Frontline Journalism: Chicago Journalist Describes ICE Hit

When general assignment reporter Asal Rezaei was shot by a pepper ball outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, Ill., her first instinct was to immediately go on camera and explain what had happened.

“As a reporter, you never, ever, want to be the focus of the story. Ever,” said Rezaei, a CBS News Chicago journalist.

The incident brought Rezaeir to Loyola’s School of Communication Oct. 21 to speak to students about her career and experience at the Broadview facility.

Rezaei was doing a routine drive by the Broadway ICE facility Sept. 28 to check out the scene before she would report on it later in the day. Rezaei was parked outside the facility gate guarded by two ICE officers. She had her phone in hand on the dashboard to take a photo for her producer.

“After that pepper ball was fired at me, my first instinct was to just go on camera in front of my car,” Rezaei said. “It had been two minutes, I don’t know where it was gonna air.” 

The night of Sept. 28 saw Rezaei’s experience gain national coverage. The video she recorded was shown on the Colbert Show and Jimmy Kimmel.  

Rezaei described the anxiety she felt due to the media coverage. The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and Fox News reached out to Rezeai for comment. 

Instead, CBS Chicago did a series of investigations about journalists being hit unprovoked at ICE protests. Five independent journalists had been detained and arrested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the week of Rezaei being shot. 

Rezaei said she decided to let her reporting speak for itself. She didn’t give a comment to the major outlets and continued reporting on the ICE detention center in Broadview. 

“I covered the George Floyd riots,” Rezaei said.“I’ve been hit in the face and had welts on my body, but I’m covering a protest. That’s going to happen.”

Journalists were told by the DHS when covering protests, they’re subject to being hit with projectiles, according to Rezaei. 

CBS Chicago reached out to DHS for a comment on Rezaei being shot. DHS responded that the incident never happened, Rezaei said.  

As a result of Rezaei’s situation, there’s an active lawsuit by the members of the press in Chicago which names the assault on Rezaei as proof of reporters being targeted by federal officers while reporting on the Broadview ICE facility. 

Rezaei said reporting on immigration is more important than ever now as the First Amendment is under fire due to an increased regulation on what journalists can report on. This past week, Pentagon reporters for major news outlets CBS, ABC, NBC, The New York Times, The Associated Press, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and NPR walked out. The outlets refused to sign new department policies that placed significant restrictions on the First Amendment, AP News reported.  

She said it’s scary to imagine a version of the United States where journalists are being told information they report on is restricted to being editorialized first. 

“We have to have journalists here documenting it, and asking for the facts and showing those facts, videoing it, because it’s all going to be a part of history one day,” Rezaei said.“Journalism always is.” 

Rezaei asked for the crowd of students present to reflect on the crucial public service role journalists play and be cognizant of this should they follow in the footsteps of her career as a journalist. 

Third-year ad and public relations major Kate Middleton said Rezaei’s talk opened up her perspective of  the important work journalists do for the public and what they risk on the job. Middleton joked that she previously thought of journalists as “pushy,” but now realizes that journalists must be in order to showcase key events happening that the public otherwise might not have known about. 

Second-year multimedia journalism student Chloe Billiet said Rezaei’s experience shocked her. As a student journalist herself, she was surprised it hadn’t come across her social media feed. 

She presumed that journalists who said “Good morning New York” weren’t on the frontlines reporting. Billiet said listening to Rezaei discuss her career in broadcast journalism cleared up misconceptions she had prior. 

“I’ve been, like, confused about my future, because I wanted to go to law school, but her talk 

inspired me to just get a master’s in journalism because I want to make my difference through journalism,” Billiet said.