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The Kicker

Chicago’s Block Club Is Ready for ICE

The independent digital startup has been on the ground covering ICE’s surge and the attacks on journalists.

October 10, 2025
(Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

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On Thursday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring federal agents from using riot control measures like tear gas to disperse journalists seeking to cover protests outside the Broadview ICE processing center, near Chicago. 

The order was the result of a lawsuit filed earlier in the week by several Chicago news organizations and reporters who had been injured or detained while trying to cover ICE activity in the city. 

Stephanie Lulay is the co–executive editor and cofounder of one of them, Block Club, a seven-year-old digital nonprofit that seems almost perfectly built for this moment. She and reporter Francia García Hernández join The Kicker to talk about what they’ve seen around Chicago recently, and about what it’s like reporting on a city under siege.

Read more:

*The lawsuit filed by Block Club and other Chicago-area news outlets.
*Some of Francia’s coverage for Block Club. 
*A September incident during which a Block Club freelancer was shot by pepper balls while covering protests at Broadview.
*Dave Levinthal for CJR on how ICE has been routinely ignoring FOIA requests from reporters—including one from Block Club.

Editor’s Note: The photo on this article has been updated to include the complete credit information.

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Josh Hersh is a senior editor at CJR. He was previously a correspondent and senior producer at Vice News, and spent several years as a reporter based in the Middle East.

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