Incident details
- Date of incident
- September 26, 2025
- Targets
- Pierre Lavie (Freelance)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Federal agents at a protest outside an immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Photojournalist Pierre Lavie was struck with crowd-control munitions while covering the demonstration.
Freelance photojournalist Pierre Lavie was hit by crowd-control munitions fired by federal officers while covering a protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.
Lavie told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was struck in the chest and foot several times with projectiles. He said federal officers also fired flash-bang grenades over his head and smoke grenades rolled by his feet.
“I look down and see that I got some white powder on me,” said Lavie, who was clearly identified as press. “It was undoubtedly targeted against the press.”
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 then-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.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
