pepper balls start exploding near them, shot from behind. Kunkel and Decker can be seen crouching behind the van 16 seconds into the clip.</p><p data-block-key=\"5u99f\">“They’re shooting from the north, and we’re on the south side of this van,” Decker said. “Suddenly, I felt something really painful hit the back of my arm coming from the east, and it burned.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9sf23\">When he looked down, he saw that Kunkel’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-in-head-face-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-immigration-facility\">nose was bleeding</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6thf\">“Then I felt another one zoom by my head,” Decker continued. “And they basically just sprayed us with those pepper balls, which are the size of a marble, they’re pretty big, and they hurt like heck.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7v9ie\">Decker said he quickly wrapped an arm around Kunkel, turned around and ran from the officers. After quickly documenting her injuries, he brought her to a medic at the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"bfsj9\">“It’s so crazy that somebody would see people with cameras and stuff and just go and do that at a really close distance,” Decker said. “They had seen me previously, saw I had cameras and credentials and all that kind of stuff.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nkr7\">“I felt extremely targeted,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"d7fo6\">After he resumed covering the protest and the federal officers’ response, Decker said he was struck with pepper balls at least three more times. “That’s just how this job is. You’re going to try to document what they’re doing, and you just take that chance,” he observed.</p><p data-block-key=\"6govo\">ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9ioqd\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fheur\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b10df\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"80vub\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a>, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-shot-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-ice-facility-camera-damaged/\">including Decker</a> — and later <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">arrested a reporter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"44jfe\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Decker_IL_assault_9_26.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"tr5b8\">Photojournalist Dave Decker, center right, helps reporter Leigh Kunkel to safety after both were barraged with pepper balls outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Dave Decker (Zuma Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with projectiles, pepper ball at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-projectiles-pepper-ball-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-06T19:39:11.825116Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T19:14:00.134552Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T19:14:00.047042Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"r028z\">An unidentified photojournalist with the Chicago Sun-Times was hit six times with projectiles, including once with a pepper ball, while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"aim2m\">The journalist was also exposed to tear gas and other crowd-control munitions fired by federal agents, including flash-bang grenades, stinger grenades and baton rounds, during one of a series of demonstrations held outside the facility where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"ca39e\">It’s unclear whether the incident was targeted, according to information shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker by the Chicago News Guild. The journalist is not being named due to safety concerns.</p><p data-block-key=\"e4kjb\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, DHS described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f71df\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"farlt\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"55pq4\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"81cga\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">later arrested a reporter.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-10-03_at_1.37.32P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"xoauu\">A demonstrator amid tear gas at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. A Chicago Sun-Times photographer was struck by projectiles while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"case_number": null,
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"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Unidentified photojournalist 43 (Chicago Sun-Times)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist shot with multiple pepper balls outside Illinois ICE facility",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shot-with-multiple-pepper-balls-outside-illinois-ice-facility/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-31T17:23:33.311124Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-31T17:23:33.311124Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-30T22:14:22.222863Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"m1ucv\">Freelance photojournalist Matthew Kaplan was shot with multiple crowd-control munitions fired by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"6fbim\">The facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation, has drawn escalating protests and federal response since early September, following the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/08/ice-launches-operation-midway-blitz-honor-katie-abraham-target-criminal-illegal\">launch</a> of Operation Midway Blitz.</p><p data-block-key=\"djkia\">Kaplan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and fellow photojournalist Lisa Kiselevich arrived at the facility between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sept. 26. By 7:30 p.m., he said, a large number of protesters had gathered and local law enforcement was working to ensure that ICE vehicles could pass into the facility.</p><p data-block-key=\"deoft\">“The protesters would move further down, about halfway down to where the gate was,” Kaplan said. “And then the federal officers would be lining up on the side of the fence, and they would be shooting pepper balls at people.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3kvr4\">As protesters tried to march near another entrance, federal officers responded by unleashing tear gas, incapacitating Kaplan for approximately 10 minutes. When he recovered, Kaplan said he tried to stay ahead of the demonstrators but was shot at with pepper balls by multiple DHS officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"45vto\">As with the tear gas, it came without warning.</p><p data-block-key=\"4br15\">“No one said, ‘Get away.’ No one said, ‘We’re going to throw tear gas.’ There was no communication,” Kaplan said. “I mean, that communication, I guess, was that you had people who looked like members of the military firing weapons at you.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media right\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/DSC_3514kF12Sd_r.width-828.jpg\" width=\"828\" height=\"1242\" alt=\"COURTESY LISA KISELEVICH\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"uwwqk\">Photojournalist Matthew Kaplan was shot in the hip with multiple crowd-control munitions while reporting on immigration protests in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Both he and his camera were coated in chemical irritant powder.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — COURTESY LISA KISELEVICH\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"m1ucv\">He said two or three pepper balls struck him in the hip, coating both him and one of his cameras in chemical irritant powder.</p><p data-block-key=\"1jqun\">While Kaplan photographed one of the officers aiming directly at him, he said he couldn’t be sure whether the second was intentionally firing at him. But, he added, “They’re supposed to be professionals. I’m assuming they’re hitting the people they’re going for.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cufjn\">ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fmn81\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7hbis\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9v8t1\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eibt6\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and later <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">arrested a reporter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"2oad7\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/IMG_4808.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bgpn7\">Photojournalist Matthew Kaplan captured the instant a federal officer, seen just left of the sign, shot crowd-control munitions at him from behind a fence at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Matthew Kaplan (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Chicago journalist shot with crowd-control munition by federal officers",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/chicago-journalist-shot-with-crowd-control-munition-by-federal-officers/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-09T19:41:06.148568Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T19:13:23.305782Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T19:13:23.195968Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xeu3i\">Shawn Mulcahy, news editor for the Chicago Reader, was shot with a crowd-control munition by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"5aqtt\">An array of Chicago-area journalists and others <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559589/chicago-headline-club-v-noem/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=asc#entry-21\">sued</a> President Donald Trump and various federal agencies on Oct. 6 over the violent response by federal law enforcement to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the ICE facility.</p><p data-block-key=\"8e9gm\">In a declaration filed in support of the plaintiffs’ <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571.21.0.pdf\">request</a> for a temporary restraining order, Mulcahy wrote that he has been regularly attending protests at the facility since Sept. 5, and is always identifiable as press: wearing press credentials around his neck and a helmet marked “PRESS,” as well as carrying a notepad or filming.</p><p data-block-key=\"7l25a\">On Sept. 26, Mulcahy wrote that he was standing on a street near the facility filming an arrest when he was shot with what he believes was a “rubber bullet or foam ball.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7jkl2\">“I was clearly engaged in news-gathering activity and was targeted for this action,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"7f1pd\">Mulcahy, who was not immediately available for comment, added that that was not the only time he or other members of the press were deliberately targeted by the federal officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"989er\">“That same Friday morning, I was part of a large group of press standing apart from the protestors on what I believe is a public street. We were clearly identifiable as journalists,” he wrote. “Federal law enforcement threw tear gas directly at us, and another agent began shooting pepper balls directly at us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2tfiu\">He said that ICE’s use of violent tactics has escalated over the course of the month, and each time he has returned to the facility, there have been more law enforcement “who appear more agitated and more heavily armed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eag7a\">“I intend to continue reporting at the Broadview facility, but my ability to do so is harder because of the violence directed at me and my colleagues,” Mulcahy wrote. “While I have not been breaking any laws or disobeying any orders from federal officers, I am afraid that I will be targeted, injured, or arrested for continuing to report at Broadview.”</p><p data-block-key=\"o2j\">ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"am35d\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6pjk8\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ecfea\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7lm4k\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and later <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">arrested a reporter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"836hg\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Broadview_ICE-14.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"zu8yj\">Federal officers fire crowd-control munitions at a protester outside an immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Shawn Mulcahy of the Chicago Reader was shot with a munition and targeted with chemical irritants that day.</p>",
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{
"title": "Reporter struck in hand by pepper ball while filming at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-struck-in-hand-by-pepper-ball-while-filming-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-07T19:10:28.665908Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-06T21:55:01.200938Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-06T21:55:01.084202Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qf5a0\">Freelance reporter Charles Thrush was shot in the hand with a pepper ball while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"30olb\">Thrush detailed the incident in <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559589/22/16/chicago-headline-club-v-noem/\">a sworn declaration</a> filed Oct. 6 as part of a federal lawsuit brought by him, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?case_number=1:25-cv-12173\">other Chicago-area journalists</a> and press groups. The complaint accuses President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, top immigration officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi of unlawful violence against journalists and protesters at the ongoing Broadview demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"r3oo\">Thrush, a 22-year-old journalism student at DePaul University freelancing for the nonprofit news organization Block Club Chicago, said he and other clearly identified members of the press were repeatedly targeted by federal officers using chemical agents and crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"1j9fo\">"Federal officers shot pepperballs and tear gas at me and other journalists as well as at protesters who seemed to pose no threat,” Thrush wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"adm9r\">In his declaration, Thrush said officers fired on demonstrators and media without warning, often as people were moving away from the facility. While filming from a distance, holding his camera near his face, Thrush was struck in the center of his left hand by a pepper ball fired by an officer who emerged from behind a fence.</p><p data-block-key=\"4gcuh\">“I was not threatening anyone in any way when I was shot,” Thrush wrote. “I had not been given any instructions to move.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9j9u0\">Unlike previous protests, no dispersal warnings were issued before force was used, according to the declaration. Thrush said Block Club Chicago photographer Colin Boyle was also hit with a pepper ball, and a tear gas canister was thrown directly at another clearly credentialed photographer from just 15 feet away.</p><p data-block-key=\"8gada\">Thrush reported that the exposure from the pepper ball, as well as tear gas, caused burning on his skin for about 12 hours. Though he had planned to return to report the next day, he ultimately stayed away out of fear.</p><p data-block-key=\"d6l1n\">“I still plan to regularly return to the Broadview facility to continue reporting,” he wrote, “but will only do so if I am able to keep myself safe, which I am not currently certain is possible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d8bgv\">DHS did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, the agency described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"52b0m\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"74fo9\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bdp9u\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1kk97\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">later arrested a reporter.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-10-06_at_2.35.07P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"qbt1x\">Crowd-control munitions are deployed at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Reporter Charles Thrush was struck by a pepper ball while covering the demonstration that day.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [
"(2025-10-09 20:54:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win temporary restraining order against federal government",
"(2025-11-06 21:54:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win injunction against federal government"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
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"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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{
"title": "Journalist shot in the face with pepper ball at Illinois ICE facility protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-in-the-face-with-pepper-ball-at-illinois-ice-facility-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-29T18:19:55.810411Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-06T21:30:31.458676Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-06T21:30:31.269751Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
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"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nnoue\">Journalist Raven Geary was shot in the face with a pepper ball by federal officers while reporting on protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"3mhoi\">Geary, co-founder and reporter for the investigative outlet Unraveled Press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators had been gathering for weeks outside the facility where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"2mq9o\">“ICE was very aggressive with protesters and press, and we’ve been seeing an escalation from them significantly over the last few weeks,” she said. “These agents specifically have threatened us as reporters, they’ve tried to intimidate us. And there have been smaller incidents leading up to this over the summer, but nothing like what we saw today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fegpm\">She told the Tracker that detainees had been moved from the facility early the morning of Sept. 26, before any protesters’ arrival, and there was no clear justification for the federal officers’ aggressive tactics.</p><p data-block-key=\"ct4vf\">Journalists had gathered in an informal gaggle away from demonstrators, standing in a parking lot 10-20 yards from the facility, when officers opened fire with crowd-control munitions from the roof and multiple sides of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"3v8be\">“The agents just started firing a ton of pepper ball rounds right at our faces. Another reporter got hit point-blank in the nose,” Geary said, referring to independent journalist Leigh Kunkel. Geary was herself <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/unraveledpress.com/post/3lzqn63al5c2w\">struck in the cheek</a> at the time.</p><p data-block-key=\"5oasn\">“To me it felt like a direct attack on reporters,” she continued. “It felt like it happened right as I was raising my lens to try to take a photo of them.”</p><p data-block-key=\"96j9c\">Geary told the Tracker she was able to continue reporting for a couple of hours before going to an urgent care clinic to make sure that there were no fractures.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media right\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Geary_IL_assault_926_2.width-828.jpg\" width=\"828\" height=\"1104\" alt=\"COURTESY RAVEN GEARY\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"cztpm\">Raven Geary shows the degree of swelling in her right cheek hours after she was shot with a pepper ball by federal officers on Sept. 26, 2025.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — COURTESY RAVEN GEARY\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nnoue\">Geary, who has covered demonstrations and law enforcement for years, added that the federal agents appeared to be acting without organization and seemed to be “completely out of control.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6imoe\">“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of organization in their behavior, unlike what we are used to seeing,” she continued. “There’s an informality and a casualness to the violence that just feels super aggressive compared to more typical crowd-control maneuvers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f7i8n\">ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mh9u\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8ns60\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"240a9\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dceha\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a>, and also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">arrested Geary’s fellow Unraveled Press co-founder, Steve Held</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"h8ud\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Geary_IL_assault_9_26.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"a8fut\">Reporter Raven Geary was shot in the face with a pepper ball by federal officers while reporting on anti-deportation protests at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"(2025-11-06 21:30:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win injunction against federal government",
"(2025-10-06 20:54:00+00:00) Chicago journalists sue over violent federal response to Illinois protests",
"(2025-10-09 17:09:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win temporary restraining order against federal government"
],
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"shot / shot at"
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{
"title": "Chicago photojournalist shot with pepper balls outside ICE facility",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/chicago-photojournalist-shot-with-pepper-balls-outside-ice-facility/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-09T16:43:53.048566Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-06T21:38:06.977574Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-06T21:38:06.843536Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
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"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wv063\">Colin Boyle, photography director for nonprofit newsroom Block Club Chicago, was shot with pepper balls by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"at9fi\">An array of Chicago-area journalists and others — including Block Club — <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559589/chicago-headline-club-v-noem/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=asc#entry-21\">sued</a> President Donald Trump and various federal agencies on Oct. 6 over the violent response by federal law enforcement to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the ICE facility.</p><p data-block-key=\"ceeli\">In a declaration filed in support of the plaintiffs’ <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571.21.0.pdf\">request</a> for a temporary restraining order, Boyle wrote that he had attended protests at the facility multiple times in September. But, after arriving at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, he wrote that he “witnessed a violent escalation from federal agents unlike any protest I had attended prior.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a7599\">“Throughout the morning, I witnessed agents—including one who stood on the rooftop of the Broadview facility many feet away—fire chemicals and pepper balls indiscriminately and brazenly into the crowd of protesters and press, without warning,” Boyle recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"am2l8\">He wrote that he stayed near other members of the press, and did his best to ensure that the “PRESS” labels on his backpack and hat were visible. Boyle was also carrying two cameras and wearing press credentials issued by the Chicago Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"3dqvi\">Boyle, who was not immediately available for comment, recounted how he saw multiple members of the press shot with crowd-control munitions and then was himself struck.</p><p data-block-key=\"acltv\">“As I was photographing protesters and federal agents, I was shot in my left leg by pepper ball rounds,” he wrote in his declaration. “Tear gas seeped into my respirator and visor. My eyes watered and I coughed a lot, making it difficult to do my job.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9riju\">He added that when he left the protest later in the day, he was forced to drive with the windows down lest he be “engulfed” by the chemical irritant residue still clinging to his clothes.</p><p data-block-key=\"fbk1h\">“I am perturbed by the brazen actions of federal agents and their indiscriminate attacks on journalists, as well as protesters,” Boyle wrote, adding, “I will not stop practicing the First Amendment and partaking in my job as a photojournalist.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ebm5p\">ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"epqng\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bt3mt\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"66boe\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4htf\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and later <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">arrested a reporter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"20bnh\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p><p data-block-key=\"da3vm\">In an <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/07/block-club-chicago-news-organizations-sue-feds-over-first-amendment-violations/\">article</a> announcing the lawsuit, Block Club wrote that it decided to pursue the case after <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Broadview&targeted_institutions=Block+Club+Chicago\">four of its journalists</a> were shot with pepper balls and tear-gassed.</p><p data-block-key=\"1817n\">“We intend to continue to report on the protests, but our ability to do so, to the standards that we hold ourselves to, continues to be impacted by our fears of violence and arrests of our employees and contractors,” said Stephanie Lulay, Block Club executive editor and co-founder. “We’re taking this step to protect our journalists and to assert our First Amendment right to report.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Broadview_ICE-13.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"2bf4q\">A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer reloads a crowd-control weapon outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Block Club Chicago photographer Colin Boyle was shot with pepper balls while covering protests that day.</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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},
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"(2025-11-06 21:37:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win injunction against federal government",
"(2025-10-09 21:00:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win temporary restraining order against federal government"
],
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{
"title": "Reporter hit in foot with pepper ball while covering Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-hit-in-foot-with-pepper-ball-while-covering-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-08T13:22:25.722220Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:37:00.587521Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:37:00.498453Z",
"date": "2025-09-26",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3srm1\">Reporter Amanda Moore was struck with a pepper ball while covering anti-deportation protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"58e0i\">Moore told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she has been reporting independently from the site, where protesters have been gathering for weeks as detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"cnjb2\">She arrived at 7 a.m. that morning, and tensions between demonstrators and federal agents escalated within the hour, she said, with officers deploying tear gas and crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"rsn9\">Moore said she was attempting to move away from the area when she was <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/noturtlesoup17.bsky.social/post/3lzqsnkct6c2x\">struck in the foot by a pepper ball.</a> She did not see which law enforcement agent fired the round, noting that gas had already clouded much of the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"653br\">She was wearing a lanyard with her name and National Press Club ID during her coverage of the protests, Moore said. Despite being clearly identified as a journalist, she said federal officers repeatedly targeted her and others in the press with force, even as reporters maintained a safe distance to film arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"fboqn\">“It seems like the feds want everything they do to be completely shrouded, completely private,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"86br3\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, the agency described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f837f\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9gtn7\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"54uh2\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ac5k4\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">later arrested a reporter.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"p8ul0\">Federal agents outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025. Reporter Amanda Moore was struck by a pepper ball while covering the demonstration the day before.</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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"shot / shot at"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist targeted with pepper balls while covering Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-targeted-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-02T21:13:30.408474Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:38:41.380459Z",
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"date": "2025-09-26",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"d26jv\">Photojournalist Jon Stegenga said he was targeted with projectiles fired by a federal officer while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"fl3qu\">Stegenga, co-founder of the independent outlet Humanizing Through Story, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting one of a series of demonstrations outside the facility, where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"ddj4m\">At one point, protesters blocked a roadway leading away from the facility. Federal agents in tactical gear then advanced, firing various crowd-control munitions, stopping traffic during a chaotic dispersal.</p><p data-block-key=\"52ut8\">Stegenga found himself standing alone in the middle of the road, clearly marked as press, with visible credentials. As he continued photographing, a federal agent — about four car lengths away — began firing directly at him.</p><p data-block-key=\"5v2cj\">“The agent turned and shot once right below the belt on the upper thigh,” he said. “He turned at other people, and then turned back at me and shot me again, once in the leg and once in the back.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9b5ea\">One pepper ball burst on impact, scattering white powder across his shirt.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6ds0\">Though many of the agents wore insignia from ICE, U.S. Border Patrol or other federal units, Stegenga said it was difficult to determine exactly which agency was responsible.</p><p data-block-key=\"pgpm\">He said he later noticed a scratch on one of his camera lenses and that his camera was displaying intermittent error messages, but was unsure what caused the damage or when.</p><p data-block-key=\"fhmm4\">Earlier the same day, he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-pepper-balls-tear-gas-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">hit by stray munitions and chemical irritants</a> during broader crowd control actions. He also witnessed and photographed another journalist, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-in-head-face-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-immigration-facility/\">Leigh Kunkel</a>, get shot in the face with a munition.</p><p data-block-key=\"dip2e\">The following day, while covering a similar protest outside the facility, Stegenga <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-loses-camera-lens-while-covering-illinois-ice-protest/\">lost a telephoto lens</a> that he stored near his van by a security barricade. He told the Tracker the gear was missing when he returned after being forced away by federal agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"2697g\">The experiences prompted Stegenga to invest in better safety gear, but he remains committed to reporting despite the risks.</p><p data-block-key=\"7aucn\">“I’ve tried to let it affect me as little as possible,” he said. “Still showing up, going up to the fence lines, documenting, being in the midst of everything.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3808a\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, DHS described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6hpvi\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5t5uu\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"evtal\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c7g6s\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and <a href=\"/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">later arrested a reporter.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lvazq\">A Department of Homeland Security officer at a protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Photojournalist Jon Stegenga said a federal agent fired pepper balls at him while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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],
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"shot / shot at"
],
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},
{
"title": "Reporter hit by crowd-control munitions at Illinois protest, gear damaged",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-hit-by-crowd-control-munitions-at-illinois-protest-gear-damaged/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-22T15:04:45.789060Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T19:14:18.731973Z",
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"date": "2025-09-26",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ldg7m\">Independent journalist Wali Khan was shot with numerous crowd-control munitions by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Almost all of his personal protective equipment was damaged in the targeted attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"803m0\">The facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation, has drawn escalating protests and federal response since early September, following the Department of Homeland Security’s <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/08/ice-launches-operation-midway-blitz-honor-katie-abraham-target-criminal-illegal\">launch</a> of Operation Midway Blitz.</p><p data-block-key=\"afp1h\">Khan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that protesters had gathered outside a fence local officials said was <a href=\"https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/broadview-officials-demand-ice-remove-illegally-built-fence-around-facility/3828949/\">illegally erected</a> around the building by federal officers. Meanwhile, many journalists had gathered in an informal gaggle away from demonstrators, standing in a parking lot 10-20 yards from the facility, when officers opened fire with crowd-control munitions from the roof and multiple sides of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ec45\">“Me and a bunch of photographers were hiding behind a van and all of a sudden we heard this pop, pop, pop,” he said. “We noticed that there were DHS officers on the roof who were firing down onto protesters, sniping them with pepper balls, rubber bullets. Same with the ones by the fence; they were sticking their guns out, and they were shooting these protesters and reporters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3s1hf\">Khan said he then felt two pepper balls strike his protective goggles.</p><p data-block-key=\"650mv\">“Everything turns white in front of me because of the powder. And then it cracks the goggles and gets into my eye,” he recounted. “I’m freaking out, and then they shoot me a few more times in the back and then in my mask, which also breaks it. So I couldn’t breathe and I collapsed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6jmed\">Khan received medical attention, repeatedly rinsing out his eyes while he sat on the ground. He said that when he realized the latch on his mask had broken, he prepared to leave. “I was like, ‘OK, this is stupid.”</p><p data-block-key=\"469l9\">Before he had the chance, however, officers began throwing stun grenades and firing 40 mm foam rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"6k3ee\">“They threw flash bangs and my ears were ringing, then a foam round bounced off a window and hit me right in the head,” Khan told the Tracker. He added that the round broke his helmet, but “at least I had the helmet.”</p><p data-block-key=\"en6el\">Khan said he later realized that his camera’s flash and one of his lenses were broken when they were struck by pepper balls.</p><p data-block-key=\"8640d\">ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In a<a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\"> press release</a> that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"daif7\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"57arl\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago<a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\"> reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"alrmj\">According to a Sept. 27<a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\"> news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ad6ld\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day —<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\"> affecting multiple journalists</a>, including Khan — and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">arrested at least one reporter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"686rn\">“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"jc7rz\">Independent journalist Wali Khan, bottom center, recovers after being shot with multiple pepper balls by federal officers while reporting on protests outside an immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.</p>",
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{
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{
"quantity": 1,
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{
"quantity": 3,
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}
],
"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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},
{
"title": "Alaska journalists resign over article edits following lawmaker pressure",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/alaska-journalists-resign-over-article-edits-following-lawmaker-pressure/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-15T17:12:52.692205Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-15T17:12:52.692205Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-15T17:12:52.543069Z",
"date": "2025-09-24",
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"city": "Juneau",
"longitude": -134.41972,
"latitude": 58.30194,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"s5h20\">Four journalists at the Homer News, Juneau Empire and Peninsula Clarion newspapers in Alaska have resigned over a decision by the newspapers’ owner to revise a published article about a vigil for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk following pressure from a Republican state lawmaker on Sept. 24, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"8fflb\">Hundreds of people gathered Sept. 17 in the small town of Homer in southern Alaska at a vigil for Kirk, who was shot and killed in Utah on Sept. 10. The <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20250923215416/https://www.homernews.com/news/homer-holds-vigil-for-charlie-kirk-highlights-opening-of-local-turning-point-education-private-school/\">original Homer News article</a> about the vigil identified Kirk as “a far-right political activist and Christian-Nationalist icon.”</p><p data-block-key=\"16l4o\">Rep. Sarah Vance, a Republican state lawmaker from Homer who helped organize the vigil, <a href=\"https://www.ktoo.org/2025/09/29/homer-newspaper-revises-charlie-kirk-memorial-coverage-after-pressure-from-republican-lawmaker/\">criticized</a> the article for what she described as “hate-baiting bias” and called for it to be edited. “If the paper continues to treat community events as opportunities for partisan spin, the consequences will be financial as well as reputational,” she <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26174044-250924-sarah-vancejpg/\">wrote</a> in a Sept. 24 Facebook post.</p><p data-block-key=\"8it3m\">The newspaper’s owner, Carpenter Media Group, later <a href=\"https://alaskabeacon.com/2025/09/30/mass-resignations-at-two-alaska-newspapers-after-out-of-state-owners-bow-to-political-pressure/\">removed</a>, edited and reposted the story, which prompted the four journalists to resign in protest. Carpenter Media owns hundreds of newspapers throughout the United States and Canada.</p><p data-block-key=\"dsg7p\">In their joint <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26174055-peninsula-clarion-and-homer-news-resignation-letter/\">resignation letter</a> Sept. 29, the four journalists said Carpenter Media changed the Kirk article without consulting them. “What we do have a problem with is Carpenter Media management changing a story at the behest of an elected official. We believe this destroys the credibility the public has placed in us as reporters and editors,” the letter said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2c11f\">The letter continued: “The willingness to acquiesce to a public official’s editorial demands and have conversations with her about the direction of our coverage is a betrayal not just of the journalists who work for Carpenter Media, but of the company’s integrity as a purveyor of news.”</p><p data-block-key=\"16pgj\">The journalists gave two weeks’ notice, according to the letter, but Carpenter Media <a href=\"https://alaskabeacon.com/2025/09/30/mass-resignations-at-two-alaska-newspapers-after-out-of-state-owners-bow-to-political-pressure/\">fired</a> all four immediately, according to local media reports.</p><p data-block-key=\"4uk7e\">Carpenter Media president Tim Prince told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the company stood by its decision to edit the article because it “fell well short of our standards and those of unbiased community journalism.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3s360\">Chloe Pleznac, who wrote the original article and was among those who resigned, <a href=\"https://www.ktoo.org/2025/09/29/homer-newspaper-revises-charlie-kirk-memorial-coverage-after-pressure-from-republican-lawmaker/\">defended</a> her original characterization of Kirk in an interview with Juneau-based radio station KTOO.</p><p data-block-key=\"6sunh\">“Vance said I should have published the original article as an opinion piece because of the language I used to report the opinions that Kirk regularly, proudly espoused,” Pleznac said. “My reporting of those opinions is not a reflection of my bias but rather a reflection of my research.”</p><p data-block-key=\"r7ln\">The three others who resigned include Erin Thompson, who was the regional editor of the Homer News, Peninsula Clarion and the Juneau Empire; Peninsula Clarion sports and features editor Jeff Helminiak; and Peninsula Clarion reporter Jake Dye.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-10-14_at_1.08.48P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ha5ai\">Homer News reported on a vigil held in a small Alaska town on Sept. 17, 2025, for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. A state lawmaker who helped organize the vigil pressured the newspaper’s parent company to revise the article to remove “partisan spin.”</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"name": "Alaska",
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},
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"Homer News",
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"Peninsula Clarion"
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"Chilling Statement"
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{
"title": "California TV station targeted in drive-by shooting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/california-tv-station-targeted-in-drive-by-shooting/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-25T21:37:26.350724Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-09-25T21:39:00.582141Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-09-25T21:39:00.484557Z",
"date": "2025-09-19",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Sacramento",
"longitude": -121.4944,
"latitude": 38.58157,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ttjbv\">A drive-by shooting targeted KXTV in Sacramento, California, on Sept. 19, 2025. The TV station reported that <a href=\"https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/suspected-abc10-shooter-believed-be-politically-motivated-attack/103-f9ff741a-da42-4da1-9ded-33d5f18755cf\">multiple rounds were fired</a> into the lobby, but nobody inside was injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"76mm4\">The suspect, Anibal Hernandez Santana, now faces several felony charges, including discharging a firearm into an inhabited dwelling and assault with a semiautomatic gun. He also faces federal charges of interfering with a radio communication station and possessing and discharging a firearm within a school zone.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vvmn\">Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho told KXTV he believes the attack was politically motivated.</p><p data-block-key=\"iurs\">Ho added that “political violence and violence targeting the media, will not be tolerated here in Sacramento County, and we will hold people accountable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fs0hr\">In a statement to KXTV, Hernandez’s attorney, Mark Reichel, said it was uncommon for anyone to face state and federal charges simultaneously for the same alleged conduct.</p><p data-block-key=\"12bgv\">Hernandez is scheduled to appear in both state and federal court Sept. 25.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"m1nu1\">Shattered glass at the KXTV building in Sacramento, California, after a drive-by shooting on Sept. 19, 2025.</p>",
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"actor": "private individual",
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{
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"KXTV"
],
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"Equipment Damage"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck by pepper balls, tear-gassed at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-by-pepper-balls-tear-gassed-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-06T17:33:19.640975Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T19:16:02.582036Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T19:16:02.503739Z",
"date": "2025-09-19",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"62312\">An unidentified photojournalist with the Chicago Sun-Times was struck by two pepper balls and exposed to tear gas while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"d3o3k\">The photojournalist was standing off to the side of the protest when they were hit with the munitions, fired by federal agents during one of a series of demonstrations held outside the facility where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation. A tear gas canister also landed near the photojournalist’s feet.</p><p data-block-key=\"7r9gk\">The incident appeared to be targeted, according to information shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker by the Chicago News Guild. The journalist is not being named due to safety concerns.</p><p data-block-key=\"3gqgd\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, DHS described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e7b41\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"55eev\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2ue49\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8v5vh\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a> — and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">later arrested a reporter.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"7bud0\">A tear gas canister disperses a chemical irritant at an anti-deportation protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025. A Chicago Sun-Times photographer was struck with pepper balls and exposed to the gas while covering the demonstration.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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],
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],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist shot with chemical irritants amid Illinois immigration protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shot-with-chemical-irritants-amid-illinois-immigration-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-20T19:29:43.684928Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-06T21:34:18.151982Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-06T21:34:17.908585Z",
"date": "2025-09-19",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"z7440\">Freelance photojournalist Audrey Richardson was shot with crowd-control munitions and tear-gassed while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"63l9a\">The facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation, has drawn escalating protests and federal response since early September, following the Department of Homeland Security’s <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/08/ice-launches-operation-midway-blitz-honor-katie-abraham-target-criminal-illegal\">launch</a> of Operation Midway Blitz.</p><p data-block-key=\"fr9eu\">Richardson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was on assignment for nonprofit newsroom Block Club Chicago that day, and arrived at the facility shortly before 5 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"8fe59\">“It was calm at first,” she said. “Then, they would bring the detainees in and protesters would try to block the car, and that’s what would incite the pushback from ICE. It kept happening, and each time I feel like ICE got more aggressive.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6fl46\">Increasing numbers of officers would advance out of the facility to push back protesters, Richardson said. During one such rush, as officers were shoving everyone, she said that she was pushed into a large rock near the road, causing her to fall over.</p><p data-block-key=\"80aj3\">As evening arrived, Richardson said the federal officers deployed stun grenades and tear gas, while others stationed on the roof shot a barrage of pepper balls toward the crowd. That’s when she believes a munition hit her.</p><p data-block-key=\"1860k\">“I was shot in my left calf. It hurt really bad and there was a massive bruise for a few weeks,” Richardson told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"786p1\">She added that she doesn’t know whether she was deliberately targeted, noting that she was identifiable as press, or if she was caught in their indiscriminate spray of the crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"2kb44\">“It seems to have gone from zero to 100 so quickly,” Richardson said. “That one time they decided to come out in full force was just really scary. They were just throwing explosives at protesters. Afterward, they didn’t do it again, because people were injured and throwing up.</p><p data-block-key=\"1pei6\">“I think people were like, ‘OK, I don’t really want to go through that again,’” she added, noting that that was probably the officers’ goal.</p><p data-block-key=\"f08nq\">An array of Chicago-area journalists and others — including Block Club —<a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559589/chicago-headline-club-v-noem/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=asc#entry-21\"> sued</a> President Donald Trump and various U.S. agencies Oct. 6 over federal law enforcement’s violent response to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the ICE facility.</p><p data-block-key=\"8stbv\">In an<a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/07/block-club-chicago-news-organizations-sue-feds-over-first-amendment-violations/\"> article</a> announcing the lawsuit, Block Club wrote that it decided to pursue the case after <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Broadview&targeted_institutions=Block+Club+Chicago\">four of its journalists</a>, including Richardson, were shot with pepper balls and tear-gassed.</p><p data-block-key=\"405jg\">“We intend to continue to report on the protests, but our ability to do so, to the standards that we hold ourselves to, continues to be impacted by our fears of violence and arrests of our employees and contractors,” said Stephanie Lulay, Block Club executive editor and co-founder. “We’re taking this step to protect our journalists and to assert our First Amendment right to report.”</p><p data-block-key=\"25rr3\">The journalists won a temporary restraining order Oct. 9, forbidding federal agents from dispersing, arresting, threatening or using physical force against journalists without probable cause of a crime. It says agents can order journalists to change locations if they give them time to comply.</p><p data-block-key=\"9mebo\">It also forbids the use of riot-control weapons and chemical munitions on those not posing an immediate threat to law enforcement; firing projectiles at the head, neck, groin, spine or female breast; or striking anyone with a vehicle. And it mandates that federal agents wear visible identification and body cameras.</p><p data-block-key=\"4qguc\">Hayden Johnson, counsel at Protect Democracy, part of the legal team for the plaintiffs, said, “Over the last weeks and months, Chicagoans have bravely sought to express and protect these freedoms in the face of severe government abuse. Today’s ruling recognizes that those efforts—peacefully opposing a federal incursion into your city and reporting the events—require the utmost constitutional protection.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2025-09-19T171837Z_835203697_RC20.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"w6aqk\">Federal agents stand guard on top of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025. Photojournalist Audrey Richardson was caught in chemical irritant and shot with pepper balls by officers that day.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"case_number": "1:25-cv-12173",
"case_type": "CLASS_ACTION",
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"actor": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
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},
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"(2025-11-06 21:33:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win injunction against federal government"
],
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"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
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],
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},
{
"title": "Freelancer struck by projectiles at Illinois anti-deportation protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelancer-struck-by-projectiles-at-illinois-anti-deportation-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-10T17:12:38.076398Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-06T21:42:44.182614Z",
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"date": "2025-09-19",
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"city": "Broadview",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sh1f4\">Freelance reporter Leigh Giangreco was shot with multiple pepper balls by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"frtcs\">In a <a href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@leighgiangreco0/video/7552015223092301070\">report</a> posted on social video platform TikTok, Giangreco said that she was on assignment for nonprofit newsroom Block Club Chicago covering protests that started that morning and stretched throughout the day, with the law enforcement response escalating in the evening.</p><p data-block-key=\"geth\">“Just before 7 o’clock, there were several ICE agents on top of the building, on the corner, who were shooting pepper bullets down at protesters,” Giangreco said. Describing the munitions as “non-lethal bullets,” she added that — from personal experience — they can leave a mark.</p><p data-block-key=\"ellsk\">“They are pretty painful: I got hit with at least two of them tonight,” she said. “They were shooting those down on protesters, really just raining them down.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4ihe7\">Giangreco reported that the federal officers also deployed tear gas into the crowd. “I will say I was also in the middle of these protests and the pepper spray was on the air, was getting in your eyes,” she said, adding, “it’s still in my throat now.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7506o\">An array of Chicago-area journalists and others — including Block Club — <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559589/chicago-headline-club-v-noem/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=asc#entry-21\">sued</a> President Donald Trump and various federal agencies Oct. 6 over the violent response by federal law enforcement to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the ICE facility.</p><p data-block-key=\"bm2ic\">In an <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/07/block-club-chicago-news-organizations-sue-feds-over-first-amendment-violations/\">article</a> announcing the lawsuit, Block Club wrote that it decided to pursue the case after <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Broadview&targeted_institutions=Block+Club+Chicago\">four of its journalists</a> were shot with pepper balls and tear-gassed.</p><p data-block-key=\"4i3um\">“We intend to continue to report on the protests, but our ability to do so, to the standards that we hold ourselves to, continues to be impacted by our fears of violence and arrests of our employees and contractors,” said Stephanie Lulay, Block Club executive editor and co-founder. “We’re taking this step to protect our journalists and to assert our First Amendment right to report.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b2i3g\">The journalists won a temporary restraining order Oct. 9, forbidding federal agents from dispersing, arresting, threatening or using physical force against journalists without probable cause of a crime. It says agents can order journalists to change locations if they give them time to comply.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mckd\">It also forbids the use of riot-control weapons and chemical munitions on those not posing an immediate threat to law enforcement; firing projectiles at the head, neck, groin, spine or female breast; or striking anyone with a vehicle. And it mandates that federal agents wear visible identification.</p><p data-block-key=\"53ohc\">Hayden Johnson, counsel at Protect Democracy, part of the legal team for the plaintiffs, said, “Over the last weeks and months, Chicagoans have bravely sought to express and protect these freedoms in the face of severe government abuse. Today’s ruling recognizes that those efforts—peacefully opposing a federal incursion into your city and reporting the events—require the utmost constitutional protection.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"fvib3\">A protester stands in front of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025. Photojournalist Leigh Giangreco was shot with multiple pepper balls while covering the demonstrations.</p>",
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{
"title": "Journalist grabbed, hit with pepper ball by federal agents at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-grabbed-hit-with-pepper-ball-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-03T20:59:41.116298Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-06T21:47:02.550787Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1x8ig\">Journalist Steve Held said a federal agent grabbed him from behind as another shot him in the groin with a pepper ball while Held covered a protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"bdhsd\">Held, co-founder and reporter for the investigative outlet Unraveled Press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators had gathered for weeks outside the facility, where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"94gb1\">The demonstration that day was relatively calm, and there had been no dispersal order, when agents suddenly advanced on protesters, Held recounted. “It just popped off in that second.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7co7g\">Held watched ICE agents run after somebody near him. Then, one agent grabbed Held’s hoodie and swung him around from behind while another <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/peoplesfabric.com/post/3lza4jrfwis2e\">aimed a pepper ball gun at his crotch.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"fj1vs\">“I wasn’t even really sure what happened,” Held said. “I just knew I got whipped around and shot.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2ru3h\">Held said he believed at least one of the officers knew who he was, as he has been covering ICE activities since May. He was wearing a press badge at the time, but said the incident prompted him to get a helmet and other gear to mark himself as media.</p><p data-block-key=\"dj6su\">Even with the extra press-labeled apparel, though, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tackled-arrested-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">Held was arrested</a> a week later while covering another protest outside the facility. His Unraveled co-founder <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-in-the-face-with-pepper-ball-at-illinois-ice-facility-protest/\">Raven Geary</a> was also shot in the face with a pepper ball on Sept. 26.</p><p data-block-key=\"123bj\">Held said he believes the encounters are part of a broader effort by immigration and federal agents to intimidate journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"1gfsv\">“They want to dissuade people from being there, from getting close,” he said. “Fewer press out there makes it easier for them to hide what they’re doing.”</p><p data-block-key=\"42ccm\">The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/26/days-after-dallas-terrorist-attack-ice-rioters-gather-outside-ice-broadview-il\">press release</a> on Sept. 26, DHS described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ari9f\">“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f41h7\">Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS, Block Club Chicago <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/09/26/ice-is-making-war-on-broadview-and-it-must-stop-suburban-mayor-says/\">reported</a>, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6q34i\">According to a Sept. 27 <a href=\"https://apigateway.agilitypr.com/distributions/history/6b822536-db77-4a76-9b14-68d7a0a4bfea?recipientId=85ec311b-1ff6-4e75-88f3-386d8c6bf080\">news release</a>, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f4cf8\">Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-27&date_upper=2025-09-27&city=Broadview\">affecting multiple journalists</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Held_pepper_ball.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"brl6u\">Pepper ball residue on Steve Held’s pants after he was grabbed and shot in the groin with the munition by federal agents while covering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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"(2025-10-09 20:57:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win temporary restraining order against federal government",
"(2025-10-06 20:58:00+00:00) Chicago journalists sue over violent federal response to Illinois protests",
"(2025-11-06 21:46:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win injunction against federal government"
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{
"title": "Journalist shot with pepper balls at Illinois ICE facility protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-ice-facility-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-03T14:31:21.183852Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0lqri\">Journalist Raven Geary was shot in the face and shoulder with pepper balls by federal officers while reporting on protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"dekqc\">Geary, co-founder and reporter for the investigative outlet Unraveled Press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators had been gathering for weeks outside the facility where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation. She said that the federal officers have been becoming more aggressive with both attendees and journalists covering the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"euf4u\">“We’ve been seeing an escalation from them significantly over the last few weeks. And these agents specifically have threatened us as reporters, they’ve tried to intimidate us,” she observed.</p><p data-block-key=\"cgl6i\">On Sept. 19, multiple protests were organized to take place at the facility, Geary <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/unraveledpress.com/post/3lz7wtz6qzk2g\">reported</a>, with federal officers inside periodically shooting crowd-control munitions at the crowd, including at one point <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/unraveledpress.com/post/3lz7ybh7osk2h\">shooting directly at Geary’s feet</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ribo\">As the evening went on, Geary said <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/unraveledpress.com/post/3lza36gg5as2f\">both she</a> and her Unraveled Press co-founder, Steve Held, were shot with munitions at close range.</p><p data-block-key=\"22vra\">“They shot Steve in the groin, and I have that on video. The guy is like a foot away from him and just pops him in the crotch with the pepper ball gun,” Geary said. “And I got hit in the face and shoulder.</p><p data-block-key=\"bmc88\">“It was just another situation where they were just kind of indiscriminately shooting at people’s faces, groins, places they’re not supposed to at close range, and then pepper-spraying people in the face,” she added.</p><p data-block-key=\"2r6ac\">The chemical irritant powder in pepper balls is worse, in her opinion, than the liquid or gel in pepper spray, Geary said. “The powder just gets everywhere, and it comes and goes. You’ll get hit with a bunch of it and you’ll think you’re fine and then an hour later you’re still coughing it up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6ge5m\">Geary told the Tracker they were able to continue covering the protest for several hours. She was struck, however, by how chaotic the federal officers were in their response, in comparison to the Chicago Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"4c7hg\">“With CPD, they use these very organized, military kind of formations: They’re holding on to each other, watching each other’s backs for their own safety,” she said. “And these guys are just scattered everywhere, doing whatever the hell they want, it’s just wild.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5g7cf\">ICE did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"kmcyq\">Protesters gather outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025. Journalist Raven Geary was shot in the face and shoulder with pepper balls by federal officers while reporting on the demonstration.</p>",
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"(2025-10-09 21:03:00+00:00) Chicago journalists win temporary restraining order against federal government",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist targeted with pepper balls at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-targeted-with-pepper-balls-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-21T20:46:41.271291Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"iuxp9\">Independent photojournalist Chana Shapiro was hit multiple times with pepper balls fired by federal officers while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"ck8ko\">The incident, which appeared targeted, took place during one of a series of demonstrations outside the facility, where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"709lv\">Shapiro told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived shortly after dawn to cover the protest. Early on, she was photographing from a driveway, seated cross-legged, when an ICE truck drove forward until its grille was inches from her face before speeding into the crowd, deploying tear gas and moving through an opaque field of smoke.</p><p data-block-key=\"dnfno\">“The truck just plowed through,” Shapiro said. “It was very clear that they would have run over people if they had not gotten out of the way.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5crcf\">Later that morning, she lay close to a fence, with a camera bag, DSLR camera and press badge on her, to photograph chained detainees being loaded into vans.</p><p data-block-key=\"e9lre\">Within minutes, she felt pepper balls skid down her sides and clip her leg — “as if drawing a chalk outline.”</p><p data-block-key=\"98o24\">“I thought maybe they were shooting behind me into the crowd,” she said. “Then I heard someone scream something like, ‘You can’t shoot journalists,’ or ‘They just shot a journalist.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"ekau1\">One witness told Shapiro that a sniper positioned on the roof had tracked her for several minutes before firing, even as she was alone and away from protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"285mc\">After being treated briefly by street medics, Shapiro said she ran back toward the fence without protective accessories and only her DSLR to continue documenting the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"31tqh\">She was struck again. “I immediately felt something like marbles bursting down my shoulder and leg,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fc1u\">Shapiro also said tear gas and pepper spray seeped into cuts on her knees and elbows, which she had gotten from crawling to capture different shots.</p><p data-block-key=\"2nqhe\">“My body was really hurt and stung for the rest of the day. And then, because it kept happening, it kept exacerbating it,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"79u5u\">Unable to clean her gear, chemical residue stayed pressed against her skin, continually aggravating the wounds over a period of days as she returned to cover the protests. It ultimately turned her arms, legs, chest and shoulders “metallically red,” and sensitive — what she described as feeling like “electromagnetic salmon.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c6s4d\">“I think it’s notable that being a journalist out in front is not a deterrent, the way that it’s supposed to be,” she said of the violent response from law enforcement. “It was a pretty equal opportunity.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a2o1c\">At least five other journalists were assaulted by law enforcement at anti-deportation protests at the Broadview facility the same day, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2025-09-19&date_upper=2025-09-19&tags=protest\">according to Tracker data.</a></p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"qkiw1\">Independent photojournalist Chana Shapiro, above, was hit with pepper balls fired by federal agents as she covered a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.</p>",
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