Incident details
- Date of incident
- September 30, 2025
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova, on assignment for The Associated Press, captured this image moments after federal officers shoved her and a second journalist to the ground outside New York City’s immigration court on Sept. 30, 2025.
Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was shoved to the ground by federal officers while on assignment for The Associated Press at the immigration court in New York, New York, on Sept. 30, 2025.
Multiple journalists have reported access issues, intimidation and threats when covering the court at Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been arresting asylum-seekers following their hearings there since May, part of President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.
Previously, on Sept. 18, independent journalist Michael Nigro was assaulted by a man he identified as a plainclothes ICE officer while reporting on a lawmaker-led protest at the court.
Footage of the Sept. 30 incident, captured by a fellow journalist, shows masked federal officers grabbing, pushing and pulling amNewYork’s Dean Moses out of a public elevator while shouting at him, “Get out of the fucking elevator!”
Another officer standing outside the elevator doors can be seen shoving Fedorova back, causing her and Anadolu Agency videographer L. Vural Elibol — who was standing behind her — to go crashing to the hallway floor.
Fedorova did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but did not appear to be injured in the encounter. Fedorova did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but did not appear to be injured in the encounter. She wrote on social media that Elibol was already on the ground when she fell.
Another journalist at the scene confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Elibol struck his head quite severely and was taken to a hospital for further monitoring and testing.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment.
City Comptroller Brad Lander quickly condemned the assault, writing on the social platform X, “Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher.
“Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.”
Editor’s Note: This incident has been updated to include public comment from Olga Fedorova.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
