Journalist shot in the face with pepper ball at Illinois ICE facility protest

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.

Geary, 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.”