ICE Fires Chemical Weapon At TV Reporter In Broadview; ‘Unprovoked’ Attack Under Investigation

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BROADVIEW — Police in west suburban Broadview are investigating the assault of a local journalist by federal immigration authorities.

CBS Chicago Reporter Asal Rezaei said she was at the ICE processing facility in suburban Broadview Sunday morning to report on the scene and was preparing to leave since there were no protesters.

That’s when a masked ICE agent inside the fencing shot a pepper ball from about 50 feet away, hitting Rezai’s truck, which had its driver’s side window down, “causing the chemical agents to engulf the inside,” CBS Chicago reported.

“An ICE agent took a direct shot at my car today. Absolutely unprovoked,” Rezaei said on social media. “My window was open and chemicals went all over my face. Been puking for two hours.”

Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills said in a statement the village has launched a criminal investigation into the “allegedly unprovoked attack” from a “chemical munition fired from the direction of the U.S. [ICE] detention facility.

“The Broadview Police Department expects the full cooperation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into our criminal investigation,” Mills said.

The assault came just hours after federal agents released reporter Steve Held, who was arrested Saturday night while documenting protests at the facility.

ICE officials did not return a request for comment.

Videos show Held had been wearing a helmet identifying himself as press at the time of his arrest.

In a statement, the Chicago Headline Club condemned attacks by ICE agents on journalists.

“The Headline Club is aware of incidents of journalists being shot intentionally with bean bags, chemical munitions and at least one working journalist being taken into custody,” the organization’s board of directors wrote in a statement. “Journalists have a constitutionally-protected right to cover stories as afforded by the First Amendment. No federal or state agency should interfere with that right either by threats or action taken against working journalists.”

ICE has been uncooperative with previous orders from Broadview officials to remove perimeter fencing blocking a village street. The fencing had been put up after protests first turned violent, with agents firing pepper balls and spraying tear gas at the crowd.