A federal judge in Chicago issued a temporary restraining order Thursday, blocking federal agencies from using certain forceful tactics to suppress protests or prevent journalists from covering those protests.

Judge Sara L. Ellis issued that order in response to a First Amendment lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of several news organizations, along with individual protesters and clergy.

Those plaintiffs alleged that since federal agents were deployed in the Chicago area in September, “federal agents have shot, gassed, and detained individuals engaged in cherished and protected activities,” especially in suburban Broadview near an immigration processing center.

“Never in modern times has the federal government undermined bedrock constitutional protections on this scale or usurped states’ police power by directing federal agents to carry out an illegal mission against the people for the government’s own benefit,” the lawsuit argued.

Defendants in the suit include Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and numerous other federal officials.

The restraining order temporarily prohibits federal agents from arresting, threatening to arrest or using physical force against journalists unless there is probable cause to believe the individual has committed a crime. It also prohibits them from issuing crowd dispersal orders, without exigent circumstances, requiring people to leave a public place where they otherwise have a lawful right to be.

It also prohibits them from using various types of riot control weapons, including tear gas and other kinds of noxious gas, as well as various kinds of “less-lethal” weapons and ammunition.

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Clashes with federal agents continue growing

Protests erupted in the Chicago area after the Trump administration launched “Operation Midway Blitz” on Sept. 8, an immigration enforcement action that the Department of Homeland Security described as an effort to “target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets.”

Since that operation began, the complaint argued, “Roving patrols of masked, militarized, and often unidentifiable agents have been seen on streets from Chicago’s city center to its suburbs.”

Many of the most volatile protests have taken place in Broadview, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates a processing facility that houses many of the people who have been arrested or detained during Operation Midway Blitz.

The lawsuit states that federal authorities have stationed officers on the roof of that facility, armed with weapons “that are capable of discharging exploding chemical pellets and rubber bullets, as well as lethal firearms.” Other officers are assigned to stand in a courtyard outside the detention facility.

“In response to the protests, these groups of officers sometimes surge beyond the ICE facility fence without warning and storm the protesters,” the complaint alleges. “They attack by slamming individual protesters to the ground, wielding batons and shields, throwing tear gas canisters indiscriminately at groups of protesters, and macing individual protesters in the face at close range, among other things.”

The lawsuit also alleges that federal agents have deliberately targeted journalists for harassment and intimidation. It lists several incidents in which reporters have been violently attacked by federal officials, including a Sept. 29 incident when a CBS Chicago reporter was targeted while in her car driving near the Broadview ICE facility checking on the status of the protests.

“A federal agent standing behind the fence shot pepper balls at the journalist’s car, and chemicals went through her window,” the complaint states. “There were no protests or activities at Broadview at the time. The journalist had to stop her car and get out as the chemicals engulfed the interior of her vehicle.”

The lawsuit was filed Monday, the same day Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the city of Chicago filed a separate suit challenging the legality of the Trump administration’s decision to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area, ostensibly to protect federal facilities and operations from demonstrators.

The deployment of troops in the Chicago area followed similar actions earlier this year in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Trump also recently ordered troops into Portland, Oregon, where a federal judge issued a restraining order preventing him from federalizing the Oregon National Guard. He has also threatened to deploy troops in other cities, including New Orleans and Memphis.

Division within journalism community

The First Amendment lawsuit itself was the source of some controversy within the Illinois journalism community. When it was filed Monday, the original list of plaintiffs included the Illinois Press Association, a nonprofit trade association that represents more than 350 newspapers in Illinois and surrounding states.

On Wednesday, however, court records indicate IPA withdrew as a plaintiff in the case. According to published reports, some members of IPA’s board of directors disagreed with the decision to join the lawsuit, prompting the organization’s president and CEO Don Craven to resign.

Craven had served as president and CEO since 2021 and  as the organization’s legal counsel for nearly four decades.

IPA issued a news release Thursday announcing Craven’s resignation and praising him for his service to the organization, but it did not mention what led to his departure. IPA board Chairman Durrell Garth, president of the Chicago Citizen Newspaper Group, did not respond to a request for comment from Capitol News Illinois.

The Illinois Press Association is not affiliated with the Illinois Press Foundation, which operates and helps fund Capitol News Illinois.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.