Crime & Law
Chicago Journalists, Protesters Suing Trump Administration Over Alleged First Amendment Violations at Broadview ICE Facility
Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility officers stand guard outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Chicago-area journalists and protesters are suing the Trump administration, claiming Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have engaged in a “pattern of extreme brutality” they say is a “concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians” outside the agency’s Broadview processing facility.
The Chicago Headline Club, Chicago Newspaper Guild Local 34071, Block Club Chicago and other media organizations and journalists filed the suit alongside protesters in federal court Monday alleging their First Amendment rights have been violated.
“Never in modern times has the federal government undermined bedrock constitutional protections on this scale or usurped states’ police power by directing federal agents to carry out an illegal mission against the people for the government’s own benefit,” the organizations wrote in a 52-page complaint.
Named in the lawsuit as defendants are: President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE’s Chicago Field Office Director Russell Hott, Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, and others.
ICE agents have repeatedly deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets against crowds of protesters outside the facility. Beyond affecting those protesters exercising their First Amendment rights, those munitions have also affected first responders, local police and media who are in the area.
In doing so, the lawsuit claims federal agents have “aimed to suppress speech and dissent.”
Block Club Chicago’s executive editor Stephanie Lulay said that since Sept. 19, at least four employees or freelancers have reported being hit with pepper balls and subjected to tear gas by federal agents.
“We intend to continue to report on the protests, but our ability to do so, to the standards that we hold ourselves to, continues to be impacted by our fears of violence and arrests of our employees and contractors,” Lulay said in a statement.
The lawsuit also comes more than a week after an ICE agent allegedly fired a pepper ball at a CBS Chicago reporter outside the Broadview ICE facility, which has been the site of ongoing protests and clashes between immigration agents and civilians.
That incident has prompted Broadview police to launch a criminal investigation.
Stephen Held, an independent journalist and one of the plaintiffs in this case, was arrested last month while recording agents arresting a protester on a public parkway. Held was allegedly tackled, thrown to the ground, handcuffed and detained inside the Broadview facility for hours, the complaint states.
He was eventually released with no charges because, the complaint states, “he had done nothing wrong.”
“In every city to which they have been deployed, federal forces have used unjustified violence against the press, elected officials, religious leaders, and private individuals engaged in peaceful and protected activities,” the lawsuit states, “using extreme force indiscriminately and arresting people without any legal basis.”
Note: Loevy and Loevy, the firm which filed the suit, has done legal work for WTTW News.
