How we photographed ICE agents arresting people in the Loop and River North
This week’s top photo comes from Photojournalist and Photo Desk Editor Ashlee Rezin. Follow her on X and Instagram.
What makes this photo important?
Somebody has to hold truth to power and bear witness to what is happening in the world. Photojournalists provide an important public service in a universal language, and I firmly believe in that duty. This belief keeps me going through the hard days.
How I got this photo
I was walking near Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol, and federal immigration enforcement agents as they were marching through the Loop and River North. The Sun-Times got an early tip and I raced downtown — even parked illegally with my hazard light on so I could jump out of my car to make a few frames. I think I was the only photojournalist with the group of agents walking north on North Clark Street, when Bovino suddenly yelled, “We got a runner!” A few agents took off sprinting, as did Bovino and I.
While the agents were questioning the person, someone else started recording the interaction on his cell phone. Bovino approached the observer and questioned his citizenship status. They briefly argued over whether he had to reveal that information, and the observer eventually moved to film the agents from a different location. The agents caught the person they were pursuing on West Superior Street, less than a block west of Clark, and drove him away in a Customs and Border Patrol vehicle.
A short time later, a WBEZ reporter — my colleague, Chip Mitchell — asked Bovino why agents arrested that man. Bovino would not specify anything except that the man didn’t resemble the white reporter.
“He exhibited articulable facts that made us take a look, and then we took a look and our suspicions were proven true. It does appear right now he’s an illegal alien,” Bovino said. “That’s still an ongoing federal investigation, so I’ll get back with you on exactly what that is, once we determine all those facts.”
Equipment: Canon EOS R5 with an EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM lens
Focal length: 70mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure: 1/400
ISO: 160
30 more great photos from the Sun-Times:
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent carries a child Sunday as federal immigration agents detain someone near Pioneer Court off the Magnificent Mile.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Federal U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents walk along West Wacker Drive in the Loop on Sunday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Dan Jones stands in his living room where his personal items can be seen scattered and mixed with strangers’ personal belongings in the building where ICE raided and detained migrants during a night operation at at 7500 S. South Shore Drive in South Shore on Wednesday.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Illinois State Police troopers push protesters out of the roadway as federal immigration agents come and go from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol, yells at protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Federal immigration enforcement agents and Illinois State Police troopers push protesters out of the roadway outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detain protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
A protester holds a Mexican flag while peering through the fence outside the Broadview ICE facility on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
A protester jeers at Border Patrol and ICE agents outside the Broadview detention facility on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Federal immigration enforcement agents man the gate of the ICE facility in Broadview on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
An ICE agent primes and points a taser at protesters and property owners after attempting to chase a protester through a homeowner’s yard on South 25th Avenue at Harvard Street outside the Broadview ICE processing center in Broadview on Sept. 26.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
An ICE agent fights with a protester to take away her Mexican flag, while another agent aims his paintball gun threatening to shoot her if she doesn’t let go on Beach Street outside the ICE processing center in Broadview on Sept. 28.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
ICE and Border Patrol agents push protesters a block away from the Broadview ICE facility using tear gas and rubber projectiles on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Journalist Steve Held is arrested by federal Border Patrol agents outside the Broadview ICE detention facility while covering a protest on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
ICE agents slowly fall back to the ICE processing center on South Harvard Street in Broadview as protesters move in and heckle them on Sept. 26.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Illinois Department of Transportation crews begin installing barricades on Beach Street to create official protest areas outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview on Thursday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
A man gets his hair cut at the protester support tent on Beach Street and Lexington Street outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview on Thursday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
A couple wearing motorcycle gear walk toward the fence outside the ICE processing center in suburban Broadview on Sunday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Karla, who has been running errands for her parents because they are without legal status, sits in a park.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Diego Reynoso weighs vegetables to fulfill a delivery order for a customer at Supermercado Reynoso in Cicero on Sept. 24.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
A customer shops at 88 Marketplace in Chinatown, where tariffs have increased the price of imported goods.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A closed sign is posted on one of the entrances of the National Park Service visitor center at the Pullman National Monument and State Historic Site at 610 E. 111th St. on Wednesday due to the federal government shutdown.
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot listens as Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills speaks to reporters at the Broadview Village Hall on Tuesday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Alicia Mandujano pushes her husband’s wheelchair toward the exit of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse after she was sentenced in the Bridgeport Bank embezzlement scheme on Monday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Lynsy Howard, who survived an unprovoked attack near Union Station, stands near her home in the West Loop on Wednesday. Howard and another woman are believed to be survivors of the same suspect who had punched the other woman near a Metra station.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
Marcia Lane-McGee, who came to Game 1 of the wild card series between the Cubs and the Padres, is wearing her 2016 championship T-shirt, metallic Cubs earrings and lipstick in a shade similar to the Cubs red.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
From left, top to bottom: Comedians Jess Martinez, Joz Sida, Janice Rodriguez, Eliana La Casa, Casey Larwood, Christina Gutierrez, Kat Diaz and Jessi Realz gather on one of the stages at The Lincoln Lodge in the Logan Square neighborhood on Wednesday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Senkhia Lofton waits for a bus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Sept. 26. Lofton is a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is there on a scholarship that covers tuition, room, board and incidentals that was offered to every student in her Chicago Public Schools graduating class.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
A sample of JoJo’s Shake Bar’s seasonal fall menu items like its pumpkin patch shake (center), alongside some year-round offerings at its River North location.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
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Apple takes down app that allows people to track and anonymously report sightings of ICE agents News Apple has taken down an app that uses crowdsourcing to flag sightings of U.S. immigration agents, apparently after being pressured by U.S. authorities. ICEBlock, a free iPhone-only app lets users anonymously report and monitor activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, was no longer available on Apple’s App Store…
How we photographed ICE agents arresting people in the Loop and River North
This week’s top photo comes from Photojournalist and Photo Desk Editor Ashlee Rezin. Follow her on X and Instagram.
What makes this photo important?
Somebody has to hold truth to power and bear witness to what is happening in the world. Photojournalists provide an important public service in a universal language, and I firmly believe in that duty. This belief keeps me going through the hard days.
How I got this photo
I was walking near Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol, and federal immigration enforcement agents as they were marching through the Loop and River North. The Sun-Times got an early tip and I raced downtown — even parked illegally with my hazard light on so I could jump out of my car to make a few frames. I think I was the only photojournalist with the group of agents walking north on North Clark Street, when Bovino suddenly yelled, “We got a runner!” A few agents took off sprinting, as did Bovino and I.
While the agents were questioning the person, someone else started recording the interaction on his cell phone. Bovino approached the observer and questioned his citizenship status. They briefly argued over whether he had to reveal that information, and the observer eventually moved to film the agents from a different location. The agents caught the person they were pursuing on West Superior Street, less than a block west of Clark, and drove him away in a Customs and Border Patrol vehicle.
A short time later, a WBEZ reporter — my colleague, Chip Mitchell — asked Bovino why agents arrested that man. Bovino would not specify anything except that the man didn’t resemble the white reporter.
“He exhibited articulable facts that made us take a look, and then we took a look and our suspicions were proven true. It does appear right now he’s an illegal alien,” Bovino said. “That’s still an ongoing federal investigation, so I’ll get back with you on exactly what that is, once we determine all those facts.”
Equipment: Canon EOS R5 with an EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM lens
Focal length: 70mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure: 1/400
ISO: 160
30 more great photos from the Sun-Times:
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent carries a child Sunday as federal immigration agents detain someone near Pioneer Court off the Magnificent Mile.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Federal U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents walk along West Wacker Drive in the Loop on Sunday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Dan Jones stands in his living room where his personal items can be seen scattered and mixed with strangers’ personal belongings in the building where ICE raided and detained migrants during a night operation at at 7500 S. South Shore Drive in South Shore on Wednesday.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Illinois State Police troopers push protesters out of the roadway as federal immigration agents come and go from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol, yells at protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Federal immigration enforcement agents and Illinois State Police troopers push protesters out of the roadway outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detain protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
A protester holds a Mexican flag while peering through the fence outside the Broadview ICE facility on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
A protester jeers at Border Patrol and ICE agents outside the Broadview detention facility on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Federal immigration enforcement agents man the gate of the ICE facility in Broadview on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
An ICE agent primes and points a taser at protesters and property owners after attempting to chase a protester through a homeowner’s yard on South 25th Avenue at Harvard Street outside the Broadview ICE processing center in Broadview on Sept. 26.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
An ICE agent fights with a protester to take away her Mexican flag, while another agent aims his paintball gun threatening to shoot her if she doesn’t let go on Beach Street outside the ICE processing center in Broadview on Sept. 28.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
ICE and Border Patrol agents push protesters a block away from the Broadview ICE facility using tear gas and rubber projectiles on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Journalist Steve Held is arrested by federal Border Patrol agents outside the Broadview ICE detention facility while covering a protest on Sept. 27.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
ICE agents slowly fall back to the ICE processing center on South Harvard Street in Broadview as protesters move in and heckle them on Sept. 26.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Illinois Department of Transportation crews begin installing barricades on Beach Street to create official protest areas outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview on Thursday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
A man gets his hair cut at the protester support tent on Beach Street and Lexington Street outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview on Thursday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
A couple wearing motorcycle gear walk toward the fence outside the ICE processing center in suburban Broadview on Sunday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Karla, who has been running errands for her parents because they are without legal status, sits in a park.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Diego Reynoso weighs vegetables to fulfill a delivery order for a customer at Supermercado Reynoso in Cicero on Sept. 24.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
A customer shops at 88 Marketplace in Chinatown, where tariffs have increased the price of imported goods.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A closed sign is posted on one of the entrances of the National Park Service visitor center at the Pullman National Monument and State Historic Site at 610 E. 111th St. on Wednesday due to the federal government shutdown.
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot listens as Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills speaks to reporters at the Broadview Village Hall on Tuesday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Alicia Mandujano pushes her husband’s wheelchair toward the exit of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse after she was sentenced in the Bridgeport Bank embezzlement scheme on Monday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Lynsy Howard, who survived an unprovoked attack near Union Station, stands near her home in the West Loop on Wednesday. Howard and another woman are believed to be survivors of the same suspect who had punched the other woman near a Metra station.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
Marcia Lane-McGee, who came to Game 1 of the wild card series between the Cubs and the Padres, is wearing her 2016 championship T-shirt, metallic Cubs earrings and lipstick in a shade similar to the Cubs red.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
From left, top to bottom: Comedians Jess Martinez, Joz Sida, Janice Rodriguez, Eliana La Casa, Casey Larwood, Christina Gutierrez, Kat Diaz and Jessi Realz gather on one of the stages at The Lincoln Lodge in the Logan Square neighborhood on Wednesday.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Senkhia Lofton waits for a bus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Sept. 26. Lofton is a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is there on a scholarship that covers tuition, room, board and incidentals that was offered to every student in her Chicago Public Schools graduating class.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
A sample of JoJo’s Shake Bar’s seasonal fall menu items like its pumpkin patch shake (center), alongside some year-round offerings at its River North location.
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