Attorneys for a Chicago television producer who was temporarily detained by federal agents last week have described the incident as “alarming and horrifying to every person in this country”. Debbie Brockman, a US citizen and employee of WGN, was arrested on Friday during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) operation in the city’s Lincoln Square neighbourhood.
Videos from the scene show Brockman being forced to the ground by two agents before being handcuffed and placed in a van. At the time, a homeland security official claimed that Brockman “threw objects at border patrol’s car” and was “placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer”. However, later on Friday, WGN confirmed that Brockman had been released and that no charges had been filed against her.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Brockman’s lawyers disputed the government’s account, saying they “adamantly deny any allegation that she assaulted anyone” and that “Brockman was the one who was violently assaulted by federal agents on her way to work”. They said she was “not acting in any professional capacity as an employee for WGN” but was merely “walking to the bus stop as part of her morning commute when she was attacked by Border Patrol agents”.
The statement added that Brockman, “a US Citizen born in this country, was violently detained on Foster Avenue” and that she told bystanders her name and where she worked in the hope that someone would notify her employer. She was held in federal custody for about seven hours before being released, and her lawyers say she “intends to pursue all legal avenues available to her to vindicate her rights and hold the federal authorities accountable”.
Brad Thomson, one of her attorneys, said: “If armed, masked, federal agents are snatching US citizens off the street as they walk to work and throwing them in unmarked vehicles, you can only imagine what these agents must be willing to do to our immigrant neighbours and people who dare to speak out against them. Ms Brockman was taken to the ground, battered, handcuffed, and her pants were pulled down exposing her bare buttocks. No one should be treated like that in this city, in this country or anywhere else in the world.”
Ice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the US Customs and Border Protection agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Guardian.
