A former top U.S. Department of Homeland Security official is keeping an eye on President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago. And he doesn’t like what he is seeing. Gil Kerlikowske was Customs and Border Protection commissioner from 2014 to 2017. For eight years before that, he was police chief of Seattle, where there were hundreds of protests. He gave a sworn statement for a lawsuit the state of Illinois has brought against Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops here. He also spoke with WBEZ’s Chip Mitchell. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
At DHS, you helped oversee the Border Patrol, one of the agencies carrying out the immigration blitz in Chicago. How ready are these Border Patrol officers to work in a big city like this?
Gil Kerlikowske: If you’re a local police officer, such as a Chicago police officer, you go through months and months of training at an academy and then you’re put with senior officers and you’re evaluated on how you’re dealing with the public, on your response to certain calls, etc. It is vastly different than the training that Border Patrol agents receive in Artesia, New Mexico, at the Border Patrol academy, where they learn how to look for people smuggling and crossing the border illegally amid a lot of large rocks and canyons. It’s completely different from what you’re doing in a city.
You watched video of federal agents clashing with protesters at an immigration enforcement facility in Broadview, a suburb west of Chicago. What did you observe?
Kerlikowske: I didn’t hear any orders to disperse. Neither did the people that were protesting. I just saw Border Patrol agents and other federal officers coming out of a fenced area and indiscriminately using what is called less lethal force.
What kind of force is that?
Kerlikowske: The majority of what I saw was the use of pepper balls made of very hard plastic filled with [oleoresin capsicum] powder. Once that plastic breaks upon impact, the powder is deployed. It causes watering eyes, choking, etc. It is supposed to be fired at the ground or near someone or, when someone is coming over a wall to enter the country illegally, it can be fired at the wall near them. In Broadview, however, I saw evidence of federal officers firing at specific individuals, a totally unnecessary use of force.
You’ve also described the federal agents throwing tear gas canisters. Is there anything wrong with that?
Kerlikowske: It doesn’t disperse people. In fact, as we’ve seen, tear gas canisters can be thrown back to law enforcement. There just doesn’t seem to be any particular reason for it and it would not be the kind of policing that you would see by a professional law enforcement organization — like, for instance, the Illinois State Police.
The leader of the Border Patrol during the immigration blitz in Chicago is a commander named Gregory Bovino. He came last month from a district headquartered near California’s border with Mexico. What are your impressions of him?
Kerlikowske: The Border Patrol agents under his leadership come out in a ragtag ambling fashion. The direction to the agents at one point was, ‘Light them up,’ meaning they could strike people with pepper balls. I also saw agents picking people up, body slamming them to the concrete and walking away. If a local police officer uses that level of force, there should be an arrest [of the bodyslammed person] and a report about the use of force. The Illinois State Police officers, sent to Broadview weeks after the Border Patrol, are not wearing masks. They carry what are called long batons for crowd control. They’re very disciplined. They’re very professional. People see that. People respect that and know what the boundaries are.
Chip Mitchell reports for WBEZ Chicago on policing, public safety and public health. Follow him at Bluesky and X. Contact him at cmitchell@wbez.org.