A video appearing to show a WGN-TV staff member being detained by Border Patrol agents in Chicago is going viral. The person in the video has been identified as Debbie Brockman.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a statement said she was ‘placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer.’ Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, said on X that Brockman had been arrested after throwing objects at law enforcement.
The video showed masked border patrol agents holding a woman to the ground and she identifies herself as WGN-TV’s Brockman. She is then handcuffed and taken into a silver van with New Jersey plates. Onlookers can be heard jeering at the agents and honking their horns.
Who is Debbie Brockman?
Debbie Brockman is a Video Editor and Producer, based out of Chicago. As per her LinkedIn profile she’s a Producer, Creative Services at WGN-TV. Prior to this, she was a Video Editor and Graphics at City of Chicago Television.
Brockman also had stints as Video Editor for Front Porch Video and Donor Database Manager at Red Door Animal Shelter. She’s also been a Office Manager/Bookkeeper. She’s graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BA in Film and Video, as per her LinkedIn.
What WGN-TV said
WGN-TV, in a statement, said “WGN-TV is aware of the situation involving ICE and an employee in the station’s creative services department, which is separate from the WGN News department. This remains an evolving situation, and we are actively gathering the facts related to it,” as per ABC7 Chicago.
On Thursday, US District Judge Sara Ellis, an Joe Biden appointee, issued a temporary restraining order that provided protections for journalists and protesters in the Chicago area. The order restricts the ability of federal agents to disperse, arrest or use physical force against journalists unless they have probable cause to believe the individual has committed a crime. Agents may still order journalists to move to avoid disrupting law enforcement.
In September, the Donald Trump administration announced the launch of an aggressive campaign in the Chicago area to deport immigrants in the country illegally that it labeled “Operation Midway Blitz.” Since then, officers have shot at least two people. Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Franklin Park, Illinois, was shot dead during an attempted arrest by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent. She survived and was indicted on Thursday on charges of impeding a federal officer with a deadly weapon. In both cases, authorities said the officers were acting in self-defense.
Meanwhile, ICE agents have scuffled regularly with protesters outside an immigration processing center in the suburb of Broadview, using pepper balls, tear gas and other chemical munitions to try to disperse the small crowds.
(With Reuters inputs)
