STATEMENT: NYGuild Executive Committee Condemns ICE Agent Attacks on Journalists

The NewsGuild of New York condemns the violent attack by ICE agents against three journalists covering immigration court proceedings in Manhattan. 

The bedrock of democracy is a free press, which includes the right of reporters to ask questions of and report on the government, including law enforcement officials. The attack on Tuesday by masked immigration agents on Dean Moses, Olga Fedorova and L. Vural Elibol undermines this essential value and endangers constitutional rights. We demand that New York’s immigration courts take immediate action to prevent similar attacks from happening in the future. 

Our union’s 6,000 members stand in solidarity with those injured in Tuesday’s attack and remain committed to serving the public’s right to know what their government is doing. 

In September, a federal judge ruled in the NewsGuild-CWA’s favor when our union, the ACLU, and the Los Angeles Press Club sued the Department of Homeland Security for attacking journalists at demonstrations against ICE actions in Los Angeles. In a 45-page opinion, Judge Hernán Vera of the Central District Court of California issued a preliminary injunction barring DHS from brutalizing members of the press and legal observers, writing that “the First Amendment demands better.” 

We expect ICE agents in New York to be held accountable for their actions in the same way. We ask our elected leaders to demand an investigation into the horrifying violence on Tuesday and to take concrete steps to protect the rights of journalists carrying out the duties of their jobs.