Judge orders restrictions on federal tactics against ICE protesters after Chicago-area pastor shot with pepper balls
By Laura Sharman, Caroll Alvarado, CNN
(CNN) — A judge in Illinois has temporarily blocked federal agents from using certain types of force and crowd-control measures against protesters, after video of a pastor being repeatedly shot by pepper balls during a demonstration outside at an ICE facility near Chicago drew widespread outcry.
A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday in the lawsuit filed Monday by the Chicago Headline Club, a nonprofit that represents journalists, alongside unions and individual protesters over federal law enforcement tactics.
The lawsuit alleges federal agents have shot, gassed, and detained individuals who have been protesting outside the ICE Detention Facility in Broadview for the last few weeks, preventing them from “exercising their First Amendment rights.” The suit also claims the tactics infringed journalists’ right to cover the protests.
Numerous videos have emerged of agents deploying tear gas, pepper balls and roughly throwing protesters to the ground during the demonstrations.
The judge’s order, which applies to the entire Northern District of Illinois, blocks federal agents from firing various types of less-lethal projectiles and chemical irritants and from “using force, such as pulling or shoving a person to the ground, tackling, or body slamming an individual.”
Federal agents are more broadly prohibited from ordering a crowd to disperse or “requiring any person to leave a public place that they lawfully have a right to be.” There are exceptions for individuals who pose a threat to law enforcement or others.
The 14-day order took effect Thursday and applies to all DHS agents, including those with ICE and US Customs and Border Protection, in the district which encompasses Chicago and the Broadview ICE processing facility.
The judge also laid out specific protections for journalists covering the protests, blocking federal agents from arresting members of the press unless there is “probable cause to believe that the individual has committed a crime.”
A preliminary injunction hearing has been set for October 23, according to the federal court docket.
The order was issued on the same day that another judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard members in Illinois, one of several legal battles playing out over President Donald Trump’s push to send troops to Democrat-led cities.
Pastor targeted during ICE protests
The new ruling limiting use of force against protesters was issued in response to a complaint on behalf of multiple plaintiffs, including a Presbyterian pastor who was struck in the head by pepper balls while taking part in demonstrations at the Broadview facility last month.
Reverend David Black of Chicago’s First Presbyterian Church “stood in the street offering prayers” and urging ICE officers to repent, when he was repeatedly struck in the face by masked agents standing on top of the ICE facility, according to the lawsuit and video taken during the protest.
Black was “visibly attired in clerical garb” when “ICE snipers fired,” the lawsuit said. “Moments later he was doused with chemical spray that ICE agents directed at his face.”
Video obtained by CNN shows the pastor near the building with his arms outstretched when a cloud of smoke erupts from an explosion by his head, and he drops to the ground. Other protesters rushed to his aid and surrounded him. Another video shared with CNN shows masked agents pushing Black as he walks back and is then pepper sprayed in the face from close range.
In his first television interview since the incident, Black told CNN’s Erin’s Burnett a large group of federal officers then “rushed out of the gate and began to shove us,” describing their behavior was “indiscriminate” and “vicious.”
Black said federal officers dispensed “a huge amount of chemical weapons,” adding, “I was drenched from the crown of my head to the socks in my shoes.”
The Department of Homeland Security has defended the federal agents’ actions. Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the protestors had blocked an ICE vehicle from leaving the facility, ignored warnings and eventually began “throwing rocks, bottles and launching fireworks” at agents.
Black disputed McLaughlin’s claims, calling the account “categorically false.”
“There were no ICE vehicles attempting to leave the facility, and I was standing to the side in a gesture of prayer and praying verbally for the ICE officers and those detained inside,” he told Burnett.
The pastor insisted he and other protesters received “no warning” and claimed he could hear the agents laughing as they fired shots from the roof, calling it “deeply disturbing.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
