Chicago Journalist Detained For Several Hours By Federal Agents

On September 27, federal agents outside an ICE facility detained Chicago journalist Steve Held, the co-founder of Unraveled Press, during an evening of attacks on peaceful protesters. He was released the following day after midnight. 

The Triibe, a Black news media organization that has partnered with Unraveled Press and the Chicago Reader, was the first outlet to publish an account of what happened to Held. 

Unraveled Press posted, “Per witness, Steve was filming an arrest when [federal agents] knocked a group of people backwards and grabbed him. She says it appeared targeted to her since he had been filming [a] CBP [Customs and Border Protection] interaction with the protester from start to finish.”

Moments before Held was detained, according to Unraveled Press, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents assisted ICE and CBP in rushing from behind a gate to “seize safety gear (umbrellas, shields) from protesters.” Federal agents “tackled” and arrested “one person between parked cars.”

Raven Geary, co-founder of Unraveled Press, told the Chicago Sun-Times, “It was shocking to see, but it was not shocking because they’ve been targeting us for days. They know that they’re being watched, they know that they’re secret police, they know that they’re targeting reporters on purpose.” (Geary was hit in the face with by a chemical munition earlier in the week.) 

As part of the outlet’s coverage of Held’s detention, The Triibe noted that a federal agent had previously snatched Held’s “reporter credentials” and fired “chemical weapons at him” while he was covering a protest outside the ICE facility. 

“Yes, arresting a journalist for doing their job is a big flashing red light,” Held posted after his release. “But I don't want people to forget the whole reason everyone is out there.”

Held shared what he had seen in the “four hold rooms,” “two smaller rooms” for protesters, and “two larger rooms” for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “captives.” The larger rooms had a “capacity” for 80 or more immigrants. 

The men’s holding cell had “roughly 40 men in one room, with an open bathroom area to the side.” Held could see “one man sitting in the room who had gauze wrapped around his head like he had a serious head wound. The room looked uncomfortably full at half ‘capacity.’ Keep in mind, this is seating capacity. Imagine a conference room with max capacity 80, and then holding people in there for days.” (It was difficult, according to Held, to see into the women’s holding cell.) 

“Reportedly some ICE detainees are held for days, even up to a week,” Held wrote. “Their room appeared dirty, filled with men dressed for labor, trying to get comfortable to sleep in chairs or on the cold floor in the cinder block room.” He was not sure that the men had showers or if and when they are fed. 

Held shared that the “room” he was held in “stank of sweat and pepper ball powder after just a few hours.” He did not believe that the lights ever went out, though possibly they “dimmed a bit” after midnight. 

“When they brought me out for "processing" (fingerprints, mug shot),” Held recalled, “I was seated just outside their room. Several men came and stood at the one window in their room that hadn't been papered over. Watching. The looks on their faces were heartbreaking.”

"I don't believe they were guilty of anything more than me—being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but now their lives will be altered forever.”

At one point, Held observed that agents had “taped bags up over every window in our cell so we couldn’t see out.” He presumed that may have had something to do with the fact that a journalist was in their custody. 

Held concluded, “If anything good can come from my arrest, I hope it's that more people demand the shutdown of the Broadview ICE facility, where humans are treated like poorly kept animals. Stop the deportations. Demand the truth about Silverio's death at ICE's hands.”

The federal ICE detention center in Broadview is located in a west Chicago suburb with a population of around 8,000 people. In Franklin Park, which is not far from Broadview, an ICE agent killed Silverio Villegas González on September 12 while attempting to stop him in his car.

While Held was in detention, federal agents unleashed tear gas and pepper balls on protesters, sending people running as they tried to escape the chemical-filled air. 

The National Lawyers Guild's Chicago chapter, or NLG Chicago, confirmed at least 11 arrests, including Held “who was clearly identified as a journalist.” 

“Multiple Legal Observers were subjected to violence, as federal agents appeared to directly target Legal Observers who were actively documenting arrests and law enforcement actions,” according to NLG Chicago. “Agents used multiple chemical agents, launched kinetic grenades, and shot rubber bullets, mace, and pepper balls against those assembled. One Legal Observer was shot directly in the face with a projectile. Agents also menaced people by pointing firearms at them, including hand guns and a rifle.”

NLG Chicago further described a scene of terror that was manufactured by federal agents: 

Officers forcibly removed people sheltering from tear gas in vehicles, resulting in the separation of a child from family members who were bringing food in support of the protest. Agents fired weapons at specific protesters in direct response to their First Amendment-protected statements and snatched protesters’ signs. Officers also confiscated tents used for shade, as well as food, water and first aid supplies, and people’s bike helmets and other personal property, putting them in a dumpster in the restricted area. When some of those present tried to leave in their vehicles, agents blocked them and demanded to illegally search people’s bodies and vehicles.

It was partly a response to the village of Broadview and Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson who demanded that the Department of Homeland Security stop “making war” on her community. The Broadview Fire Department also objected to the construction of an “illegal” fence to block protesters from accessing a public road outside the ICE facility. So, ICE retaliated by threatening a "shit show."

"Journalists are constitutionally entitled to cover protests and their aftermath, including after dispersal orders," declared Seth Stern, the advocacy director for the Freedom of the Press Foundation. "ICE’s well-documented very recent history of abuses of journalists and demonstrators alike shows exactly why it’s so important that law enforcement can’t operate outside the view of the press.”

"Steve Held, the journalist arrested tonight and taken to a so far undisclosed location, was part of the reporting team that exposed the falsity of ICE’s official narrative on the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas González. His work speaks for itself," Stern added.

While Held was the only journalist reportedly detained, there were at least two other incidents against the press during the weekend. 

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that one of their reporters was hit with rubber projectiles and tear gas, and CBS News Chicago shared a vivid account from one of their reporters involving a masked ICE agent who attacked CBS reporter Asal Rezaei late Sunday morning. 

“Rezaei said she was driving her truck with her driver's side window down, while approaching the 25th Avenue entrance to see if any activity was taking place, before leaving the area. That's when she said a masked ICE agent, who saw her window down, shot a pepper ball about 50 feet from the inside of the fence, hitting her truck's driver's side panel, causing the chemical agents to engulf the inside of her truck,” according to a CBS News Chicago report.

The attack left Rezaei’s face feeling like it was “on fire for at least 10 minutes or so, and she vomited outside of her truck as a result of the chemical munition. 

Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills later stated, "The Village of Broadview Police Department has launched a criminal investigation into an allegedly unprovoked attack on a CBS Chicago TV news reporter's vehicle by a chemical munition fired from the direction of U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention facility.”

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