Journalist targeted with tear gas by DHS agent at Illinois immigration protest

Independent journalist Wali Khan was targeted with tear gas and grabbed by a federal officer while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.

The facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation, has drawn escalating protests and federal response since early September, following the Department of Homeland Security’s launch of Operation Midway Blitz.

In response to an aggressive federal response to protests Sept. 26, Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to the DHS 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.”

“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.”

Khan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering protests Sept. 27, despite having been shot with multiple crowd-control munitions by federal officers at the facility the previous day.

As officers advanced from a fenced entrance at the facility and into the assembled demonstration, Khan said they were aggressive and did not hesitate to target the press.

“I remember we were standing right next to the fence, me and this other TV reporter,” he recounted. “The DHS officers are in a line, and they march forward and there’s tear gas everywhere. And then one of them throws a tear gas canister right in front of us, and then he grabs me by the shoulder and is like, ‘You need to fucking walk.’

“He deliberately deployed it so that me and this other TV journalist have to walk through it,” Khan added.

After almost all of his personal protective equipment was damaged the day prior, Khan said he bought replacements, but they weren’t the same quality and effectiveness.

“When they made us walk through the tear gas, I just couldn’t breathe,” he said. “Whenever we were blinded, I was so afraid of bumping into an ICE agent because they would just grab you if you bumped into them. And they would just constantly be shoving you, like ‘Fucking move! Fucking move!’”

He was also struck multiple times with pepper balls as federal officers fired indiscriminately into the crowd.

Khan told the Tracker that his extensive exposure to chemical irritants over two days of covering the protests in Broadview has taken a lasting toll.

“My breathing has not been right since those days. I feel like I’ve had this nagging cough. I think I breathed in way too much,” he said. Khan added, “It was incredibly difficult to do my job. All this deployment of CS gas and stuff: Yeah, you can use a gas mask. But if they keep shooting you, you really just can’t do your work.”

ICE did not respond to requests for comment. Bovino posted a video package of the Sept. 27 protest response on the social platform X two days later, set to Duckwrth and Shaboozey’s song “Start a Riot.”

“Wave your signs, chant your slogans, hurl your verbal insults, and exercise your First Amendment rights— we’ll protect that,” Bovino wrote. “Lay a finger on our agents, impede our mission, endanger those in our custody and we have a front row seat for you to our justice system.”