Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Wednesday defended an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who shot a pastor with a pepper ball from a rooftop, after a video of the incident went viral this week.

Videos of the Sept. 19 incident, which circulated widely Wednesday on social media, showed the Rev. David Black of the First Presbyterian Church being struck in the head by an officer outside an ICE processing facility in a Chicago suburb. It stoked anger toward federal officers who have been deployed to the city by President Trump.

“What this clipped video doesn’t show is that these agitators were blocking an ICE vehicle from leaving the federal facility—impeding operations,” McLaughlin wrote in a lengthy statement on social platform X.

“Over and over again, law enforcement ordered these agitators to move off of federal property so the vehicle could move. Law........

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