ICE Agents Fire Pepper Balls at Presbyterian Pastor Rev. David Black During Altar Call at Broadview

On September 19, 2025, Rev. David Black, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was struck by at least seven pepper balls — twice in the head, once in the face — while standing with arms outstretched at the perimeter fence of the Broadview ICE Processing Center in Broadview, Illinois. Black was participating in a peaceful protest vigil and had moved toward the fence to address masked ICE agents stationed on the facility’s rooftop. He was offering what he described as an altar call, quoting Jesus: “Repent and believe the good news, that the kingdom of God has come near” — and inviting agents to receive salvation. ICE agents positioned above him fired downward. Black collapsed to his knees, coughing and holding the spots where he had been struck. Fellow protesters rushed to help rinse his face; agents continued firing as others came to his aid. The incident was captured on video by protest organizer Kelly Hayes and subsequently broadcast by WGN-TV, Fox 32 Chicago, and CNN. The footage — a pastor in prayer posture with arms outstretched being shot from a rooftop — became one of the defining images of the Broadview confrontation. As of October 13, 2025, Black reported still suffering respiratory effects from the strikes. He stated he heard agents laughing during and after the attack: “I wonder about their intentions.” The November 19, 2025 Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership et al. v. Noem et al. (1:25-cv-14168, N.D. Ill.) lawsuit followed in the broader Broadview clergy-encounter arc and produced the Gettleman injunctions (Feb 12 / Mar 31 / Apr 7 2026) and the May 19, 2026 negotiated DHS/ICE agreement — but per tier-1 plaintiff-slate sourcing (Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, CSPL press statements, RNS, NCR), Rev. Black is not among the named plaintiffs (correction applied 2026-05-28 per 2025-11-19–clergy-plaintiffs-constitutional-lawsuit-trump-administration-broadview; prior wording overstated his role from substrate-pack-level documentation; PACER docket review would be the definitive resolution). No documented DHS statement addressing the specific September 19 incident has been located.

Note on projectile type: Pepper balls are pneumatically launched impact projectiles — not pepper spray applied at close range. Fired from a rooftop onto a standing person below, they cause both kinetic impact injury (head strikes, bruising) and capsaicin-based respiratory and eye irritation. The rooftop distance delivery distinguishes this from close-contact crowd-control; the visual and injury profile is materially different and editorially significant.

Context: Broadview and the Clergy-Encounters Arc

The September 19 attack on Rev. Black is the opening incident of a sustained, documented confrontation between the federal enforcement apparatus and Christian clergy at the Broadview ICE Processing Center — a confrontation that ran from September through at least February 2026 and ultimately produced a federal court injunction. The Broadview facility sits within the Chicago Archdiocese’s geographic territory, a fact that would become operationally significant as the confrontation escalated.

The facility became the primary physical flashpoint of Operation Midway Blitz — DHS’s multi-agency immigration enforcement surge announced September 8, 2025, and operational from September 6. Until fall 2025, priests and nuns had routine access to minister inside Broadview. The shutdown of that access was deliberate, coinciding with Operation Midway Blitz’s launch. Throughout the confrontation, DHS characterized Broadview as “a field office, not a detention facility” — a bureaucratic distinction used repeatedly to justify excluding clergy, on the theory that RLUIPA’s detainee religious-access protections apply only to formally designated detention facilities.

The Rev. Black pepper-ball incident is the first documented instance of state force used against a clergy member at Broadview. It established the opening pattern: the administration that claimed to defend Christian expression under its Anti-Christian Bias Task Force and NSPM-7 framework was using rooftop-mounted agents to shoot a Presbyterian pastor in the head during an altar call.

The Broadview clergy-encounter arc escalated through the fall and winter of 2025:

• October 11, 2025 — Eucharistic procession of approximately 1,000 people led by Catholic priests carrying the consecrated Host was turned away at the gate; the relay message stated the delegation could not bring “compassion, prayer, solace or the love of God into this place.”
• October 17, 2025 — Rev. Hannah Kardon (United Methodist) arrested at a Broadview demonstration; officers allegedly struck her leg with batons.
• November 1, 2025 — Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María García-Maldonado led a formal delegation for All Saints Day that was barred; more than 2,000 gathered for outdoor Mass.
• November 7, 2025 — Federal officials announced “there is no more prayer in front of building or inside the building because this is the state.” See 2025-11-07–ice-broadview-prayer-ban-first-amendment.
• November 14, 2025 — More than 100 clergy gathered; seven faith leaders arrested in a single morning. Sister JoAnn Persch (Sisters of Mercy, age 91) died the same day. See 2025-11-14–seven-clergy-arrested-at-broadview-sister-joann-persch-dies-same-day.
• November 19, 2025 — Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership filed federal lawsuit (N.D. Ill.) alleging First Amendment, RFRA, and RLUIPA violations.
• February 12, 2026 — Judge Robert W. Gettleman issued a preliminary injunction, finding the government had “substantially burdened the religious exercise of the clergy” with no compelling government interest.

The Rev. Black incident also connects to the broader clergy-at-ICE-facilities arc: 2025-11-04–pope-leo-xiv-ice-clergy-access, in which Pope Leo XIV (the first American pope, ordained from the Chicago Archdiocese’s territory) issued a direct challenge to ICE from Castel Gandolfo to allow pastoral workers access to detained migrants.

Structural significance: The apparatus performing as the nation’s Christian protector used a rooftop-positioned agent to fire kinetic projectiles at a Presbyterian pastor offering an altar call. The visual and the claim cannot be reconciled. Broadview is where the contradiction becomes documented fact.