Photojournalist shot with dozens of pepper balls at Illinois ICE protest

Independent journalist Zach Hussein was shot 20-30 times with crowd-control munitions by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Oct. 4, 2025. One of the rounds also damaged his camera flash.

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.

Hussein told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that as he arrived to cover protests that morning, he heard federal officers fire several crowd-control munitions.

“I talked to the kids who were covered in pepper ball dust and asked them what happened,” he said. “They said that they had been shot because they were calling the ICE agents names through the fence and so they lit them up.”

There were approximately 30 people present, Hussein said, and he spoke with various individuals to get a sense of what was going on, but it was generally quiet.

Officers had told those assembled that if they were going to protest they had to stay behind a particular line. Hussein said he wanted to document the graffiti close to the fence, however, and didn’t think it’d be a problem.

“I walked up with a kid who had a sign but then he turned around and it was just me and my camera,” he said. “Then 30 or 40 of the ICE guys popped out of their little building and one of them said, ‘Hey! You have to protest in your designated free speech zone.’ I was like, ‘I’m not protesting, I’m press.’ He’s like, ‘You have to go back there.’ I say, ‘I’m not protesting, I’m taking pictures. I’m press.’ Then he says, ‘OK, well, we’ll be back.”

Hussein said that he resumed taking photos of the graffiti on the ground, as well as on the fence. When the federal officers came back, they told him that if he didn’t leave he’d be arrested.

“I was like, ‘I’m not protesting. Once again, I’m press.’ He says, ‘I don’t give a fuck. Get the fuck back,’” Hussein recounted. “So I put my hands up and I took a step back. As I was walking backward, I went to take a picture and that’s when they shot me with the pepper balls.”

He told the Tracker he was able to go back to an aid station to rinse his eyes and clean up his gear.

“It looked like I was in a blizzard or something. I was completely covered in the pepper dust,” he said. “One of them actually ran out of ammo, because I could hear his paintball gun thing make the noise it makes when it’s out of ammo, so they were definitely shooting at me a lot.”

Hussein said he was hit at least two dozen times: multiple times each in the head, back, arms and legs. One round also damaged his equipment.

“I was holding my camera up to my face to get a picture and they hit the flash on my camera and they hit my head,” Hussein said, adding that the impact tore the main dial off his flash. “They were definitely aiming for the head. They’re pretty close, so it wasn’t an accident.”

Hussein was also shoved by federal officers while covering protests the previous day.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In an Oct. 6 news release, DHS alleged that officers are facing “a nearly 1000% increase in assaults.”

“We remind members of the media to exercise caution as they cover these violent riots and remind journalists that covering unlawful activities in the field does come with risks — though our officers take every reasonable precaution to mitigate those dangers to those exercising protected First Amendment rights,” it said.