A group of Chicago media outlets, journalists and protesters filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that immigration agents displayed an excessive use of force to stifle their rights during protests at an Illinois detention facility. The lawsuit comes as lawmakers have joined some protesters in calling for the U.S. government to investigate civil rights violations.
A group of Chicago-based journalists, media organizations and protesters filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday, alleging that officers from multiple federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have been using aggressive tactics against them at the facility. According to lawyers representing the group, officers are causing violence at protests and sought to enjoin the administration from further action.
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“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,” they wrote in court papers.
Neither DHS nor spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has responded to Straight Arrow News’ requests for comment. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo on Sept. 29 directing the deployment of federal officers to immigration facilities in response to violence against federal officers.
She and other Trump administration officials have warned against rising violence after a fatal shooting at a Dallas facility that killed two detainees.
“The Department of Justice will arrest and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law every person who aids, abets, or conspires to commit these crimes, whether through funding, coordination, planning, or other means,” Bondi wrote.
The lawsuit centered around the ongoing protests at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, about 12 miles west of Chicago. According to WGN-TV, protests were first organized by Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity Chicago and the Revolutionary Black Panther Party. Revcom has planned for a protest with the Refuse Fascism activist group in November at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Lawyers expect the lawsuit to grow into class-action status.
One incident detailed in the lawsuit involved the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago pastor, David Black, who lawyers said incurred chest injuries after federal agents shot at him with pepper bullets while he prayed.
“There is no indication that federal agents will cease or alter their pattern of using excessive force against protesters,” lawyers wrote in court papers. “To the contrary, recent developments suggest that the use of force will be amplified.”
Media organizations suing are the Chicago Headline Club, the Chicago Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the local news site Block Club Chicago, the Illinois Press Association and labor unions representing Chicago media outlets, including the Chicago Newspaper Guild Local 34071 and the National Association of Broadcast Employees & Technicians Local 54041.
The organizations acknowledged that journalists are aware of risks when covering violent encounters at protests, but they said their lives have been put at risk as targets of violence.
“Agents have fired rubber bullets and chemical agents at Guild journalists, regardless of their proximity to protesters,” Chicago News Guild President Andy Grimm said in a statement Monday. “Our members have been threatened, physically assaulted, injured, and subjected to arrest just for doing their jobs.”
They’re being represented by the Loevy and Loevy Law Firm, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the nonprofit Protect Democracy Project, the First Defense Legal Aid, the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School and the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
Lawsuit: Federal agents impede journalists’ civil rights
According to court papers, lawyers wrote that protests leading up to the Monday filing have been “animated but peaceful” and ongoing for about 30 days. People have swarmed the facility to document or participate in protests of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign Operation Midway Blitz.
Not all of the protests went without arrests, as federal and local police have arrested people for resisting and obstruction, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office told CBS News Chicago on Friday. In an earlier arrest, a couple brought guns to the Broadview facility in September, but prosecutors didn’t file firearm charges as they legally carried the guns. DHS claimed in September that people attempted to trespass on the federal property, but no reports of arrests could be found.
The organizations said that federal agents responded with brutality. Officers have worn “full combat gear,” masks and were armed with flash grenades and tear gas canisters, often marching toward people “who posed no imminent threat to law enforcement.” In several images, agents can be seen on the facility’s roof with weapons.
“Federal agents have tackled and slammed people to the ground,” lawyers wrote, “they have lobbed flash grenades and tear gas canisters indiscriminately into the crowd; they have fired rubber bullets and pepper balls at selected individuals; and they have cursed and shouted at demonstrators to provoke them.”
Media organizations said in the lawsuit that agents fired pepper balls at reporters, striking them in their faces, chests and other extremities. They also claim agents arrested at least one journalist, Unraveled Press cofounder Stephen Held. According to court papers, federal officers arrested Held on Sept. 27 while videoing officers arresting a protester. Lawyers said Held wore “no fewer than four visible indications that he was a member of the press.”
He was not charged in the arrest and was released hours later.
“No legitimate purpose exists for this brutality or for these arrests,” according to the complaint. “The officers are not physically threatened. No government property is threatened. Defendants are acting to intimidate and silence the press and civilians engaged in protected First Amendment activities.”
