Border Patrol Agents Arrest Chicago News Producer and Ram Vehicle in Hasty Getaway 

Facebook/Chicago Tribune

Masked Border Patrol agents on Friday arrested a TV producer for WGN News in Chicago, threw her into an unmarked van, and rammed into another vehicle as they drove away.

A video posted on Facebook by a bystander named Josh Thomas shows three masked agents pinning Debbie Brockman on a street in Chicago’s North Side as they handcuff her. Thomas asks her name, which she gives, before Thomas asks the agents, “You guys wanna share your names, too?”

They declined.

Brockman’s LinkedIn says she is a producer for WGN.

A video of the aftermath of the arrest shows agents loading Brockman into a van as a group of bystanders scolds the two men. The agents then drive off, but clip a vehicle while ripping the rear bumper halfway off.

“WGN is aware of this situation, and we are actively gathering the facts related to it,” the network said in a statement.

Brockman has since been released. Initially, the Department of Homeland Security claimed she threw objects at a Border Patrol vehicle.

“I walk out the front door of the condo, she’s laying on the ground in the street and they’re wrestling with her, trying to get her hands behind her back,” Thomas, who works at a Chicago law firm, told The Chicago Tribune. “They said they were detaining her for obstruction. She said, ‘I didn’t obstruct.'”

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Reason Magazine, “U.S. Border Patrol was conducting immigration enforcement operations and when several violent agitators used their vehicles to block in agents in an effort to impede and assault federal officers.”

Reason added, “This account contradicts the Chicago Tribune, which reported that Brockman was already detained in the van when it drove off and clipped another car.”

CORRECTION: This article has been corrected to reflect that Brockman was detained by Border Patrol agents, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.