Crime & Law
WGN-TV Employee Detained by Federal Agents Denies Wrongdoing, Plans to Pursue ‘All Legal Avenues’
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent takes part in an early morning operation in Park Ridge, Ill., Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo / Erin Hooley)
The WGN-TV employee who was tackled and detained by federal immigration agents in Lincoln Square last week has denied that she assaulted anyone on scene and intends to “pursue all legal avenues available to her.”
Attorneys for Debbie Brockman said in a statement Tuesday that she has not been charged with any crimes after federal authorities including Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino accused her of throwing items at agents last Friday.
“This incident should be alarming and horrifying to every single person in this country,” Brad Thomson, an attorney with the People’s Law Office who is representing Brockman, said in a statement. “If armed, masked, federal agents are snatching U.S. citizens off the street as they walk to work and throwing them in unmarked vehicles, you can only imagine what these agents must be willing to do to our immigrant neighbors and people who dare to speak out against them.”
Video of Brockman’s arrest was shared widely online shortly after it occurred Friday and showed her on the ground being handcuffed by agents. As that was happening, she gave the person filming her name and told them she works for WGN.
Brockman’s attorneys said she was not acting in any professional capacity at the time of her arrest, and was instead simply walking to a bus stop as part of her morning commute when she was “attacked by Border Patrol agents.”
The incident occurred amid increasing immigration enforcement throughout Chicago and Illinois as a part of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Bovino later shared a photo of Brockman in a social media post in which he claimed she had “decided to take the news cycle to a whole new level by throwing an object at Border Patrol Agents conducting lawful duties.”
While Bovino went on to accuse Brockman of assaulting a federal officer, which he said is a “serious felony,” Brockman was released after seven hours in detention without any criminal charges filed against her.
Brockman and her attorneys said they “adamantly deny” any allegation that she assaulted anyone.
“Rather, Ms. Brockman was the one who was violently assaulted by federal agents on her way to work,” her legal team said in a statement. “Ms. Brockman feared for her life multiple times throughout this terrifying experience.”
