Border Patrol and ICE Assault Journalists in Chicago and New York

Read our editorial on mass deportations here, and the ongoing struggle against it here.

On October 10, Border Patrol agents assaulted journalist Debbie Brockman of Chicago’s WGN station in the city’s Lincoln Square neighborhood.

In videos shared widely on social media, masked Border Patrol agents are seen throwing Brockman to the ground and handcuffing her as she lies face down on the street screaming. Bystanders filming asked her for her name, to which she replied: “Debbie Brockman. I work for WGN. Please let them know.” She then is stuffed into a van and taken away.

Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Tricia McLaughlin defended the arrest, stating: “In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers used their service vehicle to strike a suspect’s vehicle and create an opening. As agents were driving, Deborah Brockman, a US citizen, threw objects at border patrol’s car, and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”

Bystanders dispute the claim that Brockman threw any object at law enforcement. In fact, Border Patrol forcibly removed her from her car before arresting her. According to WGN, Border Patrol released Brockman later that day without charges.

This attack comes just a week and a half after masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) injured another journalist, Dean Moses of amNewYork, at an NYC immigration court on September 30. Moses and other journalists were documenting an arrest of a Peruvian immigrant when ICE attacked them. McLaughlin justified ICE throwing Moses down onto the ground by claiming: “Rioters and sanctuary politicians who encourage individuals to interfere with arrests are actively creating hostile environments that put officers, detainees and the public in harm’s way.”

Moses had to be carried out of the court on a stretcher.

These assaults demonstrate the increasingly farcical nature of ICE’s “shoot first, ask questions later” tactics. Not even members of the monopoly media, which by no means oppose ICE terror or mass deportations in principle, are safe from arbitrary targeting. The Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” which has terrorized the people of Illinois since early September, targets not just immigrants, who are its main targets, but also protesters and even journalists who are simply documenting the actions of federal and state agents.

The imperialists’ frenzied campaign to deport immigrants forms a key part of the ruling class’s attempt to overcome the economic and political crisis by depressing wages through increased competition among fewer workers. This is a fundamental and inescapable feature of capitalism, where cyclical crises of overproduction compel the capitalist class to destroy part of the productive forces in the name of recuperating its profits every five to ten years, on average.

This campaign is part of the growing reactionization of U.S. society, including the increasing restriction of democratic rights. The latest attacks on bourgeois journalists continue the trend of restricted speech and press coverage, including the firings and censorship of views expressing opposition to annihilated ultra-reactionary Charlie Kirk, the dismissal of reporters from the Pentagon after refusing new standards imposed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth demanding his approval for all coverage, and the arrest of photojournalists in NYC and charging them with hate crimes for documenting anti-Zionist protests.

Photo: Debbie Brockman being arrested by Border Patrol agents in Chicago. Retrieved from jbogoblue via X

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