By Renee Hickman
CHICAGO (Reuters) -A producer for WGN-TV, a Chicago television station, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Friday in a residential area of the city, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.
The DHS said in a statement that Debbie Brockman “was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”
A video taken by a bystander and shared on social media shows masked border patrol agents holding a woman to the ground who identifies herself as Debbie Brockman, an employee of WGN. She is handcuffed and taken into a silver van with New Jersey plates. Onlookers honk their horns and jeer at the agents.
It was not immediately clear whether Brockman had been taken into custody, or whether she had a lawyer.
The DHS said “several violent agitators” had been attempting to impede federal officers in their duties. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, said on X that Brockman had been arrested after throwing objects at law enforcement.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the details of the events leading up to Brockman’s arrest.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, issued a temporary restraining order that provided protections for journalists and protesters in the Chicago area.
The order restricts the ability of federal agents to disperse, arrest or use physical force against journalists unless they have probable cause to believe the individual has committed a crime. Agents may still order journalists to move to avoid disrupting law enforcement.
In September, the administration of Republican President Donald Trump announced the launch of an aggressive campaign in the Chicago area to deport immigrants in the country illegally that it labeled “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Since then, officers have shot at least two people. Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Franklin Park, Illinois, was shot dead during an attempted arrest by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent. She survived and was indicted on Thursday on charges of impeding a federal officer with a deadly weapon.
In both cases, authorities said the officers were acting in self-defense.
Meanwhile, ICE agents have scuffled regularly with protesters outside an immigration processing center in the suburb of Broadview, using pepper balls, tear gas and other chemical munitions to try to disperse the small crowds. A CBS TV reporter said her vehicle was sprayed with pepper balls at the facility, which the Broadview Police Department said it is investigating.
(Reporting by Renee Hickman in Chicago and Nate Raymond in Boston. Additional reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco. Editing by Emily Schmall and Rosalba O’Brien)
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