Amid the lawless and militarized assaults on Chicago-area immigrants, reporters, protesters, elected officials, mothers, children, old men and clergy, there were notable victories in recent days for journalists and free speech.
U.S. District Court Judge Sara L. Ellis issued a temporary restraining order Oct. 9 forbidding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents from using tear gas, pepper spray and weapons against journalists and peaceful protesters who pose no threat to them. Responding to a lawsuit filed by Chicago-area media and individual protesters, Ellis also enjoined federal agents from “dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, threatening or using physical force against” journalists, unless they are committing crimes.
It may seem self-absorbed to focus on the plight of journalists as President Donald Trump unleashes chaos and disorder on Chicago and other American cities, but First Amendment rights are also in the crosshairs. Polls show Americans are increasingly concerned these rights are being restricted and pessimistic that free speech will be protected.
Reporters face threats from critics, accusations of “fake news” and vitriol from a president who repeatedly has called them “the enemy of the people” whenever he dislikes the message. It is worth reminding the public that media are armed only with pens and press passes, recorders and cameras, and all too often risk their personal safety to bring home the news.
The ruling by Ellis may be temporary, lasting until further review, but it’s a major win for the press and the public’s right to know exactly what actions and mayhem are being committed by masked, armed and camo-clad federal forces who descended on the Chicago area recently with impunity.
Journalists trying to do their jobs covering protests near ICE facilities in Broadview and around Chicago report being repeatedly tear-gassed by federal agents — in violation of their constitutional rights to free speech.
At a hearing Thursday, Ellis said she was “profoundly concerned” ICE already may have violated her court order setting restrictions on the use of tear gas and crowd control weapons. Ellis said she would order agents to wear body cameras and demanded that Chicago ICE Field Office Director Russell Hott appear before her Monday to explain these alleged temporary restraining order violations.
The order confirms Chicago media were well justified in filing suit Oct. 6 against the president and his top officials, led by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The Trump administration is waging an apparent war on undocumented immigrants and brutalizing innocent Americans and journalists with dangerous riot-control methods.
It’s clear those methods are doing more to start riots than stop them from happening. Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson should be commended for using the full extent of the law to protect Chicagoans and free speech.
The Chicago Headline Club Foundation launched an “Essential Equipment Fund” to help independent and freelance journalists “report safely and effectively on issues of public interest” by providing safety gear such as vests, respirators, goggles and helmets, as well as clear press identification and reflective markings, field accessories and more.
The legal complaint was filed on Oct. 6 by the Chicago Headline Club, Block Club Chicago, Chicago Newspaper Guild Local 34071, broadcasters in the NABET/CWA Local 54041 and individual protesters. The lawsuit aims to defend the right of peaceful protesters to demonstrate and of journalists “to observe, record, and report on the federal agents’ activities and the public’s demonstrations against them.”
Intimidating journalists is a tactic right out of the authoritarian playbook intended to threaten them, silence them, and chill free speech and news coverage that the president doesn’t like. Chicago-area journalists are having none of it.
One of the main peaceful and lawful responses that Pritzker has encouraged against unwelcome federal intrusion is for citizens and others with cameras on their phones to record the abuses of power and excessive force that federal immigration agents have unleashed.
DHS officials argue that their federal agents have been impeded and faced hostility, but the arguments on the DHS website appear hollow compared with the facts on the ground. “Under Secretary Noem’s leadership,” one post reads, “the hardworking men and women of DHS are fulfilling President Trump’s promise to Make America Safe Again by removing violent criminal illegal aliens.”
Not so much. Illinois feels less safe since the masked agents started grabbing people off the streets.
Republicans and Democrats largely agree that undocumented immigrants who are violent criminals should be deported, but DHS hurts its credibility by going after undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes. Then there is the now-infamous night when agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to join others in a violent, militarized raid on a Chicago apartment building in the South Shore neighborhood. DHS officials said the raid was aimed at arresting Venezuelan gang members, but witnesses said agents rounded up everyone in the building. The spectacle, posted in ominous DHS videos with dramatic music, seemed more like Trump’s version of an extremist reality show than an honest attempt at arresting “the worst of the worst.”
Polls show most Americans now disapprove of the aggressive methods DHS is using to round up and deport immigrants while a slim majority disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration. Only about 40% of those arrested in the first five months of his ICE-led crackdown were reported to be convicted criminals.
Journalists and citizens need to keep documenting these controversial events.
U.S. District Judge April Perry recently issued another restraining order temporarily blocking the deployment by the Trump administration of National Guard troops in Illinois after local and state officials objected to the federal militarized crackdown on immigration.
It is a welcome roadblock to attempts by an authoritarian president to take control in Democrat-led cities and states, misuse the military to turn these cities into “training grounds,” terrorize citizens, scare voters and punish his enemies.
Trump may have declared an illegal war on Chicago and, in effect, the American people, but he won’t succeed in suppressing dissent, as long as citizens have the courage to protest, voters to vote their conscience and journalists to report the facts.
Storer H. Rowley is a former national editor and foreign correspondent for the Tribune and a member of the board of the Chicago Headline Club Foundation. The views expressed here are his own.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
