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national lawyers guild
CBS Chicago Reporter Says ICE Shot Chemical Agents at Her ‘Absolutely Unprovoked’
The attack came after a day of protest in which the National Lawyers Guild Chicago says officers were "launching chemical agents and firing munitions at members of the press and people assembled to protest."
Sep 29, 2025
Local police have launched a criminal investigation after a CBS News Chicago reporter said she was attacked "absolutely unprovoked" by immigration agents outside a detention facility in Broadview.
Television reporter Asal Rezaei was at the Broadview center Sunday morning, where she'd been going for weeks since protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) "Operation Midway Blitz" began in Chicago earlier this month.
When Rezaei realized there were no protesters at the scene, she began to drive away with the driver's side window down. That's when a masked agent fired a pepper ball at her car from behind the fence, "causing the chemical agents to engulf the inside of her truck," according to CBS News.
"An ICE agent took a direct shot at my car today. Absolutely unprovoked," Rezaei wrote on social media. "My window was open, and chemicals went all over my face. Been puking for two hours."
Rezaei explained that there was "not one protester in sight" and that she was "simply driving by to check the scene out like I have been for weeks, about 50 feet from the entrance."
She posted photos of her car's windshield, which was left covered in specks of white powder.
In a police report filed Sunday, Rezaei said: "At this moment, it's not really clear why that officer took a shot at me. My car has been here several times, although I did not identify myself verbally as a member of the press. There were no protests going on. There was actually nobody there except one other person that was a member of a fire department that was there checking in on the buildings around this area."
The Broadview Police Department has announced that it is opening an investigation into the attack. Police Chief Thomas Mills said in a statement that chemical agents were “fired from the direction of the [ICE] detention facility" toward Rezaei's vehicle. Mills said that the police department "expects the full cooperation by the US Department of Homeland Security into our criminal investigation."
A spokesperson for DHS has denied that Rezaei was attacked, saying: "Absolutely not. No member of the media at CBS or any other outlet was ‘attacked.’ For their safety, we remind members of the media and journalists to exercise caution as they cover these violent riots."
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson warned on Friday that ICE officials have been “making war” in her community by “deploying chemical arms, such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders."
Mills himself said he had been verbally attacked by ICE agents during a protest. He said that later, while attempting to gather information about an apparent hit-and-run by an ICE agent on a pedestrian, officers were hit with pepper spray, which altered their vision so badly that they were required to leave the scene.
Video: CBS News
The agency's tactics only grew more brutal over the weekend, which local police say was a direct act of retaliation from the Department of Homeland Security. On Saturday morning, Broadview police said they received a message from ICE agents that it would be "a shit show in Broadview today."
Agents fired tear gas and other chemical irritants at a crowd of about 75 protesters gathered outside the facility on Saturday night. According to the Chicago Tribune, federal officials took 11 people into custody, four of whom now face federal charges.
One of the people arrested and later released was another journalist, Steve Held, the co-founder of the investigative outlet Unraveled Press. Held was released from custody just hours before ICE reportedly fired at Rezaei. Another reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times was also struck by rubber bullets and tear-gassed.
"The pattern of law enforcement violence and targeted attacks persisted yesterday, with agents launching chemical agents and firing munitions at members of the press and people assembled to protest," said the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) of Chicago. "Agents used multiple chemical agents, launched kinetic grenades, and shot rubber bullets, mace, and pepper balls against those assembled. One legal observer was shot directly in the face with a projectile. Agents also menaced people by pointing firearms at them, including handguns and a rifle."
The NLG said federal agents' actions on Saturday "were notably distinct from prior days in that officers went after people who were simply gathered to support the active protesters."
Officers "forcibly removed people sheltering from tear gas in vehicles," "fired weapons at specific protesters in direct response to their First Amendment-protected statements and snatched protesters signs," the group said. They also "confiscated tents used for shade, as well as food, water and first aid supplies, and people's bike helmets and other personal property, putting them in a dumpster in the restricted area."
As people tried to leave the protest, NLG says "agents blocked them and demanded to illegally search people's bodies and vehicles."
“Last night, our Legal Observers witnessed militarized federal agents deploy chemical weapons and fire projectiles at a crowd of people exercising their First Amendment rights," said Amanda Yarusso, a volunteer attorney with NLG Chicago. "The violence was an indiscriminate, unprovoked, and illegal use of force. These unlawful actions by federal agents demonstrate this administration’s complete disregard of constitutional standards.
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'What It Looks Like When ICE Violates' First Amendment: Candidate Kat Abughazaleh Thrown to Ground
"What ICE just did to me was a violent abuse of power—and it’s still nothing compared to what they’re doing to immigrant communities," said the Illinois congressional candidate.
Sep 19, 2025
Protests at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Chicago continued on Friday, with ICE and Border Patrol agents tear-gassing, pepper-spraying, and detaining demonstrators—and even throwing congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh to the ground.
"This is what it looks like when ICE violates our First Amendment rights," Abughazaleh wrote on social media alongside two videos of the incident at the facility in Broadview, Illinois—which is key to ICE's deadly "Operation Midway Blitz," launched earlier this month as part of US President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda.
"What ICE just did to me was a violent abuse of power—and it's still nothing compared to what they're doing to immigrant communities. I've been fighting the right as a journalist and now I'm running for Congress to do the same in DC," said Abughazaleh, a former producer at Media Matters for America and one of several Democrats in the 2026 race to represent Illinois' 9th Congressional District.
"They weren’t showing their faces and almost none had visible badge numbers. There will likely never be any real accountability for the agent who grabbed me and threw me to the ground but we can have accountability for Trump and Tom Homan," she added, referring to the president's border czar. "And that’s why I’m running for office."
In a phone interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, the 26-year-old said ICE agents threw her to the ground twice:
“I wasn’t surprised, and that’s part of why we’re here,” Abughazaleh said. “Everyone here is at least a little bit scared, but mostly I’m angry and we need to get the facility shut down.”
ICE agents used tear gas and shot pepper balls, she said—some of which hit her legs—around 6:00 am, while shouting “your First Amendment rights are on the sidewalk.”
She anticipates a “nasty” bruise on her right side.
“It’s more important than ever to stand with our neighbors, if not just for their basic human dignity,” Abughazaleh said. “I’m not here as a candidate, I’m here as an individual.”
The newspaper noted that "ICE did not respond immediately to specific questions about Abughazaleh, the use of nonlethal chemical agents, and the status of the protesters allegedly arrested during the clash."
The US Department of Homeland Security later shared Fox 32's video of an agent shoving Abughazaleh to the ground on social media and said: "Individuals and groups impeding ICE operations are siding with vicious cartels, human traffickers, and violent criminals. You will not stop ICE and DHS law enforcement from enforcing our immigration laws."
The National Lawyers Guild of Chicago, which had legal observers at the protest, said that it "was aware of three arrests as of 1:00 pm, but the situation was changing rapidly. Local police were observed nearby and failed to protect civilians from the federal agents’ attacks, but did not appear to participate in the violent acts or any arrests directly."
The federal agents used tear gas and pepper balls, and "repeatedly and aggressively grabbed and dragged seated protesters, throwing several of them into the street," the guild said. The legal observers also saw "an agent unholstering his handgun, and a van driven by agents almost running over a protester who had fallen in its path."
Abughazaleh used her experience to create a contrast between herself and some other candidates also hoping to replace Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, an 81-year-old who announced in May that she would not seek reelection.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, another candidate in Democrats' crowded primary race for the 9th District, also joined the protest in Broadview on Friday. He told Block Club Chicago that “I’ve seen shocking violence.”
“I mean, throwing people to the ground, pepper balls, tear gas... It seems gratuitous, right? They’re trying to intimidate. They’ve got guys up there on the roof with cameras," he added. “They’re trying to remind people that this is an administration that names and then targets its political enemies for physical and economic violence.”
Chicago Ald. Andre Vasquez (D-40) and Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton—a Democrat running to replace retiring US Sen. Dick Durbin—were also at the ICE facility on Friday.
Asked about agents' violence toward protesters, Stratton told reporters that "people are here to peacefully protest. Look what we've been seeing over the last several weeks right here in Chicago: people being snatched off the streets, stuffed into unmarked vans, and with no due process."
"We are seeing the Constitution being stomped upon, and just this week, again, attacks on First Amendment rights—and all of us need to be speaking with moral clarity and saying this is not right," she added. "So I'm here to stand with Illinoisans who are protesting peacefully and make sure that I let them know that I stand with them."
Organizers intend to continue demonstrating as long as the ICE operation continues in Chicago and its suburbs. In a statement ahead of Friday's action, protester Britt Hodgdon stressed that “ICE doesn’t make me or my community safer.”
“If exercising my right to free speech gets me tear-gassed, then I’m not safe," Hodgdon continued. "If my neighbors go missing into a deportation system where their families can’t find out where they’ve been taken, then my neighborhood is not safe. If there are ICE agents all over my city and they’re willing to shoot and kill someone who tries to get away from them—as they did in murdering Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez—then none of us are safe.”
In a statement Friday afternoon Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates similarly said that "under Donald Trump, federal agents make us less safe no matter what letters they have on their uniform."
"If the federal government wanted to help our city, it would restore Medicaid, rebuild the Department of Education, and stop threatening our schools, not send its agents to arrest workers, separate families, and harass area residents," she added. "How do you teach a civics class on the US Constitution when students are watching the president tear it apart in real time?"
This article has been updated with comment from the Chicago Teachers Union, the city's arm of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US Department of Homeland Security.
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Taxpayers Submit UN Report Charging US Officials With Genocide in Gaza
"The United States government has continued to make possible, with massive arms shipments, Israel's genocide in Gaza," said one advocate. "The U.S. courts have failed to intervene. World bodies absolutely should."
Apr 07, 2025
In a 57-page report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, grassroots groups representing thousands of U.S. taxpayers compiled what they said was "incontrovertible" evidence that U.S. policymakers are "directly participating in genocide in Gaza" and called on international authorities to intervene.
Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG), a grassroots movement comprising 2,000 taxpayers and endorsed by several national progressive advocacy groups, submitted the report four months after the organization filed a federal class action lawsuit against members of Congress for "illegally using" tax dollars to fund Israel's assault on Gaza, which began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
That case, targeting Democratic U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, both of California, was dismissed in February, with U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria saying it posed a "political question" to the court—a ruling that TAG said "gave a green light to the ongoing unconstitutional allocation of tax dollars to fund genocide."
Tarik Kanaana, a Palestinian activist in California who was the lead contact for the report, suggested that with rulings like Chhabria's, "all three branches" of the U.S. government have ensured the country is "a full partner and bares responsibility for this genocide."
"The American people have no recourse within the U.S. political or judicial systems when it comes to their government's crimes against the people of the world," said Kanaana. "We, Americans who cannot accept our government's actions, are forced to appeal to international bodies to influence our own government to do what its citizens overwhelmingly want."
In TAG's report—endorsed by peace groups including CodePink, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP), and RootsAction—the organization points to "violations of U.S. obligations by the U.S. Congress and executive in committing residents' tax dollars—including those of Palestinian-Americans whose families have been decimated in Gaza" to support "an unfolding genocide in Gaza."
"We, Americans who cannot accept our government's actions, are forced to appeal to international bodies to influence our own government to do what its citizens overwhelmingly want."
International groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Médecins Sans Frontières have recognized Israel's bombardment and near-total humanitarian aid blockade—which have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians—as a genocide, while the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza last year and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The report filed by TAG details how the group believes members of Congress, President Donald Trump—who welcomed Netanyahu to the White House on Monday—former President Joe Biden, and other U.S. officials have broken federal laws and statutes forbidding the government from providing military support to countries that violate human rights, and international laws prohibiting genocide and apartheid.
In April 2024, 366 members of the U.S. House and 79 senators voted to send an additional $26.38 billion in aid to Israel, primarily for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), on top of billions of dollars in military support the U.S. had already provided since October 2023.
In addition to ignoring rising public opposition to Israel's U.S.-backed assault on a civilian population, said TAG, citing analyses by Amnesty International and HRW, "the April congressional votes were taken in the face of overwhelming evidence that the Israeli military was carrying out genocide in Gaza with U.S.-provided weapons and munitions."
The group also cited its lawsuit and another dismissed lawsuit filed last year by Defense for Children International-Palestine against Biden and members of his administration as evidence that U.S. taxpayers have been left with little recourse to stop their elected representatives from supporting genocide.
"International law and minimal human decency prohibit genocide," said Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction. "But the United States government has continued to make possible, with massive arms shipments, Israel's genocide in Gaza. The U.S. courts have failed to intervene. World bodies absolutely should."
Additionally, TAG pointed to the grip that the pro-Israel lobby, empowered by the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that permitted unlimited corporate spending on U.S. elections, has on the political system—with politicians who speak out against Israel's violent policies in Palestine regularly targeted by anti-Palestinian groups. Powerful politicians like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Biden have also smeared demonstrators demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to U.S. funding of the IDF as "antisemitic," while the Trump administration is overseeing the repression of anti-Israel speech and threatening colleges' funding if they don't join in cracking down on Palestinian rights advocacy.
"With insurmountable obstacles to accountability in the U.S. electoral and judicial systems and an increasing disregard of international human rights and humanitarian law by the U.S. government, intervention and oversight by the U.N. Human Rights Council is urgently needed to challenge U.S. repression and the impunity of U.S. legislators and officials for aiding and abetting genocide with U.S. tax dollars," reads the report.
Margaret DeMatteo, an attorney and one of the TAG report's lead authors, said the group's decision "to charge our own government with complicity in genocide is not just an act of accountability, it is an act of mourning."
"I carry the weight of documenting what should never be ignored: the U.S. government's complicity in genocide," said DeMatteo. "While we seek justice through words and international mechanisms, the people of Gaza endure unimaginable suffering—suffering that demands urgent action, not silence."
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