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{
"title": "Photojournalist shot with dozens of pepper balls at Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shot-with-dozens-of-pepper-balls-at-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-21T14:14:46.400791Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:29:25.877987Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:29:25.749868Z",
"date": "2025-10-04",
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"city": "Broadview",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7paih\">Independent journalist Zach Hussein was shot 20-30 times with crowd-control munitions by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Oct. 4, 2025. One of the rounds also damaged his camera flash.</p><p data-block-key=\"8mi31\">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=\"7e2l5\">Hussein told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that as he arrived to cover protests that morning, he heard federal officers fire several crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"713b1\">“I talked to the kids who were covered in pepper ball dust and asked them what happened,” he said. “They said that they had been shot because they were calling the ICE agents names through the fence and so they lit them up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6cru9\">There were approximately 30 people present, Hussein said, and he spoke with various individuals to get a sense of what was going on, but it was generally quiet.</p><p data-block-key=\"674pk\">Officers had told those assembled that if they were going to protest they had to stay behind a particular line. Hussein said he wanted to document the graffiti close to the fence, however, and didn’t think it’d be a problem.</p><p data-block-key=\"10jdb\">“I walked up with a kid who had a sign but then he turned around and it was just me and my camera,” he said. “Then 30 or 40 of the ICE guys popped out of their little building and one of them said, ‘Hey! You have to protest in your designated free speech zone.’ I was like, ‘I’m not protesting, I’m press.’ He’s like, ‘You have to go back there.’ I say, ‘I’m not protesting, I’m taking pictures. I’m press.’ Then he says, ‘OK, well, we’ll be back.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eb03b\">Hussein said that he resumed taking photos of the graffiti on the ground, as well as on the fence. When the federal officers came back, they told him that if he didn’t leave he’d be arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"ddb0f\">“I was like, ‘I’m not protesting. Once again, I’m press.’ He says, ‘I don’t give a fuck. Get the fuck back,’” Hussein recounted. “So I put my hands up and I took a step back. As I was walking backward, I went to take a picture and that’s when they shot me with the pepper balls.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a7c9b\">He told the Tracker he was able to go back to an aid station to rinse his eyes and clean up his gear.</p><p data-block-key=\"1u25m\">“It looked like I was in a blizzard or something. I was completely covered in the pepper dust,” he said. “One of them actually ran out of ammo, because I could hear his paintball gun thing make the noise it makes when it’s out of ammo, so they were definitely shooting at me a lot.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e3vog\">Hussein said he was hit at least two dozen times: multiple times each in the head, back, arms and legs. One round also damaged his equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2qi7m\">“I was holding my camera up to my face to get a picture and they hit the flash on my camera and they hit my head,” Hussein said, adding that the impact tore the main dial off his flash. “They were definitely aiming for the head. They’re pretty close, so it wasn’t an accident.”</p><p data-block-key=\"h034\">Hussein was also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-immigration-protest\">shoved by federal officers</a> while covering protests the previous day.</p><p data-block-key=\"6qqbj\">ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In an <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/06/dhs-debunks-governor-pritzkers-harmful-lies-about-operation-midway-blitz-chicago\">Oct. 6 news release</a>, DHS alleged that officers are facing “a nearly 1000% increase in assaults.”</p><p data-block-key=\"47vpf\">“We remind members of the media to exercise caution as they cover these violent riots and remind journalists that covering unlawful activities in the field does come with risks — though our officers take every reasonable precaution to mitigate those dangers to those exercising protected First Amendment rights,” it said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Hussein_IL_assault_10-4.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"q3f41\">Photojournalist Zach Hussein, right, was shot 20-30 times with pepper balls by federal officers while covering protests at a Broadview, Illinois, immigration facility on Oct. 4, 2025. Impact marks from multiple rounds were visible on his helmet, left.</p>",
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"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": [
"Assault",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist tackled by federal officers at Illinois immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-tackled-by-federal-officers-at-illinois-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-17T14:57:58.511018Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T21:21:15.033800Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T21:21:14.908596Z",
"date": "2025-10-03",
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"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"juhzv\">Freelance photojournalist Tom Hudson was knocked to the ground by a federal officer while covering anti-deportation protests at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Oct. 3, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"achp6\">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=\"7fgum\">Hudson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he’s based in Virginia, but traveled to cover protests at the facility. He added that he wasn’t on assignment, but often files photos with Zuma Press or Getty Images.</p><p data-block-key=\"6db18\">On Oct. 3, both Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino were at the facility, and Hudson said the protest was like any other.</p><p data-block-key=\"4bel6\">“Pretty normal protest stuff going on: people chanting, there was a prayer service going on with some local religious leaders, people handing out water, that kind of thing,” he told the Tracker. “Super peaceful.”</p><p data-block-key=\"73g0v\">Illinois State Police, many of whom Hudson said were in full riot gear, were ensuring that the road was clear for ICE vehicles to pass.</p><p data-block-key=\"d59so\">“I was standing on the curb, and I turned and shifted to get a shot, basically, down the line of the protesters and the state police,” Hudson recounted. “I had one foot on the curb and one foot on the pavement, and one of the troopers started jabbing me, striking me in the ribs with the end of his baton.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4sfi2\">Hudson added that it was “more of an annoyance than anything.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d3i26\">When federal officers later advanced out of the facility, Hudson said, the protesters were approximately 500 feet from the fence gates. Agents marched to meet the crowd, with Bovino in front. Hudson said he observed agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, among others.</p><p data-block-key=\"a10gu\">Bovino then spoke with a couple of state police officers, and one of their SWAT members motioned for the others to start putting on their gas masks.</p><p data-block-key=\"542qc\">“Bovino told everybody, ‘You have to leave,’” Hudson said, “and within 30 seconds — not enough time for anybody to disperse even if they were going to — he made a motion to his crowd and said, ‘Go get them.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"383g1\">Hudson said he saw Bovino tackle a demonstrator and was attempting to photograph him when a CBP officer suddenly tackled him.</p><p data-block-key=\"3as0i\">“I did not see it coming. Another agent came up and grabbed my arms,” he said. “I started yelling at him, ‘I’m press, I’m press, I’m press.’ And then they took their hands off and went and got somebody else.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9udnb\">Hudson was uninjured, and his equipment only suffered some minor scrapes.</p><p data-block-key=\"d96o1\">He added that he was clearly identifiable as a member of the press: “I was wearing a vest that said ‘PRESS’ on it. I had a helmet on that said ‘PRESS’ on it. I had my two big cameras. There was absolutely no question, there was no ambiguity, and they just did it anyway.”</p><p data-block-key=\"71g7q\">ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In an <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/06/dhs-debunks-governor-pritzkers-harmful-lies-about-operation-midway-blitz-chicago\">Oct. 6 news release</a>, DHS alleged that officers are facing “a nearly 1000% increase in assaults.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c3ele\">“We remind members of the media to exercise caution as they cover these violent riots and remind journalists that covering unlawful activities in the field does come with risks — though our officers take every reasonable precaution to mitigate those dangers to those exercising protected First Amendment rights,” it said.</p><p data-block-key=\"dusaq\">Before working as a photojournalist, Hudson told the Tracker he was a critical care paramedic and a police officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"5lo3k\">“I spent more than two decades in the public safety sphere, and I was just completely aghast at what happened that day. It was 100% outside of any norm,” he said. “What I saw was quite literally an attack, that’s the only word that I can use for it.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/_MG_9737.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"o4zvs\">A U.S. Border Patrol officer and other federal agents respond to protests outside an immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Oct. 3, 2025. Officers tackled freelance photojournalist Tom Hudson to the ground while he photographed the demonstration.</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
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"Department of Homeland Security",
"Department of Justice",
"immigration",
"protest"
],
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"Assault"
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"Tom Hudson (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "California county cuts news outlet from media list after critical coverage",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/california-county-cuts-news-outlet-from-media-list-after-critical-coverage/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-16T18:14:18.036938Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-16T18:14:18.036938Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-16T18:14:14.154635Z",
"date": "2025-10-03",
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"city": "Redding",
"longitude": -122.39168,
"latitude": 40.58654,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v5x7f\">Shasta Scout, an independent nonprofit news outlet based in Redding, California, was notified on Oct. 3, 2025, that it had been removed from the media distribution list for the registrar of voters for Shasta County.</p><p data-block-key=\"9r916\">When Shasta Scout asked about its removal, Registrar Clint Curtis said he excluded the outlet because it’s not a “legitimate” newsroom, citing its nonprofit status and perceived “political lean,” <a href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/2025/10/09/shasta-county-unlawfully-denies-shasta-scout-press-releases-fac-objects/\">according to a letter from David Loy</a>, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition.</p><p data-block-key=\"21spr\">The coalition said the move violates press freedom and has prompted widespread public condemnation. “No publication should have to couch its news coverage for fear of losing basic rights guaranteed to the media,” Loy wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"95lmm\">After demands that Scout be reinstated to the press list and threats of legal action, Curtis responded by halting all news releases to outlets and referring the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice, according to an email shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"eb2bc\">“If they agree that we must include them then we will do so, should we ever decide to continue sending press releases,” wrote Curtis.</p><p data-block-key=\"260do\">The issue came to a head Oct. 14, when the Shasta County Board of Supervisors held a closed-session meeting and unanimously voted to issue a public statement supporting a free press and condemning Curtis’ actions.</p><p data-block-key=\"4kj1j\">The board also warned it may consider censure if the behavior continues, according to county spokesman Stewart Buettell.</p><p data-block-key=\"bm3m5\">“I’m really grateful that the community’s rights to a free and unfettered press are being upheld by our board,” Annelise Pierce, Shasta Scout’s editor, told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"9l8f4\">In an email Oct. 16, Curtis told the Tracker all news releases are now published on the county’s website, which he said has been the case since before he was in the position.</p><p data-block-key=\"cp9f1\">After the board meeting, Curtis told reporters it felt “morally wrong” to share news releases with Shasta Scout, which he believes is “operating improperly” as a nonprofit newsroom, <a href=\"https://shastascout.org/supervisors-unanimously-condemn-shasta-election-official/\">Shasta Scout reported.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"49efv\">Pierce said Curtis has refused to provide evidence to support his claims, which she called baseless. She said Shasta Scout’s reporting is fair, factual and fully compliant with nonprofit law.</p><p data-block-key=\"e87uu\">“We have worked very hard to be excessively cautious in our coverage,” she said. “We have provided pretty hard-hitting reporting on Mr. Curtis, because a lot of issues have arisen since he was placed in the role.”</p><p data-block-key=\"58fkj\">Shasta Scout was targeted, Pierce said, after it published election stories critical of Curtis, <a href=\"https://shastascout.org/shasta-registrar-clint-curtis-claims-the-secretary-of-state-has-greenlit-his-election-plans-the-state-says-otherwise/\">including an article</a> questioning whether the California secretary of state had approved his proposed ballot procedures.</p><p data-block-key=\"e4nbc\">Pierce had also received a voicemail and phone call from Assistant Registrar of Voters Brent Turner, who accused her of trying to sway the election in favor of Curtis’ opponent.</p><p data-block-key=\"20os3\">Though Pierce said the situation is stressful, she and her team remain committed to providing the community with local news coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"3fb67\">“Front-line democracy reporting requires courage, and we have plenty of it,” Pierce said. “We will not shrink back from reporting these stories.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Benda_Curtis.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"jerz9\">The Shasta County, California, Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis, at right, responds to questions from a reporter. The official excluded online outlet Shasta Scout from its media distribution list starting Oct. 3.</p>",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist shoved by federal agents at Illinois immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-by-federal-agents-at-illinois-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-21T15:25:59.763964Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:29:51.123196Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:29:51.024299Z",
"date": "2025-10-03",
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"city": "Broadview",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"w3p99\">Independent journalist Zach Hussein was pushed over a guardrail by federal agents while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Oct. 3, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"7psc9\">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=\"b8f0h\">Hussein told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on Oct. 3, both Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino were at the facility, along with officers from the Illinois State Police.</p><p data-block-key=\"fh1p7\">“There were a bunch of protesters, probably the most I had seen, a few hundred. It was pretty chill until the Border Patrol rolled out in a convoy with their big BearCat,” he said, referring to the armored vehicle, “and their drones and their own photographers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3fn2i\">Another photojournalist, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-tackled-by-federal-officers-at-illinois-immigration-protest/\">Tom Hudson</a>, told the Tracker that federal agents marched out of the facility to meet the crowd. Bovino, in front, warned everyone to leave, but less than 30 seconds later, Hudson said Bovino told his agents, “Go get them.”</p><p data-block-key=\"615jq\">The use of force was immediate, Hussein said. “They started pushing people and arresting people. They threatened to gas people.</p><p data-block-key=\"5e0ns\">“The federal agents were going out of their way to be aggressive,” he added. “They were kind of going after everybody, press included.”</p><p data-block-key=\"658b5\">Hussein said that in the chaos, he was pushed by Bovino and other agents, ultimately falling over the highway guardrail. He added that, luckily, he was uninjured.</p><p data-block-key=\"6iql4\">“I was glad to have my helmet on; that would have hurt,” Hussein said. “It was pretty intense.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dupgk\">ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In an <a href=\"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/06/dhs-debunks-governor-pritzkers-harmful-lies-about-operation-midway-blitz-chicago\">Oct. 6 news release</a>, DHS alleged that officers are facing “a nearly 1000% increase in assaults.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b71qt\">“We remind members of the media to exercise caution as they cover these violent riots and remind journalists that covering unlawful activities in the field does come with risks — though our officers take every reasonable precaution to mitigate those dangers to those exercising protected First Amendment rights,” it said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ea7r\">Bovino posted a <a href=\"https://x.com/CMDROpAtLargeCA/status/1977778019046674796\">video package</a> of the Oct. 3 protest response on the social platform X on Oct. 13, set to the Soundridemusic song “Adrenaline.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2chqu\">“Interfering with our agents or operations will lead to consequences,” Bovino wrote. “We support the right to protest, but public and agent safety is non-negotiable. Zero tolerance.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Hussein_IL_assault_103.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"sn5hw\">Federal agents, including U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, at right, detain protesters outside a Broadview, Illinois, immigration facility on Oct. 3, 2025. Photojournalist Zach Hussein was shoved while covering the protest.</p>",
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"tags": [
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Zach Hussein (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Pete Hegseth targets news outlets, leakers as defense secretary",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pete-hegseth-targets-news-outlets-leakers-as-defense-secretary/",
"first_published_at": "2025-04-03T16:34:25.156292Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:10:10.392435Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:10:10.150350Z",
"date": "2025-10-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yzj9y\">Shortly after President Donald Trump’s second term began, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joined Trump in taking steps to intimidate leakers and news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting Hegseth’s efforts in this regularly updated report.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ommm\">Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more <a href=\"/blog/trump-allies-pursue-multipronged-campaign-against-the-press/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9v0ko\"><i>This article was first published on March 21, 2025.</i></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"9vs77\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><p><a id=\"top\" name=\"top\"></a></p>\r\n<div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#Oct 1\">Oct. 1, 2025 | Pentagon to require nondisclosure agreements, random polygraph testing</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#May 26\">May 26, 2025 | Defense Department attempts to bar CNN reporter from foreign trip</a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#March 21\">March 21, 2025 | Defense Department announces investigation into media leaks</a></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yzj9y\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"d7qmh\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><a id=\"Oct 1\" name=\"Oct 1\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"s6tia\"><b>Oct. 1, 2025 | Pentagon to require nondisclosure agreements, random polygraph testing</b></p><p data-block-key=\"ej59a\">In its latest move to combat leaks, the Pentagon plans to require all employees within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff to sign nondisclosure agreements and to subject them to random polygraph testing, The Washington Post <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/01/pentagon-pete-hegseth-crackdown-leaks/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F451a1bb%2F68dd5180fe87267da2461848%2F59729333ae7e8a1cf4ab937e%2F11%2F66%2F68dd5180fe87267da2461848\">reported</a> on Oct. 1, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"dhsba\">The estimated 5,000 military service members, civilian employees and contractors will be asked to sign an NDA that “prohibits the release of non-public information without approval or through a defined process.”</p><p data-block-key=\"54fs\">The Post reported that the requirements are part of a larger strategy to identify and remove not only leakers but also those deemed insufficiently loyal to the Trump administration.</p><p data-block-key=\"1f0u2\">News of the planned measures also comes on the heels of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pete-hegseth-restricts-journalists-access-inside-pentagon/#update-1009\">new press restrictions</a> issued on Sept. 19, which mandate that journalists pledge to obtain approval before releasing information gathered at the Pentagon, even if unclassified.</p><p data-block-key=\"cabuf\">A seventeen-page <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/20/us/pentagon-press-restrictions.html\">memo</a>, signed by Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, asserted that “information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” Refusal or noncompliance could result in the loss of press credentials and access to the Pentagon.</p><p data-block-key=\"41g09\">The new rules, issued under the insignia of the “Department of War,” the <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/09/04/nx-s1-5529420/trump-department-of-war-department-of-defense\">newly designated</a> “secondary title” for the Department of Defense, also forbade unescorted access to large areas of the building. A May<a href=\"https://media.defense.gov/2025/May/23/2003721693/-1/-1/1/UPDATED-PHYSICAL-CONTROL-MEASURES-FOR-PRESS-MEDIA-ACCESS-WITHIN-THE-PENTAGON.PDF\"> memo</a> issued by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth already mandated that journalists have official approval and escorts from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs to enter building areas once freely accessible to credentialed reporters.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"May 26\" name=\"May 26\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"2y7xj\">May 26, 2025 | Defense Department attempts to bar CNN reporter from foreign trip</h4><p data-block-key=\"3ccj7\">The Pentagon attempted to bar CNN national security reporter Haley Britzky from traveling as the designated television pool journalist during Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s trip to Singapore, Status <a href=\"https://www.status.news/p/pete-hegseth-pentagon-press-access?utm_source=www.status.news&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=hegseth-s-safe-space&_bhlid=8583a82fd7bcd379f720c4d09a22a59a6348c18a\">reported</a> on May 26, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"91gov\">“Pentagon officials—apparently irked by some of her tweets, despite their innocuous nature—relayed to CNN brass that she was not welcome,” Oliver Darcy wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"fh3o\">On May 24, Britzky highlighted her Signal username in a post on the social platform X amid the Department of Defense’s efforts to crack down on leaks, including by <a href=\"/all-incidents/pete-hegseth-restricts-journalists-access-inside-pentagon/\">limiting press access</a> to areas of the Pentagon.</p><p data-block-key=\"6vnlm\">Arthur Schwartz, one of Hegseth’s closest advisers, <a href=\"https://x.com/ArthurSchwartz/status/1926304038817013807\">reposted</a> Britzky, adding, “Any reporters that are encouraging DoD employees to bypass DoD Public Affairs and violate the terms of their employment with the government should be permanently banned from the Pentagon. Start with this one.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Any reporters that are encouraging DoD employees to bypass DoD Public Affairs and violate their terms of their employment with the government should be permanently banned from the Pentagon. Start with this one. <a href=\"https://t.co/aFvzPcufyw\">https://t.co/aFvzPcufyw</a></p>— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ArthurSchwartz/status/1926304038817013807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 24, 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=\"2y7xj\">Status reported that the move to exclude Britzky from Hegseth’s Singapore trip triggered an immediate backlash: Multiple other outlets indicated that if she was excluded they would boycott the trip.</p><p data-block-key=\"6qect\">“They don’t get to decide who covers them,” one correspondent told Status.</p><p data-block-key=\"7839n\">The Pentagon relented, and Britzky <a href=\"https://x.com/halbritz/status/1928406436192620655\">traveled</a> with Hegseth as originally planned.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"March 21\" name=\"March 21\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"yzj9y\">March 21, 2025 | Defense Department announces investigation into media leaks</h4><p data-block-key=\"bnd2m\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office sent a <a href=\"https://media.defense.gov/2025/Mar/21/2003674265/-1/-1/0/EFFORTS-TO-COMBAT-UNAUTHORIZED-DISCLOSURES-OSD002809-25-RES-FINAL.PDF\">memo</a> on March 21, 2025, initiating an investigation into “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6s70m\">“This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense,” wrote Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff. “I expect to be informed immediately if this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure, and that such information will be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution.”</p><p data-block-key=\"76lla\">The memo also noted that department employees will be subject to polygraph exams “in accordance with applicable law and policy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ebe2s\">The memo came hours after Elon Musk, head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, <a href=\"https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1902977556329931052\">posted on social media</a> calling The New York Times’ reporting on the planned content of his briefing at the Pentagon “pure propaganda.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cjh0\">“I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT,” Musk wrote. “They will be found.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e5n7v\">Musk’s meeting with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ultimately did not take place, Reuters <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-musk-calls-prosecutions-pentagon-staff-who-leaked-new-york-times-2025-03-21/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ceird\">A Times spokesperson told Reuters that leak investigations are “meant to chill communications between journalists and their sources and undermine the ability of a free press to bring out vital information that may otherwise be hidden.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\"><i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2025-03-21T163635Z_985503578_RC2S.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"of4rh\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on as President Donald Trump (not pictured) delivers remarks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. on March 21, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"Media",
"The New York Times"
],
"tags": [
"Department of Defense",
"Donald Trump"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Chilling Statement"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Haley Britzky (CNN)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist hit in face while covering Oregon ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-in-face-while-covering-oregon-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-09T20:42:23.518320Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-09T20:42:23.518320Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-09T20:42:23.307959Z",
"date": "2025-09-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hvj16\">Katie Daviscourt, a reporter for the conservative news site The Post Millennial, had her eye blackened by a person swinging a flagpole during a protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 30, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"2676i\">In a video Daviscourt posted to the social platform X, a woman is seen waving a flagpole at the protest, apparently saying Daviscourt’s name as she accuses her of being at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. An impact is heard in the video, followed by a voice exclaiming, "She just hit me in the face! Oh my God!”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Breaking: I just got assaulted by an Antifa agitator outside the ICE facility in Portland.<br><br>The suspect walked up to me and hit me in the face with her flag pole, swinging it like a baseball bat. <a href=\"https://t.co/BFi39Ym8R6\">pic.twitter.com/BFi39Ym8R6</a></p>— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KatieDaviscourt/status/1973241441834115509?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 1, 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=\"hvj16\">Daviscourt, <a href=\"https://x.com/KatieDaviscourt/status/1975306746416730502\">who posted on X</a> that she is a full-time reporter who has been covering ICE activity in Portland for the past several months, did not respond to a Tracker request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"4c5rk\">The day after the incident, Daviscourt <a href=\"https://www.foxnews.com/video/6380634589112\">appeared on Fox News</a> with a visible black eye.</p><p data-block-key=\"ah89q\">She criticized the Portland Police Bureau’s response to her reported attack and demanded the resignation of Chief Bob Day, stating she immediately sought help from nearby police and chased the suspect for more than half an hour.</p><p data-block-key=\"85j9i\">According to a bureau <a href=\"https://www.portland.gov/police/news/2025/10/1/ppb-needs-publics-help-identifying-assault-suspect\">press release</a>, a “dialogue liaison” officer, who cannot take enforcement action, was flagged down after an assault was reported Sept. 30. When he tried to detain the suspect, she fled.</p><p data-block-key=\"a90uj\">Daviscourt was not named in the release, but police shared photos of the suspect and asked the public for help identifying her. The person with the flagpole in Daviscourt’s video matches the suspect in those photos.</p><p data-block-key=\"d91dv\">In a statement to <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/10/conservative-media-personality-reports-assault-at-portland-protest-slams-police-as-antifa.html\">The Oregonian</a> newspaper, a spokesperson for the Police Bureau said it would enforce the law at protests: “Free speech and gathering is lawful and protected by the Constitution, no matter the content of what’s being said. But criminal activity is not free speech, and the Portland Police Bureau is committed to addressing criminal behavior.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-10-09_at_12.58.08.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"xq641\">Katie Daviscourt, second from left, speaks to Fox News host Jesse Watters on Oct. 1, 2025, about her reported assault the day before, while covering an anti-deportation protest in Portland, Oregon.</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": "private individual",
"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,
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Katie Daviscourt (The Post Millennial)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Turkish journalist hospitalized after assault at NYC immigration court",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/turkish-journalist-hospitalized-after-assault-at-nyc-immigration-court/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-30T19:58:18.550020Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:30:08.369080Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:30:08.262460Z",
"date": "2025-09-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6pkd5\">L. Vural Elibol, chief videographer for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, was knocked to the ground by federal officers while reporting at the immigration court in New York, New York, on Sept. 30, 2025. He struck his head and was later hospitalized.</p><p data-block-key=\"dhilm\">Multiple journalists have reported <a href=\"https://x.com/arya_sundaram/status/1928105201392632061\">access issues</a>, <a href=\"https://www.amny.com/police-fire/more-immigrants-arrested-ice-lower-manhattan-06262025/?ref=hellgatenyc.com\">intimidation</a> and <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DOehXSpjuTI/?hl=en\">threats</a> when covering the court at Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been arresting asylum-seekers following their hearings there since May, part of President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.</p><p data-block-key=\"4bdeb\">Previously, on Sept. 18, independent journalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-by-officer-barring-lawmakers-from-nyc-immigration-facility/\">Michael Nigro</a> was assaulted by a man he identified as a plainclothes ICE officer while reporting on a lawmaker-led protest at the court.</p><p data-block-key=\"1g8ja\"><a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPO4gdLDrzH/?igsh=c3ppcjdiaHZ0cHJ0\">Footage</a> of the Sept. 30 incident, captured by a fellow journalist, shows masked federal officers pulling amNewYork’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-shoved-by-federal-officers-outside-immigration-court-in-nyc/\">Dean Moses</a> out of a public elevator while shouting at him, “Get out of the fucking elevator!”</p><p data-block-key=\"e27rs\">Another officer standing outside the elevator doors can be seen shoving freelance photojournalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nyc-photojournalist-shoved-to-ground-by-federal-officers-at-immigration-court/\">Olga Fedorova</a> back, causing her to go crashing to the hallway floor, landing atop Elibol.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Footage taken by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Steffikeith?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Steffikeith</a> this morning of ICE agents shoving photographers on assignment at 26 Federal Plaza. One journalist has been hospitalized. <a href=\"https://t.co/sOo6XAMWJP\">pic.twitter.com/sOo6XAMWJP</a></p>— Molly Crane-Newman (@molcranenewman) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/molcranenewman/status/1973061570407051644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 30, 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=\"6pkd5\">Elibol is then seen on the floor in pain before emergency medical services arrive, place him in a neck brace and onto a stretcher. The photojournalist, who did not respond to a request for comment, <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/new-york-governor-criticizes-ice-officers-who-she-says-shoved-injured-2025-10-01/\">told Reuters</a>, “I was trying to get the video and someone yanked me and threw me to the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"egigm\">A photographer for the wire service captured the moment Elibol started falling backward, showing multiple federal officers standing in front of Elibol and looking toward the elevator.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8n6g\">Elibol said that he hurt his back and head and was taken to the hospital. He added that after he was examined, he was discharged with pain medicine.</p><p data-block-key=\"dcec5\">Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"dfo1o\">City Comptroller Brad Lander quickly condemned the assault, <a href=\"https://x.com/bradlander/status/1973052678767776229\">writing</a> on the social platform X, “Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ndt6\">“Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a2e1e\">The National Press Photographers Association condemned the assaults as “a blatant attack on press freedom.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bv626\">“ICE must be held accountable for violating its own policy and for trampling on the First Amendment rights of these photographers,” said NPPA General Counsel Mickey Osterreicher. “Anything less sends a chilling message to journalists everywhere.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aknft\"><i>Editor’s Note: This article was updated to include additional details from L. Vural Elibol and comment from the National Press Photographers Association</i>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP25273721472019.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1atae\">Bystanders assist journalist L. Vural Elibol, chief videographer for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, as he lies on the floor after being shoved by federal officers while covering detentions in New York City’s immigration court on Sept. 30, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
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"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,
"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,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"L. Vural Elibol (Anadolu Agency [Turkey])"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "NYC photojournalist shoved to ground by federal officers at immigration court",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nyc-photojournalist-shoved-to-ground-by-federal-officers-at-immigration-court/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-30T20:29:15.821232Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:30:33.108897Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:30:32.995862Z",
"date": "2025-09-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gaq8u\">Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was shoved to the ground by federal officers while on assignment for The Associated Press at the immigration court in New York, New York, on Sept. 30, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"3lg43\">Multiple journalists have reported <a href=\"https://x.com/arya_sundaram/status/1928105201392632061\">access issues</a>, <a href=\"https://www.amny.com/police-fire/more-immigrants-arrested-ice-lower-manhattan-06262025/?ref=hellgatenyc.com\">intimidation</a> and <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DOehXSpjuTI/?hl=en\">threats</a> when covering the court at Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been arresting asylum-seekers following their hearings there since May, part of President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.</p><p data-block-key=\"et5on\">Previously, on Sept. 18, independent journalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-by-officer-barring-lawmakers-from-nyc-immigration-facility/\">Michael Nigro</a> was assaulted by a man he identified as a plainclothes ICE officer while reporting on a lawmaker-led protest at the court.</p><p data-block-key=\"aidbq\"><a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPO4gdLDrzH/?igsh=c3ppcjdiaHZ0cHJ0\">Footage</a> of the Sept. 30 incident, captured by a fellow journalist, shows masked federal officers grabbing, pushing and pulling amNewYork’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-shoved-by-federal-officers-outside-immigration-court-in-nyc/\">Dean Moses</a> out of a public elevator while shouting at him, “Get out of the fucking elevator!”</p><p data-block-key=\"hlgp\">Another officer standing outside the elevator doors can be seen shoving Fedorova back, causing her to go crashing to the hallway floor atop Anadolu Agency videographer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/turkish-journalist-hospitalized-after-assault-at-nyc-immigration-court/\">L. Vural Elibol</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Footage taken by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Steffikeith?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Steffikeith</a> this morning of ICE agents shoving photographers on assignment at 26 Federal Plaza. One journalist has been hospitalized. <a href=\"https://t.co/sOo6XAMWJP\">pic.twitter.com/sOo6XAMWJP</a></p>— Molly Crane-Newman (@molcranenewman) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/molcranenewman/status/1973061570407051644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 30, 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=\"gaq8u\">Fedorova told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was taking photos of the officers shoving Moses while she backed up to get out of their way.</p><p data-block-key=\"arvsr\">“Then one of them threw me on the ground,” she said. “I got up immediately to keep shooting and only then realized that someone was on the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1383h\">She said that she was not injured and that her cameras appeared to be undamaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"3clvo\">Another journalist at the scene confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Elibol struck his head quite severely and was taken to a hospital for further monitoring and testing. He was later discharged with pain medication.</p><p data-block-key=\"7lsab\">Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2fjth\">City Comptroller Brad Lander quickly condemned the assault, <a href=\"https://x.com/bradlander/status/1973052678767776229\">writing</a> on the social platform X, “Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ve4c\">“Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8e4rv\">The National Press Photographers Association condemned the assaults as “a blatant attack on press freedom.”</p><p data-block-key=\"era78\">“ICE must be held accountable for violating its own policy and for trampling on the First Amendment rights of these photographers,” said NPPA General Counsel Mickey Osterreicher. “Anything less sends a chilling message to journalists everywhere.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7h1ma\"><i>Editor’s Note: This incident has been updated to include comment from Olga Fedorova and the National Press Photographers Association</i>, <i>and information on L. Vural Elibol.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP25273716924096.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"h58c4\">Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova, on assignment for The Associated Press, captured this image moments after federal officers shoved her and a second journalist to the ground outside New York City’s immigration court on Sept. 30, 2025.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Olga Fedorova (The Associated Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Reporter shoved by federal officers outside immigration court in NYC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-shoved-by-federal-officers-outside-immigration-court-in-nyc/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-30T20:36:01.973918Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-22T17:51:25.633780Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-22T17:51:25.535438Z",
"date": "2025-09-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pdnid\">Dean Moses, police bureau chief and resident photographer for the daily newspaper amNewYork, was grabbed and shoved by multiple federal officers while reporting at the federal immigration court in New York, New York, on Sept. 30, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"5m1oo\">Multiple journalists have reported <a href=\"https://x.com/arya_sundaram/status/1928105201392632061\">access issues</a>, <a href=\"https://www.amny.com/police-fire/more-immigrants-arrested-ice-lower-manhattan-06262025/?ref=hellgatenyc.com\">intimidation</a> and <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DOehXSpjuTI/?hl=en\">threats</a> when covering the court at Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been arresting asylum-seekers following their hearings there since May, part of President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.</p><p data-block-key=\"ff3bf\">Previously, on Sept. 18, independent journalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-by-officer-barring-lawmakers-from-nyc-immigration-facility/\">Michael Nigro</a> was assaulted by a man he identified as a plainclothes ICE officer while reporting on a lawmaker-led protest at the court.</p><p data-block-key=\"4rip2\">On Sept. 30, Moses followed officers into a public elevator at around 10:15 a.m. when it appeared they were going to arrest an individual inside, amNewYork <a href=\"https://www.amny.com/immigration/ice-agents-assault-amnewyork-reporter-journalists-09302025/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"2fe6\">“I walked into the elevator behind them, and they started screaming at me, ‘Get the f–k out,” Moses told the newspaper. “Then they pushed me, grabbed me by my arms, and started pulling me out of the elevator. I tried to hold on, but I got shoved out.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Press were assaulted by ICE inside 26 federal Plaza today.<br><br>Full story: <a href=\"https://t.co/BnYLqpxhf0\">https://t.co/BnYLqpxhf0</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/mMXf7HFTE3\">pic.twitter.com/mMXf7HFTE3</a></p>— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Dean_Moses/status/1973064604990210540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 30, 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=\"pdnid\"><a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPO4gdLDrzH/?igsh=c3ppcjdiaHZ0cHJ0\">Footage</a> captured by a fellow journalist shows masked federal officers pulling Moses from the elevator. Another officer standing outside the elevator doors then shoves freelance photojournalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nyc-photojournalist-shoved-to-ground-by-federal-officers-at-immigration-court/\">Olga Fedorova</a> back, causing her and Anadolu Agency videographer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/turkish-journalist-hospitalized-after-assault-at-nyc-immigration-court/\">L. Vural Elibol</a> — who was standing behind her — to go crashing to the hallway floor.</p><p data-block-key=\"6i2qt\">Another journalist at the scene confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Elibol struck his head quite severely and was taken to a hospital for further monitoring and testing.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Footage taken by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Steffikeith?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Steffikeith</a> this morning of ICE agents shoving photographers on assignment at 26 Federal Plaza. One journalist has been hospitalized. <a href=\"https://t.co/sOo6XAMWJP\">pic.twitter.com/sOo6XAMWJP</a></p>— Molly Crane-Newman (@molcranenewman) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/molcranenewman/status/1973061570407051644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 30, 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=\"pdnid\">Moses, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, told amNewYork that tensions have been rising at the courthouse over the last several months.</p><p data-block-key=\"26ri9\">“And it’s not just between ICE and the photographers. It’s between ICE, photographers and other staff members,” he said. “It’s also among the immigrants who go there. It’s reached such a boiling point, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8g0jk\">Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"974jj\">City Comptroller Brad Lander quickly condemned the assault, writing on the social platform X, “Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher.</p><p data-block-key=\"7rmnl\">“Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP25273716221120.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"eact7\">Federal agents push and pull amNewYork police bureau chief and photojournalist Dean Moses from a public elevator outside the immigration court in New York City on Sept. 30, 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,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Dean Moses (amNewYork)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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},
{
"title": "Chicago TV reporter shot at with pepper ball while driving outside ICE facility",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/chicago-tv-reporter-shot-at-with-pepper-ball-while-driving-outside-ice-facility/",
"first_published_at": "2025-09-30T12:59:39.337556Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:30:53.273684Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:30:53.145170Z",
"date": "2025-09-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1jiz2\">Asal Rezaei, a reporter for Chicago-based WBBM-TV, was shot at with crowd-control munitions and overcome by chemical irritant while driving near a federal immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 28, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"4od6o\">Protesters have been gathering for weeks outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"b49a1\">After federal officers opened fire with crowd-control munitions on those present, including multiple journalists, on 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 DHS accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community.</p><p data-block-key=\"eenkc\">In retaliation, 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> from the village, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.” 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 arresting one reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ldvr\">WBBM-TV <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/feds-fire-pepper-ball-at-cbs-chicago-reporters-truck/\">reported</a> that when Rezaei drove up to the facility in the late morning of Sept. 28, there were no protests going on. She was alone in her car and turning the vehicle around when a federal officer shot at her with a pepper ball from approximately 50 feet away.</p><p data-block-key=\"1edq5\">“An ICE agent that was masked pointed his weapon and shot directly at my car. He saw that my window was open,” Rezaei said. “I was sitting right there with my window open. A lot of it went inside of my car and on my face. I immediately felt it burning, and I started throwing up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4bp0h\">The station reported that many staff reporters, photojournalists and others have been assigned to drive past the facility to monitor for protests and other newsworthy activity.</p><p data-block-key=\"90sso\">Rezaei filed a police report, saying in part that it was unclear why the officer shot at her and noting that, while she did not identify herself verbally as a member of the press, her car has been at the facility multiple times.</p><p data-block-key=\"4s5pl\">In a statement shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills said that the department has launched an investigation into the incident, describing it as “an allegedly unprovoked attack.” He added that the police department expects the full cooperation of the Department of Homeland Security in the investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"bv123\">DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"79ujk\">“The scariest part about this is I could have been anybody, and I could have been killed,” Rezaei said. “I was driving my vehicle; it was moving when they shot directly at my car.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Rezaei_IL_assault.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"booj7\">WBBM-TV reporter Asal Rezaei was shot at with a pepper ball by federal officers while driving near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 28, 2025. Local police have opened an investigation into the incident.</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,
"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": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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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",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Asal Rezaei (WBBM-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist targeted with tear gas by DHS agent at Illinois immigration protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-targeted-with-tear-gas-by-dhs-agent-at-illinois-immigration-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-22T19:18:57.991933Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:35:42.525826Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:35:42.433850Z",
"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=\"jwoir\">Independent journalist Wali Khan was targeted with tear gas and grabbed by a federal officer while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.</p><p data-block-key=\"bsfl0\">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=\"87ik4\">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=\"69ftm\">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=\"fep1b\">“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=\"6drb1\">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=\"fcrok\">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=\"e95ku\">“I remember we were standing right next to the fence, me and this other TV reporter,” he recounted. “The DHS officers are in a line, and they march forward and there’s tear gas everywhere. And then one of them throws a tear gas canister right in front of us, and then he grabs me by the shoulder and is like, ‘You need to fucking walk.’</p><p data-block-key=\"d95u2\">“He deliberately deployed it so that me and this other TV journalist have to walk through it,” Khan added.</p><p data-block-key=\"2sabr\">After almost all of his personal protective equipment was damaged the day prior, Khan said he bought replacements, but they weren’t the same quality and effectiveness.</p><p data-block-key=\"4qs7l\">“When they made us walk through the tear gas, I just couldn’t breathe,” he said. “Whenever we were blinded, I was so afraid of bumping into an ICE agent because they would just grab you if you bumped into them. And they would just constantly be shoving you, like ‘Fucking move! Fucking move!’”</p><p data-block-key=\"9624u\">He was also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-with-pepper-balls-by-federal-officers-at-illinois-protest\">struck multiple times</a> with pepper balls as federal officers fired indiscriminately into the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"30fqb\">Khan told the Tracker 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=\"atcp1\">“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=\"sv66\">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=\"4pts9\">“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-16.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"i4gow\">Journalists gather outside an immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025. When federal officers marched out in response to protests, one deployed tear gas in front of journalist Wali Khan and forced him to walk through it.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"name": "Illinois",
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},
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"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Wali Khan (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "TV photographer shot with crowd-control munitions at Illinois protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tv-photographer-shot-with-crowd-control-munitions-at-illinois-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-10T21:51:04.836682Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-29T18:34:21.217255Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-29T18:34:21.112050Z",
"date": "2025-09-27",
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"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"y8ogt\">Jeff Freeman, a photojournalist for WLS-TV, was shot with pepper balls 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=\"stdn\">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 protests the previous day, 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=\"dvkce\">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=\"u0e0\">“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=\"99uda\">A WLS-TV news crew was among the journalists covering the protests when federal officers delivered on their warning.</p><p data-block-key=\"dorv7\">“Well, this was the most intense escalation between protesters and federal agents that we’ve seen at this Broadview ICE facility since it opened up,” journalist Maher Kawash <a href=\"https://abc7chicago.com/post/broadview-ice-protest-chicago-immigration-operation-midway-blitz-expected-standoff-between-agents-demonstrators/17892592/\">reported</a>. “Protesters were up there on that metal fence, doing their thing, chanting. Some of them were tapping on that fence when suddenly it opened up. Guards said something to the protesters before tossing out several canisters of tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"a20dv\">“That is when they ran down the street, all of the protesters as the guards followed them,” Kawash continued. He added that the officers continued to shoot pepper balls at the retreating crowd, some of which hit Freeman.</p><p data-block-key=\"7oo6b\">Freeman did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7d5c\">ICE did not respond to requests for comment, but U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory 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=\"b31h\">“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-15.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"y8rsk\">Federal officers respond to protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025. WLS-TV photojournalist Jeff Freeman was shot with pepper balls when they advanced on the crowd.</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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},
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"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Jeff Freeman (WLS-TV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist loses camera lens while covering Illinois ICE protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-loses-camera-lens-while-covering-illinois-ice-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-10-03T13:32:24.985550Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-10-03T18:47:17.593730Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-10-03T18:47:17.496673Z",
"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=\"xp99j\">Photojournalist Jon Stegenga said he lost a telephoto camera lens while reporting on 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=\"1k4oe\">Stegenga, co-founder of the independent outlet Humanizing Through Story, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering one of a series of demonstrations outside the facility, where detainees are held and processed ahead of deportation.</p><p data-block-key=\"fgt9o\">He parked his van close to the ICE facility, near a fence that Stegenga said had been erected as part of a security perimeter. He stored some of his gear by the van, including the now-missing lens. As federal agents opened the barricades and repeatedly pushed crowds back, Stegenga was forced to leave the area. He was later escorted back to his van.</p><p data-block-key=\"c3ouo\">By that time, the lens was gone, he told the Tracker. “It’s unclear how or when. I have no intel or possibility of motive. I just know that my telephoto lens disappeared.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9v9pj\">The loss of the lens, too costly for him to replace now, has impacted Stegenga’s ability to report, observe and document from a safe distance.</p><p data-block-key=\"c2r3h\">“The range of what I can see and document as a journalist and to bear witness to is definitely limited,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"6st6g\">Stegenga said during the protest, he was also hit by a barrage of chemical irritants that got under his mask, burning his eyes and face so badly he needed help to rinse them off.</p><p data-block-key=\"euqgm\">In addition, the day before, while clearly marked as a journalist, he was struck by federal agents firing a series of pepper balls — once <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-pepper-balls-tear-gas-at-illinois-ice-protest/\">amid the chaos of the protest</a> and again <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-targeted-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-illinois-ice-protest/\">while standing well away from protesters.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"e9d8c\">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=\"c1ldj\">“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=\"5q23a\">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=\"8f36m\">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=\"29n83\">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": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-10-01_at_5.36.45P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"mvyok\">Federal agents amid tear gas at a protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025. Photojournalist Jon Stegenga said he lost a telephoto camera lens during the demonstration.</p>",
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{
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}
],
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"name": "Illinois",
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},
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"tags": [
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],
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"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
],
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"Jon Stegenga (Humanizing Through Story)"
],
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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",
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"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": "",
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"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>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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},
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"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
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],
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],
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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",
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"date": "2025-09-27",
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"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,
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"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": [
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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",
"case_type": "CLASS_ACTION",
"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": [
"(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"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Steve Held (Unraveled Press)"
],
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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",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"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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"actor": "law enforcement",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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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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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"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",
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"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>",
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"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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{
"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,
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"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",
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"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>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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"shot / shot at"
],
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"Leigh Kunkel (Independent)"
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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",
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"date": "2025-09-26",
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"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": "",
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"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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"name": "Illinois",
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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",
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"date": "2025-09-26",
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"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": "",
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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>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
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"Dave Decker (Zuma Press)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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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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"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"
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"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",
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"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,
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"name": "Illinois",
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},
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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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"Matthew Kaplan (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"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",
"primary_video": null,
"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>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"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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},
{
"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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"city": "Broadview",
"longitude": -87.85339,
"latitude": 41.86392,
"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": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2025-10-06_at_2.35.07P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"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>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:25-cv-12173",
"case_type": "CLASS_ACTION",
"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": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"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"
],
"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": [
"Charles Thrush (Block Club Chicago)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
}
]
