Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 19, 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
Protesters gather outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19, 2025. Journalist Raven Geary was shot in the face and shoulder with pepper balls by federal officers while reporting on the demonstration.
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 Donald 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 and shoulder with pepper balls 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. 19, 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. She said that the federal officers have been becoming more aggressive with both attendees and journalists covering the protests.
“We’ve been seeing an escalation from them significantly over the last few weeks. And these agents specifically have threatened us as reporters, they’ve tried to intimidate us,” she observed.
On Sept. 19, multiple protests were organized to take place at the facility, Geary reported, with federal officers inside periodically shooting crowd-control munitions at the crowd, including at one point shooting directly at Geary’s feet.
As the evening went on, Geary said both she and her Unraveled Press co-founder, Steve Held, were shot with munitions at close range.
“They shot Steve in the groin, and I have that on video. The guy is like a foot away from him and just pops him in the crotch with the pepper ball gun,” Geary said. “And I got hit in the face and shoulder.
“It was just another situation where they were just kind of indiscriminately shooting at people’s faces, groins, places they’re not supposed to at close range, and then pepper-spraying people in the face,” she added.
The chemical irritant powder in pepper balls is worse, in her opinion, than the liquid or gel in pepper spray, Geary said. “The powder just gets everywhere, and it comes and goes. You’ll get hit with a bunch of it and you’ll think you’re fine and then an hour later you’re still coughing it up.”
Geary told the Tracker they were able to continue covering the protest for several hours. She was struck, however, by how chaotic the federal officers were in their response, in comparison to the Chicago Police Department.
“With CPD, they use these very organized, military kind of formations: They’re holding on to each other, watching each other’s backs for their own safety,” she said. “And these guys are just scattered everywhere, doing whatever the hell they want, it’s just wild.”
ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
