On September 30, ICE agents violently assaulted journalists covering arrests at Manhattan’s immigration court, 26 Federal Plaza. Video footage shows reporters Dean Moses, Olga Fedorova, and Vural Elibol being shoved and injured, with Elibol hospitalised after striking his head. ICE claimed that the press had “obstructed operations,” but witnesses and reporters describe a targeted attempt to prevent documentation of federal actions.
Recent years have seen an alarming decline in First Amendment protections. Journalists are increasingly arrested, assaulted, or surveilled while covering protests and federal enforcement actions. Arrests jumped from 15 in 2023 to 49 in 2024. Independent and immigrant journalists face especially acute risks: Mario Guevara, a freelance reporter, was arrested while livestreaming a protest and now faces deportation after over 100 days in ICE custody.
Attacking journalists is an attack on the public’s right to bear witness, eroding the mechanisms by which to hold power accountable. ICE’s violence outside immigration courts undermines public oversight of institutions that already operate with minimal transparency. The chilling effect forces reporters to calculate their own safety against their duty to inform, silencing stories at precisely the moment when scrutiny is most urgent.
