Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 26, 2025
- Case number
- 1:25-cv-12173
- Case status
- Ongoing
- Type of case
- Civil
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Crowd-control munitions are deployed at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Reporter Charles Thrush was struck by a pepper ball while covering the demonstration that day.
Chicago journalists win temporary restraining order against federal government
A group of Chicago-area journalists won a temporary restraining order on Oct. 9, 2025, placing limits on protest policing tactics by federal law enforcement deployed in Chicago and throughout northern Illinois.
The U.S. District Court order came three days after the journalists, news outlets, various press associations and others sued President Donald Trump and a group of U.S. government agencies over the violent response by federal agents to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois.
The 14-day order forbids federal agents from dispersing, arresting, threatening or using physical force against journalists without probable cause of a crime. It says agents can order journalists to change locations if they give them time to comply.
It also forbids the use of riot-control weapons and chemical munitions on those not posing an immediate threat to law enforcement; firing projectiles at the head, neck, groin, spine or female breast; or striking anyone with a vehicle. And it mandates that federal agents wear visible identification.
Attorney Steve Art of civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy, part of the legal team for the plaintiffs, said, “We applaud the Court’s ruling, which will protect constitutional rights and many members of our community.”
Hayden Johnson, counsel at Protect Democracy, also part of the legal team, said, “Over the last weeks and months, Chicagoans have bravely sought to express and protect these freedoms in the face of severe government abuse. Today’s ruling recognizes that those efforts—peacefully opposing a federal incursion into your city and reporting the events—require the utmost constitutional protection.”
Stephen Griswold, president of the NABET-CWA Local 41, one of the plaintiffs, added, “Our constitutional First Amendment rights should never be taken lightly, and we should all stand together to protect these rights.”
Freelance reporter Charles Thrush was shot in the hand with a pepper ball while covering a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.
Thrush detailed the incident in a sworn declaration filed Oct. 6 as part of a federal lawsuit brought by him, other Chicago-area journalists and press groups. The complaint accuses President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, top immigration officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi of unlawful violence against journalists and protesters at the ongoing Broadview demonstrations.
Thrush, a 22-year-old journalism student at DePaul University freelancing for the nonprofit news organization Block Club Chicago, said he and other clearly identified members of the press were repeatedly targeted by federal officers using chemical agents and crowd-control munitions.
"Federal officers shot pepperballs and tear gas at me and other journalists as well as at protesters who seemed to pose no threat,” Thrush wrote.
In his declaration, Thrush said officers fired on demonstrators and media without warning, often as people were moving away from the facility. While filming from a distance, holding his camera near his face, Thrush was struck in the center of his left hand by a pepper ball fired by an officer who emerged from behind a fence.
“I was not threatening anyone in any way when I was shot,” Thrush wrote. “I had not been given any instructions to move.”
Unlike previous protests, no dispersal warnings were issued before force was used, according to the declaration. Thrush said Block Club Chicago photographer Colin Boyle was also hit with a pepper ball, and a tear gas canister was thrown directly at another clearly credentialed photographer from just 15 feet away.
Thrush reported that the exposure from the pepper ball, as well as tear gas, caused burning on his skin for about 12 hours. Though he had planned to return to report the next day, he ultimately stayed away out of fear.
“I still plan to regularly return to the Broadview facility to continue reporting,” he wrote, “but will only do so if I am able to keep myself safe, which I am not currently certain is possible.”
DHS did not respond to a Tracker request for comment. In a press release on Sept. 26, the agency 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.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
