Freelancer struck by projectiles at Illinois anti-deportation protest

Freelance reporter Leigh Giangreco was shot with multiple pepper balls by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.

In a report posted on social video platform TikTok, Giangreco said that she was on assignment for nonprofit newsroom Block Club Chicago covering protests that started that morning and stretched throughout the day, with the law enforcement response escalating in the evening.

“Just before 7 o’clock, there were several ICE agents on top of the building, on the corner, who were shooting pepper bullets down at protesters,” Giangreco said. Describing the munitions as “non-lethal bullets,” she added that — from personal experience — they can leave a mark.

“They are pretty painful: I got hit with at least two of them tonight,” she said. “They were shooting those down on protesters, really just raining them down.”

Giangreco reported that the federal officers also deployed tear gas into the crowd. “I will say I was also in the middle of these protests and the pepper spray was on the air, was getting in your eyes,” she said, adding, “it’s still in my throat now.”

An array of Chicago-area journalists and others — including Block Club — sued President Donald Trump and various federal agencies Oct. 6 over the violent response by federal law enforcement to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the ICE facility.

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 journalists won a temporary restraining order Oct. 9, forbidding federal agents from dispersing, arresting, threatening or using physical force against journalists without probable cause of a crime. It says agents can order journalists to change locations if they give them time to comply.

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.

Hayden Johnson, counsel at Protect Democracy, part of the legal team for the plaintiffs, said, “Over the last weeks and months, Chicagoans have bravely sought to express and protect these freedoms in the face of severe government abuse. Today’s ruling recognizes that those efforts—peacefully opposing a federal incursion into your city and reporting the events—require the utmost constitutional protection.”