An amNewYork article reporting on ICE intimidating the press sparked outrage from the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) and prompted the organization to send letters to federal authorities and the Mayor’s office.
On June 26, amNewYork reported on federal agents using intimidation tactics inside 290 Broadway as photojournalists documented ICE detainments. The report detailed threats made against media members observing agents arresting immigrants. Agents also photographed reporters’ city-issued press credentials and sought to prohibit photographers from accessing public areas.
In one incident, not disclosed in the original coverage, two masked agents surrounded an amNewYork reporter and took a mocking selfie before laughing to themselves.
In response, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, an American non-profit organization founded in 2012 to fund and support free speech and freedom of the press, along with a slew of press rights organizations — such the National Press Photographers Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, and more — compiled several letters to the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Federal Protective Services asking them to address the intimidation tactics.
“The undersigned press freedom organizations write to express our serious concern regarding recent reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents making arrests in New York City immigration courts are harassing journalists, according to part of the letter which was provided to amNewYork. “This conduct, reported in amNY on June 26, 2025, raises serious First Amendment and press freedom concerns. It is likely to chill constitutionally protected reporting on a matter of the utmost public interest.”
According to the FPF, both Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Federal Protective Services did not respond to their concerns.
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, condemned the lack of response to what they cite as extremely troubling conduct.
“It is unfortunate that the agencies we addressed in our letters failed to reply to our real concerns regarding reports that ICE agents are harassing journalists by photographing their press credentials, attempting to improperly restrict their access to public areas in federal facilities, and otherwise interfering with their ability to report on matters of great public concern,” Osterreicher said. “Given their disregard for the well-established rules outlined in our letters regarding press credentials and photography, we view the actions by these federal agents as a blatant attempt to chill press freedoms.”
On the FPF webpage, the non-profit criticized the federal government for touting its self-proclaimed accomplishments through its X account and ride alongs with Dr. Phil McGraw’s Merit Street Media film crews while looking to suppress other journalists taking an objective look at the activity.
Advocacy director at FPF Seth Stern pushed back on this selective reporting.
“ICE is doing everything it can to silence news coverage of its actions, from concealing agents’ identities to accusing reporters of committing crimes by informing the public to intimidating and surveilling journalists in immigration courts, as amNewYork reported. Authorities in New York — and any federal officials with integrity who haven’t been fired for it yet — need to step in and tell ICE that we don’t have secret police here,” Stern said. “Journalists must be allowed to cover Trump’s immigration crackdown without being harassed by agents who don’t want the public knowing what they’re up to.”
amNewYork reached out to the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and is awaiting a response.
