🔗 Share this article

Attorneys acting for a producer from Chicago's WGN television station who was temporarily detained by government officers last week characterize the incident as "an occurrence that ought to concern and horrify every person in this nation".

Details of the Detainment

Debbie Brockman, a US citizen and WGN employee, was arrested on the weekend by federal agents during an ICE action in a North Side Chicago area. Footage from the location depict the producer being pushed down by two agents before she is restrained and placed in a vehicle.

At the time, a homeland security official claimed that the individual "hurled items at border patrol's car" and was "detained for assault on a federal law enforcement officer".

Later on Friday, WGN announced that Brockman had been freed from detention and that no charges had been pressed against her.

Attorney's Reaction

In a statement released by attorneys acting for the journalist on earlier this week, her legal team challenged the official version. They declared they "adamantly deny any allegation that she attacked anyone" and that "She was the one who was physically attacked by federal agents on her way to work" on 10 October.

Her lawyers say that at the moment of the detainment, Brockman was "not performing in any official role as an staff member for the station" but that she was just "walking to the bus stop as part of her morning commute when she was attacked by Border Patrol agents.

"The individual, who is a US Citizen native to the US, was forcibly held on Foster Avenue," the release continues. "As this occurred, bystanders on the street began recording the incident and inquired Ms Brockman her name."

The release says that she told the onlookers her name and that she was employed at the station, in the hopes that "someone would notify her employer so colleagues would know that she would not be coming at work that day", her attorneys stated.

Consequences and Next Steps

Based on her lawyers, the journalist was kept in government detention for about several hours before being released.

"The individual has not been accused with any offenses and she intends to explore all legal avenues available to her to vindicate her entitlements and hold the federal authorities accountable for their actions," the statement notes.

"One attorney, one of her attorneys, commented in the release: "When armed, covered, federal agents are snatching American nationals off the street as they travel to work and throwing them in non-descript cars, you can only imagine what these agents must be willing to do to our immigrant neighbors and individuals who dare to protest against them."

"The journalist was forced down, struck, restrained, and her trousers were pulled down exposing her uncovered skin," Thomson said. "No one should be handled like that in this city, in this country or any other place in the world."

ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the border agency did not immediately respond to inquiries from news outlets.