The Chicago News Guild, TNG-CWA Local 34017, and National Association of Broadcast Employees and
Technicians (NABET-CWA) Local 41 have joined a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over excessive violence targeting reporters covering protests at an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois.
Plaintiffs also include local media organizations, protesters and individual journalists who have been brutalized for simply doing their job. ICE and DHS agents have fired rubber bullets and chemical agents at reporters, and threatened, assaulted, injured and arrested them—all actions intended to deter press from being on the scene to report on what is happening at the detention facility. This lawsuit comes after NewsGuild-CWA members in Los Angeles won a preliminary injunction in September blocking federal agents from brutalizing journalists, legal observers and protesters in Southern California.
“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.”
AFL-CIO Daily Brief