Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 19, 2025
- Targets
- Steve Held (Unraveled Press)
- Case number
- 1:25-cv-12173
- Case status
- Ongoing
- Type of case
- Civil
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Pepper ball residue on Steve Held’s pants after he was grabbed and shot in the groin with the munition by federal agents while covering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.
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.”
Chicago journalists sue over violent federal response to Illinois protests
An array of Chicago-area journalists and others sued President Trump and various federal agencies on Oct. 6, 2025, over the violent response by federal law enforcement to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois.
The federal suit was brought by journalists Steve Held, Raven Geary and Charles Thrush, along with news outlet Block Club Chicago, and the Chicago Headline Club, the Chicago chapters of The NewsGuild-CWA and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, and the Illinois Press Association.
The defendants include Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, various ICE officials, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“Federal agents have responded with a pattern of extreme brutality in a concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians,” the complaint said.
The filing added that “federal agents have repeatedly fired less lethal crowd-control munitions directly at clearly identifiable members of the press who were engaged in reporting. They have subjected members of the press to tear gas. And members of the press have been threatened and arrested by federal officers while reporting near the Broadview facility for no reason other than in retaliation for documenting the federal response to the demonstrations.”
The Tracker has documented numerous assaults of journalists in Broadview. Held, a plaintiff, was grabbed and shot in the groin with a pepper ball , and violently arrested a week later.
The plaintiffs asked the court to confirm that agents’ actions violated the First and Fourth amendments, and for a temporary restraining order imposing restrictions on defendants’ use of physical force against journalists, including use of so-called riot-control weapons.
Federal officers used violence to hinder reporting, the plaintiffs argue, “with the intent of suppressing journalistic coverage of the Trump Administration’s policies and actions, consistent with the Trump Administration’s persistent attacks on members of the media.” The Tracker has documented some of those attacks here.
A hearing on the TRO was scheduled for Oct. 6.
Journalist Steve Held said a federal agent grabbed him from behind as another shot him in the groin with a pepper ball while Held covered a protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025.
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.
The demonstration that day was relatively calm, and there had been no dispersal order, when agents suddenly advanced on protesters, Held recounted. “It just popped off in that second.”
Held watched ICE agents run after somebody near him. Then, one agent grabbed Held’s hoodie and swung him around from behind while another aimed a pepper ball gun at his crotch.
“I wasn’t even really sure what happened,” Held said. “I just knew I got whipped around and shot.”
Held said he believed at least one of the officers knew who he was, as he has been covering ICE activities since May. He was wearing a press badge at the time, but said the incident prompted him to get a helmet and other gear to mark himself as media.
Even with the extra press-labeled apparel, though, Held was arrested a week later while covering another protest outside the facility. His Unraveled co-founder Raven Geary was also shot in the face with a pepper ball on Sept. 26.
Held said he believes the encounters are part of a broader effort by immigration and federal agents to intimidate journalists.
“They want to dissuade people from being there, from getting close,” he said. “Fewer press out there makes it easier for them to hide what they’re doing.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a press release on Sept. 26, DHS 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, 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.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
