Judge scolds DHS over handling of anti-ICE protests in Chicago, moves to oversee operations

A U.S. district judge chastised Homeland Security on Tuesday over agents’ suppression of anti-ICE protests on the streets of Chicago and put herself in a position to oversee operations, demanding body-worn cameras for all personnel and ordering daily briefings from the commander on the scene.

Judge Sara Ellis said she didn’t want to take over the Chicago immigration enforcement operation but said she thinks authorities have violated a restraining order that she issued curtailing the use of aggressive riot-control tactics.

The case has quickly become a major test of how much room Homeland Security has to deal with the unruly crowds that are increasingly emboldened to confront officers and agents as they carry out President Trump’s deportation plans.

Judge Ellis ordered Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol commander-at-large, to personally deliver an update every weekday evening so she can understand what’s going on. She fretted specifically over reports that tear gas was used on a crowd last weekend near where kids were preparing for a Halloween celebration.

“Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer,” the judge said. “You can’t use riot-control weapons against them.”

She said she was seeing video from the streets that made her think agents had violated a restraining order she issued last week banning the use of tear gas or other riot-control munitions unless there was an immediate threat.

But Homeland Security released its own video on social media just as the hearing was getting underway that challenged some of the judge’s conclusions, which were based on the claims of the protesters themselves.

The video shows events surrounding the highest-profile clash yet, last week in the Little Village neighborhood, where Chief Bovino personally used tear gas despite the judge’s restraining order.

In the video, one agent can be clearly heard warning that tear gas could be used if people didn’t back up. The video also seemed to capture repeated instances of rocks or other dense objects tossed at the agents — including Chief Bovino himself.

The video captures mortar-style fireworks being fired at the agents.

And the video includes some of the confrontations that agents say they are now regularly facing as they move about major cities to conduct immigration enforcement.

“All y’all daughters gonna get raped,” one woman says as she seemingly encourages a man to call for other protesters to join the fray.

“They’re about to come over here and ram the [expletive] out of all y’all [expletive],” the woman said.

“They gonna come deep,” the man then says. “Y’all better watch it.”

An agent cautions back, “Don’t be threatening us, bro.”

The video then shows the main confrontation as agents try to extract a government vehicle that had been boxed in by protesters.

“Back up, back up!” agents shouted as they shoved people out of the way.

Homeland Security said its personnel handled things by the book as they tried to deal with as many as 100 “rioters.”

“Agents properly used their training. The use of chemical munitions was conducted in full accordance with CBP policy and was necessary to ensure the safety of both law enforcement and the public,” the department said in releasing the video.

Much of the video was compiled from clips from body cameras already issued to agents.

Judge Ellis seemed particularly intent on making sure their use is universal. Chief Bovino said nearly all of the agents in the enforcement surge have them, but the judge said she wants that coverage to be complete by this Friday. That, she said, includes Chief Bovino himself.

She also ordered the government to turn over reports on use-of-force incidents and arrests made against people for hindering Homeland Security’s operations.

The clashes between protesters and federal officers have intensified amid Democratic leaders’ calls for resistance to Mr. Trump’s immigration plans.

Residents have swarmed locations as personnel from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection, the two main agencies with immigration arrest powers, attempt to go after deportation targets.

Some residents protest — often profanely — while others attempt to use their bodies to hinder federal officers. And still others have been caught on camera throwing projectiles or launching mortar-style fireworks.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told The Washington Times earlier this month that kind of behavior wouldn’t be acceptable in relation to any other law enforcement agency.

“You wouldn’t go out to the metro police department here in Washington, D.C., and just randomly interfere in a traffic stop. You’d be arrested,” he said. “But here you have people actively showing up to assault, ram their vehicles into ICE agents and officers, who weren’t even involved in that situation.”

Lawyers for the protesters said Tuesday that it’s Homeland Security personnel who are spurring the violent clashes by being too quick to use aggressive tactics.

The disruptions have prodded Mr. Trump to try to federalize and deploy the National Guard to protect the federal officers in the Chicago area.

A separate district judge has placed a hold on that deployment. The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow the deployment to move ahead.