This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available. Last updated Nov. 7 at 2:21 p.m.
Attorneys representing Chicago journalists and protesters filed a notice Monday alleging that Department of Homeland Security agents violated a temporary restraining order during immigration enforcement operations in Evanston on Friday.
The notice is a recent development in a suit brought by the Chicago Headline Club, other media organizations and protesters against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and other top federal administrators. Filed in October, the suit stems from federal responses to protests at the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois.
Judge Sara Ellis first granted a temporary restraining order Oct. 9. The order places restrictions on federal agents in the Northern District of Illinois, including limiting their use of force and riot control weapons and requiring agents to display visible identification.
In the notice, the plaintiffs’ attorneys allege DHS agents violated the order during operations on Halloween in Evanston by using excessive force against protesters, subjecting protesters to risk and harm, deploying pepper spray on a non-violent crowd without warning, threatening the use of excessive force against non-violent protesters and failing to wear numbers and badges.
On Halloween, Evanston saw significant activity by federal immigration enforcement agencies. The DHS made at least eight arrests across Evanston and Skokie on Friday, including both protesting citizens and those it said lacked legal status, a DHS spokesperson confirmed to The Daily. At least three arrests occurred after a collision involving a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle less than a block from Chute Middle School.
The notice includes signed declarations by three Evanston residents.
In the first declaration, Kerry Littel detailed a confrontation between “more than a dozen” community members and federal immigration agents after the collision involving a Border Patrol vehicle.
According to Littel’s declaration, federal agents sat on top of a man, grabbed his head and bashed it on the street at least twice. Littel claimed that the agent then struck the man on the head at least two times before picking him up and putting him in their vehicle.
Video footage documenting this confrontation — and those recorded by the other residents — is also included in the notice.
On Saturday, before the notice was filed, DHS Assistant Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin reposted one of the videos included on X, showing a Border Patrol agent pinning the man on the ground and striking him multiple times.
In the post, McLaughlin claimed the agent’s actions were motivated by self-defense after the man grabbed the agent’s genitals. At the start of the video, one of the man’s hands is clearly behind his back and the other is out of view.
In another declaration, Evanston resident David Brooks alleges that while he was in a crowd of protesters at the scene, an agent pointed a gun directly at him. Brooks wrote that the agent said “step back or I’m going to shoot you,” shown in one of the included videos.
The notice also claims agents “set off either pepper spray or mace” without warning the crowd of protesters and that multiple agents appeared to lack visible identification.
A third declaration, by Evanston resident Kelly Mack, described a separate interaction where she saw a neighbor shoved by an immigration agent without an audible warning.
The court’s temporary restraining order instructs that the defendants are temporarily prohibited from using force against “an individual who poses no immediate threat of physical harm to others, unless necessary and proportional to effectuate an apprehension and arrest.”
It also blocks them from seizing or arresting peaceful protesters who are not resisting lawful crowd dispersal orders, without probable cause to believe they have committed a crime that warrants arrest. The order also contains a provision requiring all federal agents — with some exceptions for those who do not wear uniforms or those who are undercover — to have visible identification prominently displayed.
The notice alleges that the defendants violated each of these provisions.
The lawyers representing the plaintiffs and defendants did not respond to requests for comment.
After a hearing Wednesday and Thursday, Ellis ordered a preliminary injunction on federal agents’ use of force in the area.
In an emailed statement to The Daily, a DHS spokesperson said they would appeal the order, calling the injunction “an extreme act by an activist judge that risks the lives and livelihoods of law enforcement officers.”
Email: h.webster@dailynorthwestern.com
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— Evanston community mobilizes amid increased ICE and Border Patrol enforcement on Halloween
— Evanston police to respond to reported federal agent activity, city says
