Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- June 11, 2026
- Location
- Hardwick Township, New Jersey
- Targets
- Trisha Brownlee (Independent)
- Arrest status
- Arrested and released
- Arresting authority
- New Jersey State Police
- Charges
-
-
Prohibited weapons: possession of dum-dum or armor-piercing ammunition
- June 11, 2026: Charges pending
-
Prohibited weapons: possession of dum-dum or armor-piercing ammunition
- Unnecessary use of force?
- Yes
Arrest/Criminal Charge
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Unknown
Assault
- Equipment searched or seized
- Status of equipment
- In custody
- Search warrant obtained
- Yes
Equipment Search or Seizure
Trisha Brownlee, pictured above during her service as a military photographer, was arrested by police on June 11, 2026, in Hardwick Township, New Jersey, while interviewing two individuals observing immigration agents. She has been in jail since.
Independent photographer released from jail after 47 days in detention
Trisha Brownlee, an independent photographer who was arrested while reporting on immigration enforcement and detained for over six weeks, was released from the Warren County Correctional Center in Belvedere, New Jersey, on July 27, 2026.
Brownlee had been interviewing two men who were observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from their vehicle in Hardwick Township on June 11 when New Jersey State Police were called. The trio was subsequently arrested for unregistered weapons in the vehicle.
Brownlee was charged with illegal possession of armor-piercing rounds and kept in jail for 47 days. Her mother, Sharon Edwards, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she went without her medication for Crohn’s disease during that time.
The state prosecutor filed a motion for release on July 24 following “extensive discussions,” a spokesperson for Brownlee’s public defender told the Tracker. A judge ruled three days later that Brownlee could be released, according to court filings.
Brownlee will need to check in twice a month with pretrial services, according to the spokesperson. She added that Brownlee’s cellphone remains in custody with the state police.
Edwards told the Tracker that under the agreement, Brownlee is required to stay in Pennsylvania, where she had temporarily been living with her mother before her arrest, and will receive medical treatment at the local Veterans Affairs hospital.
Brownlee’s next hearing is on Sept. 23.
Trisha Brownlee, an independent photographer, was arrested by state police on June 11, 2026, while interviewing two men who were observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Hardwick Township, New Jersey. As of publication time, six weeks following her arrest, she had yet to be released.
Brownlee’s mother, Sharon Edwards, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that her daughter, who has worked as a photojournalist on and off since 2004, was reporting a story about people who follow ICE activity to inform their communities, and had planned to pitch the completed piece to an outlet.
Brownlee traveled from York, Pennsylvania — where she has been living with her mother since late 2025 — to Hardwick Township several hours away. There, she entered the vehicle of two ICE watchers, interviewing them as they followed an ICE bus for approximately 50 minutes.
Eventually, ICE agents called state police, who discovered that the vehicle’s registration had expired and noticed some loose ammunition on the floor. Upon searching the vehicle, police found a handgun in the glove compartment and, later, a shotgun.
According to Edwards and a spokesperson for Brownlee’s public defender, Brownlee immediately told the officers that she was a journalist interviewing the two ICE observers and that the vehicle did not belong to her. Brownlee also holds a National Press Photographers Association credential, which was in her parked car at time of arrest.
“My daughter said she never saw any weapons, never saw anything, knew anything about it. And, of course, the people in the vehicle, the driver did not fess up that they belonged to them,” Edwards told the Tracker, “So then they arrested them all by association.”
Edwards added that her daughter’s wrist and leg were injured during the arrest.
Brownlee was charged with illegal possession of armor-piercing rounds, court filings show, and she was placed in the Warren County Correctional Center in Belvedere, New Jersey, where she has been since.
Edwards said Brownlee, a disabled veteran with Crohn’s disease, has gone without her medication since the arrest. Her family pushed for a medical release, but the request was denied.
The New Jersey State Police and state prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Update: This report has been revised to clarify how long Trisha Brownlee has been held in jail.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
