A Presbyterian minister attacked by ICE agents during the peaceful protest of a Chicago-area migrant processing center has joined a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s violence against demonstrators and media.
David Black, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago in Woodlawn, Ill., is one of numerous plaintiffs in a federal complaint filed Oct. 6 against President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials for authorizing arbitrary and unlawful force and detentions during constitutionally protected rallies against federal immigration facilities.
The action stemmed from attacks against protesters and reporters during demonstrations at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview in September. It was there Black was shot in the head with a pepper ball projectile and gassed by agents on Sept. 19.
Video of the incident shows Black being struck in the head by the round, which erupted into a white cloud upon impact, causing him to fall down. Soon afterward, agents in gas masks pushed into the crowd targeting Black and other demonstrators with tear gas.
Pastor David Black prays below masked agents on the rooftop of an ICE detention facility in Broadview, Ill. (Screencap)
Only moments before, Black had been praying for ICE agents standing on the roof of the processing facility, Religion News Service reported him saying: “I invited them to repentance. I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois cited the deployment of National Guard soldiers to Chicago and to the Broadview ICE center to intimidate protesters and reporters and to stifle their free-speech rights.
On Thursday, Oct. 9, a federal judge issued an emergency 14-day temporary restraining order barring government agents from using force against faith-based demonstrators there.
The lawsuit charges: “Federal agents have responded with a pattern of extreme brutality in a concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians. Dressed in full combat gear, often masked, carrying weapons, bearing flash grenades and tear gas canisters, and marching in formation, federal agents have repeatedly advanced upon those present at the scene who posed no imminent threat to law enforcement.”
Authorities have stationed snipers on the facility’s roof with weapons trained on demonstrators and journalists, the lawsuit says.
“Federal agents have tackled and slammed people to the ground; they have lobbed flash grenades and tear gas canisters indiscriminately into the crowd; they have fired rubber bullets and pepper balls at selected individuals; and they have cursed and shouted at demonstrators to provoke them.”
Clearly identifiable members of the press have been threatened with violence, assaulted with tear gas and sometimes detained while reporting on the protests. Media reports indicate nearby residents also have been choked by teargas that wafted into their neighborhoods.
“No legitimate purpose exists for this brutality or for these arrests.”
“No legitimate purpose exists for this brutality or for these arrests,” the lawsuit argues. “The officers are not physically threatened. No government property is threatened. Defendants are acting to intimidate and silence the press and civilians engaged in protected First Amendment activities.”
Plaintiffs also accuse the Trump administration of violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits the government from “substantially” burdening an individual’s expression of faith.
“Defendants’ policy, pattern and practice of targeting Rev. Black and other similarly situated Religious Exercise subclass members with violence substantially burdens their exercise of religion,” according to the suit. “Rev. Black is called by his faith to return to Broadview to pray for ICE officers there, but his experience requires him to overcome fear in order to do so.”
Chicago and the state of Illinois filed a joint lawsuit Oct. 6 citing the Broadview incident as an example of Trump’s abusive use of military forces against civilians and communities.
Greg Bovino, chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol El Centro sector, right, walks along a clergy protester with his hands behind his back near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” that suits contends.
The lawsuit protests the deployment to Chicago of 300 Illinois National Guard troops and up to 400 from Texas: “These advances in President Trump’s long-declared ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous.”
The administration has additionally deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Memphis, Tenn., Portland, Ore., and Washington D.C., resulting in more lawsuits.
The Trump administration claims the video of the assault on Black was edited.
The Trump administration claims the video of the assault on Black was edited in a way to discredit immigration agents and National Guard troops.
“What this clipped video doesn’t show is that these agitators were blocking an ICE vehicle from leaving the federal facility — impeding operations,” said Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary.
“Over and over again, law enforcement ordered these agitators to move off federal property so the vehicle could move. Law enforcement verbally warned these agitators that they would use force if they did not move and stop impeding operations. They did not comply,” she said. “Shortly after, rioters began throwing rocks, bottles and launching fireworks at the law enforcement officers on the roof.”
McLaughlin provided no video or other evidence that Black or other demonstrators blocked government vehicles or hurled projectiles toward the facility, agents or troops. In fact, the video clip shows the minister standing on or near a handicap parking space without the presence of law enforcement when he was shot.
The demonstrators “weren’t scaling a fence. They weren’t throwing any items. They weren’t even saying anything in the least that would be threatening. And that’s when they (agents) just started opening fire at them,” Amanda Tovar, a bystander who captured the video of Black’s attack, told CNN.
As for the pastor, “he was praying, he had his hands open, he was praying to them, and they just ended up shooting him. It was like casual to them.”
Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino of the El Centro Sector stands amid a protest outside an ICE facility in Broadview on September 27. Bovino, who recently spearheaded controversial immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago, faces demonstrators voicing opposition to immigration policies. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The person in charge of the alleged assaults on media and clergy is Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino. According to CNN, Bovino arrived in Chicago in mid-September fresh off a summer operation in Los Angeles, where he helped orchestrate the arrests of more than 5,000 immigrants.
A North Carolina native, Bovino joined Border Patrol in 1996. In Trump’s battle against immigrants, he has become a willing leader of some of the most aggressive tactics seen nationwide.
According to CNN: “When a National Guard major general scrutinized some of Bovino’s tactics, the Border Patrol chief questioned his loyalty to the country. Bovino has frequently traded barbs with local officials at the locations where he’s carrying out immigration enforcement. ‘Better get used to us now, because this going to be normal very soon,’ he told Fox News in response to criticism from the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass.”
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