Crime & Law
Judge Temporarily Bars Feds From Using Tear Gas, Pepper Spray Against Reporters in Broadview
Federal agents appear outside an immigration processing center in Broadview, Ill. (WTTW News)
A federal judge ruled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Broadview facility cannot use “riot control weapons” like tear gas, pepper spray or less lethal bullets against reporters, protesters and members of the clergy who aren’t posing an immediate threat to the safety of law enforcement.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis on Thursday granted a temporary restraining order sought by a group of Chicago journalists who claimed their First Amendment rights had been violated by federal immigration agents at a suburban processing facility.
That order took effect Thursday morning and is set to last for 14 days.
That ruling comes after the Chicago Headline Club, Chicago Newspaper Guild Local 34071, Block Club Chicago and other media organizations, journalists and protesters sued the Trump administration this week, claiming ICE agents in Broadview have engaged in a “pattern of extreme brutality” they claimed was a “concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians.”
“The Chicago Headline Club stood up for the First Amendment, and the judge delivered a significant victory for press freedom,” the Headline Club’s board of directors said in a statement Thursday.
ICE agents have repeatedly deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets against crowds of protesters outside the Broadview 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 claimed, federal agents have “aimed to suppress speech and dissent.”
“For weeks, federal forces sent to Chicago have terrorized residents,” Steve Art, of the Loevy and Loevy law firm that filed the suit, said in a statement. “They have used incredible violence against civilians, against demonstrators, against religious and political leaders, and against the press. They hope to scare us into silence and submission. But the community here in Chicago will not be bullied.”
Attorneys for the Trump administration claimed that granting the temporary restraining order would “dictate crowd-control policy” in ways that would “tie the hands” of federal law enforcement officers, even in circumstances of “imminent danger.”
They argued the order would risk “bogging this Court down in micro-management of crowd-control decisions” by federal law enforcement.
Block Club Chicago executive editor Stephanie Lulay said in a statement 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 in Broadview.
An ICE agent has also been accused of firing a pepper ball at a CBS Chicago reporter outside the ICE facility, allegedly when no protesters were present. That incident has prompted a criminal investigation by Broadview police.
Ellis’ order applies to all federal law enforcement personnel, officers and agents deployed across the Northern District of Illinois, including all personnel in the Chicago area who are part of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Midway Blitz” immigration enforcement operation.
The parties are due back in court for a hearing on Oct. 23 when the 14-day window of the temporary restraining order expires to discuss future actions.
Note: Loevy and Loevy, the firm that filed the suit, has done legal work for WTTW News.
