Photojournalist shot with multiple pepper balls outside Illinois ICE facility

Freelance photojournalist Matthew Kaplan was shot with multiple crowd-control munitions fired by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 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 U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s launch of Operation Midway Blitz.

Kaplan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and fellow photojournalist Lisa Kiselevich arrived at the facility between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sept. 26. By 7:30 p.m., he said, a large number of protesters had gathered and local law enforcement was working to ensure that ICE vehicles could pass into the facility.

“The protesters would move further down, about halfway down to where the gate was,” Kaplan said. “And then the federal officers would be lining up on the side of the fence, and they would be shooting pepper balls at people.”

As protesters tried to march near another entrance, federal officers responded by unleashing tear gas, incapacitating Kaplan for approximately 10 minutes. When he recovered, Kaplan said he tried to stay ahead of the demonstrators but was shot at with pepper balls by multiple DHS officers.

As with the tear gas, it came without warning.

“No one said, ‘Get away.’ No one said, ‘We’re going to throw tear gas.’ There was no communication,” Kaplan said. “I mean, that communication, I guess, was that you had people who looked like members of the military firing weapons at you.”

He said two or three pepper balls struck him in the hip, coating both him and one of his cameras in chemical irritant powder.

While Kaplan photographed one of the officers aiming directly at him, he said he couldn’t be sure whether the second was intentionally firing at him. But, he added, “They’re supposed to be professionals. I’m assuming they’re hitting the people they’re going for.”

ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In a press release that day, the Department of Homeland Security 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 following the day’s events, 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.

“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.”