🔗 Share this article

Legal representatives acting for a producer from Chicago's local TV network who was briefly held by government officers last week describe the event as "something that should alarm and frighten every person in this nation".

Particulars of the Arrest

Debbie Brockman, a American national and station staff member, was arrested on the weekend by government officers during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. Footage from the scene depict the producer being pushed down by officers before she is restrained and placed in a vehicle.

At the moment, a homeland security official claimed that Brockman "threw objects at an official vehicle" and was "detained for attacking an officer".

Later on Friday, the television station announced that their employee had been released from federal custody and that no accusations had been filed against her.

Legal Team's Reaction

In a statement released by lawyers acting for Brockman on Tuesday, her legal team disputed the official version. They stated 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 attorneys explain that at the time of the arrest, the journalist was "not acting in any professional capacity as an employee for WGN" but that she was just "walking to the transit point as part of her daily travel when she was confronted by Border Patrol agents.

"Brockman, who is a American citizen native to the US, was violently detained on Foster Avenue," the statement adds. "As this happened, bystanders on the street began filming the event and asked her her name."

The release says that she informed the onlookers her name and that she worked at the station, in the hopes that "a person would notify her employer so coworkers would know that she would not be arriving at work that day", her lawyers stated.

Consequences and Legal Action

According to her legal team, Brockman was kept in government detention for about seven hours before being released.

"The individual has not been charged 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.

"Brad Thomson, one of her attorneys, added in the statement: "If armed, masked, government officers are taking American nationals off the street as they walk to work and placing them in non-descript cars, you can only imagine what these agents must be prepared to do to our immigrant neighbors and people who choose to protest against them."

"The journalist was forced down, struck, handcuffed, and her trousers were lowered exposing her uncovered skin," the lawyer said. "No one should be handled like that in this metropolis, in this nation or anywhere else in the world."

ICE, the federal agency, and the border agency did not immediately respond to inquiries from the media.