Chicago’s Block Club Is Ready for ICE

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.