Chicago NewsGuild joins federal lawsuit to stop ICE and DHS agents from targeting reporters at Broadview protests. The Guild release the following statement:
Guild members each day do the hard and sometimes dangerous work of reporting the news in our region. The past few weeks, the repeated clashes between protestors and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the ICE facility in Broadview has been one of the top headlines, and our members are the ones doing the reporting.
As a labor union, we fight to protect the health and safety of our members and their right to do the essential work of reporting the news. The Chicago News Guild has joined a lawsuit, filed today in federal court, to stop the targeting of our members and other journalists by ICE agents and other DHS agents in Broadview. We proudly stand strong with our fellow union journalists at NABET Local 41, the Chicago Headline Club and Block Club Chicago.
Our move comes after NewsGuild members in Los Angeles filed a similar lawsuit in June after DHS agents there showed a similar pattern of targeting journalists with rubber bullets and “pepper balls,” including firing a rubber bullet at a Guild member who was struck in the head. That litigation, joined by the ACLU of Southern California and SoCal Press Association, resulted in a preliminary injunction barring DHS from firing projectiles at journalists or protesters who don’t pose a threat to agents.
Our members have been repeatedly targeted by ICE agents in Broadview. Agents have fired rubber bullets and chemical agents at journalists, regardless of their proximity to protesters. Members have been threatened, physically assaulted, injured and subjected to arrest— just for doing their jobs. These actions are clearly intended to intimidate and deter press from being on the scene to witness and report on what is happening at the detention facility.
“Our members have a right, protected by the First Amendment, to do their jobs and report the news,” said Andy Grimm, president of the Chicago News Guild. “They should not be targeted, injured or arrested for doing their jobs.”
As journalists, we know we face risks when we get close to potentially violent encounters at protests and demonstrations. We do not accept that our role as journalists puts us at greater risk because we are singled out as targets. The pattern of behavior by ICE agents in Broadview threatens the health and safety of our members, and our ability to do our work without fear.