Photojournalist hit with pepper balls, tear gas at Illinois ICE protest

Photojournalist Jon Stegenga said he was struck in the arms and chest by crowd-control munitions and overwhelmed by chemical irritants while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.

Stegenga, co-founder of the independent outlet Humanizing Through Story, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a tense standoff between federal agents and demonstrators when a group of officers came out of the facility and began firing what he described as propellants of all types toward the crowd.

“I got hit several times,” Stegenga said, adding that tear gas and flash bangs were also deployed. At one point, officers fired multiple rounds of tear gas behind a vehicle where press and legal observers had gathered.

“They were very, kind of just firing everywhere,” said Stegenga, who added that he was unsure if he was targeted by the officers who fired the munitions.

Stegenga said federal agents fired tear gas canisters that shattered glass and went inside nearby businesses. He also witnessed and photographed another journalist, Leigh Kunkel, get shot in the face with a pepper ball.

Stegenga said he was wearing clothing and a badge that clearly identified him as press, and he carried camera equipment throughout the protest. The physical toll of the chemical irritants — which got into his eyes, lungs and mouth, and caused several minutes of coughing and gagging — affected his ability to work.

“It limits me how I could document what was unfolding around me.”

Later that day, a federal agent shot pepper balls directly at him. While covering a similar protest outside the facility the next day, Stegenga lost a telephoto lens that he stored near his van by a security barricade. He told the Tracker the gear was missing when he returned after being forced away by federal agents.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a press release on the same day, DHS 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, 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 later arrested a reporter.