Chicago Television Reporter's Detainment in Immigration Raid Described as 'Alarming and Horrifying', Attorneys Assert
Legal representatives representing a journalist from the city of Chicago's WGN television station who was briefly held by government officers last week describe the incident as "something that should alarm and frighten each individual in this country".
Details of the Arrest
The journalist, a US citizen and WGN employee, was arrested on the weekend by government officers during an ICE action in a North Side Chicago area. Videos from the location depict the producer being forced to the ground by two agents before she is restrained and put in a van.
At the moment, a homeland security official stated that Brockman "hurled items at border patrol's car" and was "detained for assault on a federal law enforcement officer".
Subsequently that day, WGN announced that Brockman had been released from federal custody and that no charges had been pressed against her.
Attorney's Response
In a news release released by lawyers acting for Brockman on earlier this week, her representatives challenged the official version. They declared they "strongly refute any claim that she assaulted anyone" and that "She was the one who was violently assaulted by federal agents on her way to work" on the date in question.
Her lawyers say that at the moment of the arrest, the journalist was "not acting in any official role as an employee for WGN" but that she was just "walking to the transit point as part of her morning commute when she was attacked by Border Patrol agents.
"Brockman, who is a American citizen native to the US, was violently detained on a city street," the release continues. "As this happened, individuals on the street began recording the event and inquired Ms Brockman her name."
The statement says that she told the onlookers her name and that she was employed at the station, in the hopes that "a person would notify her employer so coworkers would know that she would not be coming at work that day", her lawyers said.
Aftermath and Next Steps
Based on her lawyers, Brockman was held in government detention for about several hours before being released.
"The individual has not been charged with any offenses and she plans to pursue all legal avenues open to her to vindicate her entitlements and hold the federal authorities accountable for their conduct," the release notes.
"One attorney, a legal representative, commented in the statement: "If equipped, masked, federal agents are snatching American nationals off the street as they walk to work and throwing them in unmarked vehicles, you can only imagine what these agents must be prepared to do to our foreign-born residents and people who choose to protest against them."
"Ms Brockman was taken to the ground, struck, handcuffed, and her pants were lowered exposing her uncovered skin," Thomson stated. "Not anyone should be treated like that in this metropolis, in this nation or any other place in the world."
ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the US Customs and Border Protection did not provide a prompt reply to inquiries from news outlets.