🚀 Check out this must-read post from PBS NewsHour – Politics 📖
📂 Category: body cameras,Chicago,greg bovino,illinois,immigration,U.S. Border Patrol
✅ Here’s what you’ll learn:
CHICAGO (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ordered a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to meet with her every evening to discuss the government’s anti-immigration crackdown in the Chicago area, an unusual move after weeks of street confrontations, tear gas and complaints of excessive force.
“Yes, ma’am,” replied Greg Bovino, who has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns in major American cities.
Read more: Judge bans National Guard from Chicago indefinitely while awaiting Supreme Court decision
Bovino received a stern reprimand from U.S. District Judge Sarah Ellis as soon as he settled into the witness chair in his green uniform.
Ellis quickly expressed concerns about videos and other photos from the illegal immigration crackdown that has resulted in more than 1,800 arrests since September. The hearing is the latest in a lawsuit filed by media outlets and protesters who say agents used too much force, including tear gas, during the demonstrations.
“My role is not to tell you that you can or cannot properly enforce the laws passed by Congress. … My role is simply to see that in enforcing those laws, agents act in a manner consistent with the Constitution,” the judge said.
Bovino is the head of the Border Patrol’s sector in El Centro, California, one of nine sectors on the Mexican border.
Read more: Federal immigration officers in the Chicago area will be required to wear body cameras, judge says
The judge wants to meet with her in person every day at 6pm to “hear how the day went.”
“I think now that we know where we are and that he understands what to expect, I don’t know that we’re going to see a major tear gas outbreak next week,” Ellis said.
Ellis focused on reports that Border Patrol agents disrupted a children’s Halloween parade with tear gas on the city’s northwest side over the weekend. Neighbors gathered in the street when someone was arrested.
Read more: In Chicago, the massive show of force signals a sharp escalation in Trump’s anti-immigration campaign
“These kids were tear gassed on their way to celebrate Halloween in the parking lot of their local school,” Ellis said. “I can only imagine how terrified they were feeling. These children, as you can imagine, had their sense of security shattered on Saturday. It will take a long time for that sense of security to return, if it ever happens at all.”
Ellis Bovino ordered all use of force reports since September 2 from agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz. She claimed it for the first time by the end of Tuesday, but Bovino said that would be “physically impossible” due to the “sheer volume.”
Government lawyers have repeatedly defended the actions of agents, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, telling the judge that the videos and other images were biased.
Read more: Official defends use of tear gas in Chicago and says immigration enforcement agents have cameras
In addition to his court appearance, Bovino must still attend a deposition and conduct a private interview with lawyers on both sides.
The judge has already ordered agents to wear badges, and banned them from using some riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists. She later requested body cameras after the use of tear gas raised concerns that agents would not follow her initial order.
Ellis set a deadline of Friday for Bovino to get the camera and complete the training.
Read more: Protesters on Chicago’s South Side were tear gassed after high-speed Border Patrol chase ended in arrest
Lawyers representing a coalition of media and protesters claim he violated a judge’s order to use force in Little Village, a Mexican neighborhood in Chicago, and presented a photo of him allegedly “unjustifiably tear gassing a crowd of people.”
Over the weekend, masked agents and unmarked SUVs were seen on Chicago’s wealthier, predominantly white North Side, where video showed chemicals spread across a street. Agents have been recorded using tear gas several times over the past few weeks.
Bovino also led an immigration operation in Los Angeles in recent months, resulting in thousands of arrests. Agents smashed car windows, blew down the door of a house and patrolled MacArthur Park on horseback.
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