Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 26, 2025
- Targets
- Raven Geary (Unraveled Press)
- Case number
- 1:25-cv-12173
- Case status
- Ongoing
- Type of case
- Civil
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Reporter Raven Geary was shot in the face with a pepper ball by federal officers while reporting on anti-deportation protests at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.
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 Raven Geary, Steve Held 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. Geary, a plaintiff, was shot in the face and shoulder with pepper balls by federal officers on Sept. 19, and shot in the face 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 Raven Geary was shot in the face with a pepper ball by federal officers while reporting on protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.
Geary, co-founder and reporter for the investigative outlet Unraveled Press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators had been gathering for weeks outside the facility where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation.
“ICE was very aggressive with protesters and press, and we’ve been seeing an escalation from them significantly over the last few weeks,” she said. “These agents specifically have threatened us as reporters, they’ve tried to intimidate us. And there have been smaller incidents leading up to this over the summer, but nothing like what we saw today.”
She told the Tracker that detainees had been moved from the facility early the morning of Sept. 26, before any protesters’ arrival, and there was no clear justification for the federal officers’ aggressive tactics.
Journalists had gathered in an informal gaggle away from demonstrators, standing in a parking lot 10-20 yards from the facility, when officers opened fire with crowd-control munitions from the roof and multiple sides of the building.
“The agents just started firing a ton of pepper ball rounds right at our faces. Another reporter got hit point-blank in the nose,” Geary said, referring to independent journalist Leigh Kunkel. Geary was herself struck in the cheek at the time.
“To me it felt like a direct attack on reporters,” she continued. “It felt like it happened right as I was raising my lens to try to take a photo of them.”
Geary told the Tracker she was able to continue reporting for a couple of hours before going to an urgent care clinic to make sure that there were no fractures.
Raven Geary shows the degree of swelling in her right cheek hours after she was shot with a pepper ball by federal officers on Sept. 26, 2025.
— COURTESY RAVEN GEARYGeary, who has covered demonstrations and law enforcement for years, added that the federal agents appeared to be acting without organization and seemed to be “completely out of control.”
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of organization in their behavior, unlike what we are used to seeing,” she continued. “There’s an informality and a casualness to the violence that just feels super aggressive compared to more typical crowd-control maneuvers.”
ICE did not immediately 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 also arrested Geary’s fellow Unraveled Press co-founder, Steve Held.
“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.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
