Filings under the Federal Torts Claims Act are precursors to federal lawsuits; more claimants are expected, attorneys say.
CHICAGO — Today, three Chicago residents who protested outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, IL last fall filed for damages under the Federal Torts Claims Act (FTCA). The filings—which notify the government of injuries and damages the claimants say they suffered through violations of their civil liberties by federal agents—are a necessary first step towards the filing of federal lawsuits.
Pastor David Black, Judy Laut, and William Paulson all went to Broadview in September 2025 to peacefully exercise their constitutional right to protest Operation Midway Blitz and the overall immigration policies of the Trump administration. In return for voicing this opposition, however, they were brutally assaulted by agents of the federal government—including ICE, U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents—using military style weapons and tactics, in clear violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the FTCA.
“I was expecting a protest,” says Judy Laut. “Instead, I walked into a war zone on an American street.”
On September 19, in a harrowing incident captured on video by witnesses, Laut was repeatedly assaulted by several agents outside the gates of the facility. Agents brutally threw her face first down to the pavement, then shot her point blank with pepper balls while she sat there recovering, hitting her at least once in the head. Once she stood, she was pepper sprayed in the eyes, and then seized from behind and placed in a choke hold. Staggering away blind and disoriented, she was arrested a few moments later and dragged into the facility, where she was denied medical treatment and mocked by her captors.
At no point did she represent any threat to the federal agents.
In the aftermath of this trauma, Laut found she was unable to leave her house without severe panic attacks. She had to quit her job coordinating donations for survivors of domestic violence, and now she receives ongoing psychiatric treatment for PTSD.
“No one should lose everything for exercising their constitutional rights,” says Laut.
William Paulson is a retired union painter who went to Broadview to express solidarity with the people being detained. What he experienced, however, was what he has described as “a wholesale attack” on the protesters, without warning or provocation. Tear gas canisters were shot in front of him and behind him, as flash bang grenades went off all around him. Mr. Paulson, who suffers from emphysema and COPD, fell to all fours and vomited. The exposure has caused permanent lung damage, and he is receiving treatment for psychological trauma.
“I grew up believing certain rights are at the core of being an American,” says Mr. Paulson. “The right to disagree, the right to protest when you do disagree, being central to this. ICE, by attacking me while protesting peacefully at Broadview, tests this belief. If we can’t protest peacefully without punishment or harm, who are we?”
In one of the most widely publicized incidents of Operation Midway Blitz, Pastor David Black, of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was wearing his clerical collar when he was shot repeatedly in the head with projectiles, and sprayed in the face with tear gas, while praying outside the Broadview facility.
“We have watched the Trump administration’s thugs attack American communities, and we have personally suffered their violent suppressions of religious expression and free speech,” says Pastor Black. “And yet, so far, no body of local, state, or federal law enforcement has held ICE and CBP accountable. So we are pursuing the only kind of accountability the Trump administration understands: money.”
The experiences of these claimants are already part of the public record: Chicago Headline Club v. Noem, a federal lawsuit brought last fall by a coalition of protesters, clergy, and reporters, documented DHS, ICE, and CBP agents’ violence inflicted on protestors throughout the Chicago region during “Operation Midway Blitz.” That lawsuit resulted in a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), and a federal judge ordering hundreds of hours of video evidence, and thousands of documents, released to the public.
“CHC v. Noem exhaustively documented the constitutional violations that DHS, CBP, and ICE committed in Cook County, against countless communities and individuals,” says attorney Annalise Wagner of Loevy + Loevy. “Everyone knows exactly what happened, and everyone know it was wrong. The next step, in a just society, is holding the wrongdoers accountable, and these filings are a step towards that goal.”
The FTCA claims list personal injury damages for each claimant. If the claims are denied, or if they are not resolved by settlement within six months, the claimant can sue the United States in federal court.
According to the claimants, however, the point is not the money, but a steadfast refusal to accept a world in which government violence against dissenting viewpoints is commonplace.
“That is why I am filing this claim,” says Ms. Laut. “Not for revenge. For accountability. Because if we do not demand it, this becomes the world we accept.”
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