Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 26, 2025
- Targets
- Colin Boyle (Block Club Chicago)
- Case number
- 1:25-cv-12173
- Case status
- Ongoing
- Type of case
- Class Action
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Unknown
Assault
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer reloads a crowd-control weapon outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Block Club Chicago photographer Colin Boyle was shot with pepper balls while covering protests that day.
Court suspends journalist injunction limiting federal policing at Chicago protests
A preliminary injunction won by Chicago-area journalists that limited protest policing tactics by federal law enforcement was put on hold on Nov. 19, 2025, while the federal government appeals the order.
The injunction, granted Nov. 6, was appealed three days later by the defendants, along with an order certifying the case as a class action.
Journalists, news outlets, various press associations and others had sued President Donald Trump and a group of U.S. government agencies Oct. 6 over the violent response by federal agents to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois.
The plaintiffs won a temporary restraining order, and then the injunction, forbidding federal agents from using physical force against journalists without probable cause and banning the use of riot-control weapons and chemical munitions on those not posing an immediate threat to law enforcement.
But on Nov. 19, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit paused the order, ruling that the injunction was “overbroad” — that it would “enjoin all law enforcement officers within the Executive Branch” — and “too prescriptive.”
The three-judge panel wrote that the injunction’s restrictions on agents’ use of weaponry too closely resembled a “federal regulation,” and the requirement for the government to report to the district judge on its implementation of the order infringed on “separation of powers.”
The judges also questioned “whether plaintiffs have shown that the past harm they allegedly faced is likely to imminently happen to them in the future,” pointing to “public reporting suggesting that the enhanced immigration enforcement initiative may have lessened or ceased.”
A week after the injunction was entered, however, the plaintiffs filed a notice of multiple apparent violations of the order by federal agents.
Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project, said: “It is difficult to understand how it is overbroad to ‘enjoin all law enforcement officers within the Executive Branch’ when the president, who last I checked runs the executive branch, expressly demands that those under him brutalize, censor and arrest activists and journalists who interfere with their narrative — the exact conduct restricted by the injunction.”
Stern added, “It’s also absurd for the panel to suggest there is any question about the likelihood of past abuses repeating — they’re repeating as we speak. ICE hasn’t left Chicagoland and has expressed no interest in reforming its conduct. Judges need to rise to the moment, confront present realities, and stop pretending yesterday’s norms and assumptions remain valid while we slide further into authoritarianism.”
Chicago journalists win injunction against federal government
A group of Chicago-area journalists won a preliminary injunction on Nov. 6, 2025, extending limits on protest policing tactics by federal law enforcement deployed in Chicago and throughout northern Illinois. The limits were put in place last month by a temporary restraining order.
Journalists, news outlets, various press associations and others sued President Donald Trump and a group of U.S. government agencies on Oct. 6 over the violent response by federal agents to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois.
The injunction, like the TRO, forbids federal agents from using physical force against journalists without probable cause and bans the use of riot-control weapons and chemical munitions on those not posing an immediate threat to law enforcement, CBS News reported.
Judge Sara Ellis also said she would grant the plaintiffs’ request to make the case a class action.
In granting the injunction, Ellis said she found testimony by Border Patrol and ICE agents “not credible,” and pointed out that Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino, who had testified in court and at two depositions, “admitted that he lied.”
“The use of force shocks the conscience,” Ellis said.
Chicago journalists win temporary restraining order against federal government
A group of Chicago-area journalists won a temporary restraining order on Oct. 9, 2025, placing limits on protest policing tactics by federal law enforcement deployed in Chicago and throughout northern Illinois.
The U.S. District Court order came three days after the journalists, news outlets, various press associations and others sued President Donald Trump and a group of U.S. government agencies over the violent response by federal agents to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois.
The 14-day order forbids federal agents from dispersing, arresting, threatening or using physical force against journalists without probable cause of a crime. It says agents can order journalists to change locations if they give them time to comply.
It also forbids the use of riot-control weapons and chemical munitions on those not posing an immediate threat to law enforcement; firing projectiles at the head, neck, groin, spine or female breast; or striking anyone with a vehicle. And it mandates that federal agents wear visible identification.
Attorney Steve Art of civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy, part of the legal team for the plaintiffs, said, “We applaud the Court’s ruling, which will protect constitutional rights and many members of our community.”
Hayden Johnson, counsel at Protect Democracy, also part of the legal team, said, “Over the last weeks and months, Chicagoans have bravely sought to express and protect these freedoms in the face of severe government abuse. Today’s ruling recognizes that those efforts—peacefully opposing a federal incursion into your city and reporting the events—require the utmost constitutional protection.”
Stephen Griswold, president of the NABET-CWA Local 41, one of the plaintiffs, added, “Our constitutional First Amendment rights should never be taken lightly, and we should all stand together to protect these rights.”
Colin Boyle, photography director for nonprofit newsroom Block Club Chicago, was shot with pepper balls by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.
An array of Chicago-area journalists and others — including Block Club — sued 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.
In a declaration filed in support of the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order, Boyle wrote that he had attended protests at the facility multiple times in September. But, after arriving at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, he wrote that he “witnessed a violent escalation from federal agents unlike any protest I had attended prior.”
“Throughout the morning, I witnessed agents—including one who stood on the rooftop of the Broadview facility many feet away—fire chemicals and pepper balls indiscriminately and brazenly into the crowd of protesters and press, without warning,” Boyle recounted.
He wrote that he stayed near other members of the press, and did his best to ensure that the “PRESS” labels on his backpack and hat were visible. Boyle was also carrying two cameras and wearing press credentials issued by the Chicago Police Department.
Boyle, who was not immediately available for comment, recounted how he saw multiple members of the press shot with crowd-control munitions and then was himself struck.
“As I was photographing protesters and federal agents, I was shot in my left leg by pepper ball rounds,” he wrote in his declaration. “Tear gas seeped into my respirator and visor. My eyes watered and I coughed a lot, making it difficult to do my job.”
He added that when he left the protest later in the day, he was forced to drive with the windows down lest he be “engulfed” by the chemical irritant residue still clinging to his clothes.
“I am perturbed by the brazen actions of federal agents and their indiscriminate attacks on journalists, as well as protesters,” Boyle wrote, adding, “I will not stop practicing the First Amendment and partaking in my job as a photojournalist.”
ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In a press release that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”
“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.”
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago reported, 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.”
According to a Sept. 27 news release, 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.”
Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — affecting multiple journalists — and later arrested a reporter.
“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.”
In an article announcing the lawsuit, Block Club wrote that it decided to pursue the case after four of its journalists were shot with pepper balls and tear-gassed.
“We intend to continue to report on the protests, but our ability to do so, to the standards that we hold ourselves to, continues to be impacted by our fears of violence and arrests of our employees and contractors,” said Stephanie Lulay, Block Club executive editor and co-founder. “We’re taking this step to protect our journalists and to assert our First Amendment right to report.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
