This after one Chicago woman said last fall, she was confronted by agents after recording an arrest; one agent allegedly pointing a long gun directly at her.
In a recently filed federal lawsuit, attorneys allege DHS agents have taken these kinds of actions in instances nationwide, and in some cases, have gone even farther by tracing down the addresses of people who were recording ICE enforcement and showed up uninvited in front of their homes in "blatant acts of intimidation."
"If we don't document, it didn't happen," said Jo-Elle Munchak, who filmed immigration agents in the Edgewater neighborhood last fall. "It was a demonstration to show to my alderperson and my members of Congress... that this is happening in my neighborhood."
It was Oct. 10, 2025. As Operation Midway Blitz was in full force across Chicago, Munchak said she was on a morning drive when saw federal immigration agents detaining a landscaper working in the neighborhood. She said she decided to pull over, and film the encounter.
"There was no one gathered around protesting," Munchak explained. "I [stood] quite a distance away as to not to interfere and I tape it for about five minutes... It was without incident."
Bystander video of immigration agents has become crucial in a quest for truth.
When immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, DHS first labeled them as "domestic terrorists" who were threatening agents before video recorded by the public debunked the government's version of events.
After Munchak filmed federal agents that October morning, she said she got back into her car, turned onto her street, and experienced one of the most terrifying moments of her life when agents in two SUVs boxed her car in.
"One came to my driver's side window. The other one came to the passenger side, front window. And one came to the hood of my car aiming a long gun," Munchak told the I-Team. "They then start pounding with their elbow, pounding the door, demanding I get out of my car."
Munchak said she stayed in her car and showed agents her driver's license to prove she lived there on that street. She said agents took photos of her license and vehicle identification number.
Nine months later, Munchak said she has no idea what they were doing, or what they did with her information.
"It still affects me to this day," said Jo-Elle Munchak. "I get very triggered, and I know that's an overused term, but especially with the Minneapolis killings of Mr. Preti and Ms. Good, because literally, they were observing, like they were me."
What happened to Munchak and many other Americans is now the subject of a federal lawsuit demanding the policies and directives behind federal agents' actions.
Attorney Jonathan Manes is with the MacArthur Justice Center.
"We have the right to record our government doing its work on the streets," Manes told the I-Team. "This is core First Amendment protected activity. Everybody has the right to record what agents are doing on the street."
The MacArthur Justice Center and ACLU have recently filed a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit asking a judge to force immigration authorities to produce internal records that shed light on the "policies and practices of threatening, surveilling, prosecuting, and otherwise taking action against people who photograph, film, or publish footage of immigration enforcement happening on the streets," according to the lawsuit.
"These statements are echoed on the ground by the widely reported DHS practices aimed at stifling journalists, bystanders, and others who photograph and record immigration enforcement actions," the lawsuit states.
Manes and other attorneys are trying to find out what agents have been told to do if they see bystanders recording enforcement actions, and whether any bystander data is being stored in federal systems.
"A government that targets people who are filming has something to hide," Manes said. "We've even seen examples of where somebody is circulating footage on social media... and the DHS is sending subpoenas to Facebook trying to get information about the person."
As the I-Team previously reported, court records revealed in the case of Marimar Martinez, a Chicago woman who was shot by federal agents last fall and survived, agents had already compiled information on Martinez prior to the shooting after she reshared a post online about immigration enforcement.
This week, attorneys representing DHS officials asked a judge for more time to respond to the lawsuit.
DHS did not respond to the I-Team's request for comment for this story.
A spokesperson for DHS previously said it considers the recording of ICE agents as "doxing", and that the agency "will prosecute those who illegally harass ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law."
Munchak fears what happened to her, and others across the country, is meant to have a chilling effect on recording immigration enforcement.
"I was not interfering," Munchak said. "And when I hear reports of these federal agents saying, 'They were interfering and we feared for our lives,' I can't trust it because I was in that same position and I wasn't doing anything wrong."