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Legal representatives acting for a journalist from the city of Chicago's local TV network who was briefly held by government officers last week describe the incident as "an occurrence that ought to alarm and horrify every person in this country".

Particulars of the Detainment

Debbie Brockman, a US citizen and station staff member, was arrested on Friday by federal agents during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. Footage from the location depict the producer being pushed down by two agents before she is handcuffed and placed in a vehicle.

At the time, a government spokesperson claimed that the individual "hurled items at an official vehicle" and was "detained for attacking an officer".

Later on Friday, WGN announced that their employee had been freed from detention and that no charges had been filed against her.

Attorney's Response

In a statement issued by attorneys acting for the journalist on Tuesday, her legal team challenged the government's account. They stated they "adamantly deny any claim that she attacked anyone" and that "Brockman was the one who was violently assaulted by officers on her way to work" on the date in question.

Her attorneys explain that at the moment of the arrest, Brockman was "not performing in any official role as an staff member for WGN" but that she was just "heading to the bus stop as part of her morning commute when she was attacked by Border Patrol agents.

"Brockman, who is a American citizen born in this country, was forcibly held on a city street," the statement continues. "As this occurred, individuals on the street began filming the event and asked her her name."

The statement indicates that she told the onlookers her name and that she was employed at WGN, in the hopes that "someone would notify her workplace so coworkers would know that she would not be coming at work that day", her lawyers stated.

Consequences and Legal Action

Based on her lawyers, the journalist was kept in government detention for about several hours before being released.

"She has not been accused with any crimes and she intends to pursue all legal avenues available to her to vindicate her entitlements and ensure government accountability for their conduct," the statement notes.

"One attorney, a legal representative, added in the release: "If armed, masked, federal agents are taking American nationals off the street as they travel to work and placing them in non-descript cars, you can only imagine what these officers must be prepared to do to our foreign-born residents and individuals who choose to protest against them."

"The journalist was taken to the ground, battered, restrained, and her pants were lowered revealing her bare buttocks," Thomson said. "No one should be treated like that in this city, in this nation or anywhere else in the globe."

Immigration authorities, the federal agency, and the US Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to inquiries from news outlets.