A visibly displeased federal judge on Tuesday ordered Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino to start coming to court every day to detail any confrontations his immigration enforcement officers have had with the public, a move that comes as allegations have mounted that agents are indiscriminately throwing tear gas in Chicago neighborhoods and using inappropriate force against residents and reporters.
During a remarkable hourlong session with Bovino on the witness stand Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis instructed the 30-year border patrol veteran to get his own body-worn camera and send her every use-of-force report — and accompanying bodycam footage — filed since “Operation Midway Blitz” began nearly two months ago.
The judge spoke at one point in somber tones about a fracas in the Old Irving Park neighborhood over the weekend where agents tackled angry residents and deployed tear gas on a quiet street as children were preparing to march in a Halloween parade to a nearby grammar school.
“These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday, and it’s going to take a long time for that to come back — if ever,” Ellis told Bovino, who was sitting on the witness stand in his military-green Border Protection uniform and duty belt. “That’s not how any of us want to live. I know you wouldn’t want to live that way.”
Ellis did most of the talking during the hearing, with Bovino keeping his gaze on the judge and answering mostly with a polite “Yes, ma’am,” spoken in his slight North Carolina drawl.
In the few instances where the judge asked Bovino directly about why his agents took certain actions, he responded that use-of-force rules depend on the specific situation. One incident Ellis asked about involved agents allegedly deploying pepper spray at a protester standing on the side of the road as they were driving away.
Was that an appropriate use of force? the judge asked.
“Well, your honor, I believe that each situation is dependent on the situation,” Bovino replied. “And, you know, I’d like to know more about what happened in those various activities before I would say anything one way or another, because I don’t know all the facts that were present there.”
In the end, Ellis said she expected Bovino to uphold his duty to execute the laws of the nation while also respecting people’s constitutional rights.
“People can say they don’t want you here,” the judge said. “They can say they don’t like the way you’re enforcing the law and that they wish you would leave Chicago and take your agents with you.”
When Ellis asked Bovino if they were “on the same page,” he first said he “gets” what she was saying, prompting the judge to ask it again.
“Your honor, I — as far as, yeah, we’re on the same page that we will abide by the TRO, the temporary restraining order, and all the accoutrements that are contained therein,” Bovino said finally.
While she stopped short of finding any specific violations had occurred, Ellis ordered Bovino to appear before her in open court at 5:45 p.m. each weekday to go over any uses of force from that day. The appearances would be required until at least Nov. 5, when Ellis is scheduled to hold a full hearing on a preliminary injunction.
After being excused from the witness stand, Bovino left the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse about an hour later surrounded by armed agents as protesters shouted obscenities at him. Bovino stood on the running board of a Border Patrol pickup truck and made some sweeping military hand gestures to his personnel before getting behind the wheel and heading west on Adams Street.
One of the agents who protected Bovino as he got into the vehicle was holding what appeared to be a canister of tear gas, which was placed on the dashboard before the truck pulled away.
The spectacle was set into motion after Ellis ordered Bovino into court Tuesday to go over a series of alleged violations of a temporary restraining order she entered in early October restricting the use of tear gas and other controversial tactics used by his agents in city neighborhoods, and requiring agents to wear body cameras and “conspicuous” identification on their uniforms when interacting with the public.
Bovino, who previously had served a similar role in a crackdown in Los Angeles, is the public face of “Operation Midway Blitz,” the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration-enforcement blitz.
Sporting a high-and-tight haircut and talking often in militaristic terms, Bovino has been featured in slickly produced social media videos put out by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security purporting to be ridding Chicago’s streets of the “worst of the worst,” undocumented immigrants who have a history of violent criminal behavior.
But scant details on those arrested have been officially released, and critics say the vast majority have had no criminal backgrounds whatsoever.
Meanwhile, agents serving under Bovino’s command have escalated their presence in Chicago’s neighborhoods, where immigration enforcement actions from the East Side to Lakeview to Old Irving Park have unfolded in a now-familiar pattern. In at least seven high-profile instances in recent weeks, irate residents blowing whistles and honking horns have screamed at agents to leave before arrests were made and tear gas deployed.
Bovino has not only not shied away from the controversy, he’s placed himself directly in it. He was present during the massive raid on a South Shore apartment building earlier this month that drew national headlines. And he reappeared last week on two separate days in Little Village, the heart of Chicago’s Mexican community and an important economic engine for the city, where Bovino himself was seen personally throwing tear gas canisters at a crowd of protesters.
Bovino, meanwhile, has claimed he only used the gas after an angry mob was throwing objects at officers and a rock hit him in the head.
It came as no surprise that Bovino’s appearance caused a media frenzy at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where an overflow courtroom and special security measures were taken to handle a large crowd of reporters and spectators. Uniformed Chicago police officers patrolled outside the courthouse on bicycles.
Dozens of television news cameras crowded the courthouse lobby ahead of the hearing Tuesday morning, and outside the building at the corner of Jackson Boulevard and Dearborn Street a small group of protesters held signs denouncing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Shortly before 10 a.m. Bovino strode into Ellis’ 14th-floor courtroom and took a seat at the defense table, sipping from a bottle of water. When he was called to the witness stand and put under oath, Bovino adjusted his chair and swiveled toward the judge.
Ellis began the hearing by telling Bovino her role “is not to tell you that you can or can’t enforce validly passed laws by Congress … my role is simply to see that in the enforcement of those laws that you … are acting in the manner that is consistent with your obligation under the law.”
The judge said that since she’s sure Bovino would not simply ignore a court order, the only explanation for what she’s been seeing on videos sent to her by the plaintiffs is that her order is simply not clear enough. “So I thought it would be a really good idea to go through it so that we are on the same page,” she said.
Ellis then began reading her restraining order directly to Bovino, who sat in the witness box in his green uniform staring back at the judge and nodding.
Part one of the order, Ellis said, essentially ordered Bovino to leave journalists alone.
“If they are doing their job, they have to be left alone,” the judge said.
Part two of the restraining order was that Bovino and his agents cannot use tear gas or other munitions on residents who are not a danger to law enforcement.
“So kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not elicit an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer,” the judge said, a reference to the confrontation Saturday where tear gas was deployed in Old Irving Park before the children’s Halloween block party. “They just don’t.”
The judge also said she was “well aware that things can be dynamic.”
“What may not look dangerous in one instance, a minute later could be very dangerous,” the judge said. “And I also know I’m not there. I’m not out in the street … But it is difficult for me to see that the force being used is necessary.”
There was also a memorable exchange when Ellis began asking Bovino about body-worn cameras, which she had added to her restraining order earlier this month. Bovino said most of the 201 Border Patrol agents in the Chicago area right now have them, but he wasn’t sure exactly how many.
“I would like you to do your best to make sure that everybody that is operating under ‘Operation Midway Blitz,’ that they all have body cameras. OK?” Ellis asked.
“Yes ma’am,” Bovino replied.
Ellis then asked Bovino: “Do you have a body cam?”
“I do not, no ma’am,” Bovino said. “I have not yet received a body worn camera nor the training.”
“OK, so you are in charge of this operation and you probably have an in with (DHS) Secretary Noem?” Ellis asked somewhat sarcastically.
“I’ve talked to her from time to time, ma’am,” Bovino said.
“I suspect that if you ask for a body camera you could probably get one without having to pull strings?” Ellis asked. After Bovino agreed that was a fair statement, Ellis said, “So how about by Friday you get a camera?”
“We can get a camera (for me) by Friday — and the training,” he agreed.
Ellis mostly stayed away from confronting Bovino about specific alleged violations. In general, however, she said she’d reviewed many videos sent by the plaintiffs and posted in the media and it was “difficult for me to see that the force being used was necessary to stop an immediate and serious threat of physical harm.”
Ellis also did not ask Bovino directly about the video showing him lobbing a tear gas canister toward demonstrators in Little Village last week. But she repeated to Bovino that warnings must be given before such action can be taken, and they have to be explicit about what force is going to be used if people do not comply with lawful orders.
Late Monday, the plaintiffs in the suit brought by the Chicago Headline Club and others asked Ellis to bar immigration agents from using tear gas altogether pending the outcome of an injunction hearing next month.
Ellis put off a decision on that issue on Tuesday, saying she’d be surprised if, after talking to Bovino directly, there would be any more issues.
“I don’t know that we are going to see a whole lot of tear gas being deployed over the next week,” the judge said.
Ellis has also ordered Bovino to sit for a five-hour sworn deposition later this week, but that interview will not be made public due to a protective order.
In his six weeks on the ground in Chicago as part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” Bovino has claimed thousands of immigration-related arrests, part of a touted “mission” to make the streets safer for law-abiding citizens.
Over the weekend, a filing by the plaintiffs in the case before Ellis accused him of lying about being struck in the head by a rock in the Little Village operation where he was seen throwing tear gas, saying the confrontation was being filmed from multiple angles and nothing had surfaced that backs up that assertion.
Bovino also gave an interview to a Spanish-language news outlet afterward where he was asked about Ellis’ order and allegedly said, “Did judge Ellis get hit in the head by a rock this morning? Maybe she needs to see what that’s like before she gives an order like that.”
“In that same interview discussed above, Defendant Bovino also stated, ‘I take my orders from the executive branch,’ suggesting disdain for this Court’s authority to enjoin his unlawful conduct,” the plaintiffs’ filing stated.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Ellis had the most to say about the Old Irving Park incident, describing it as a “quiet” neighborhood and noting that children were excited to be going to a Halloween event where “all the rules go out the window” and they can eat as much candy as they want.
The confrontation in the 3700 block of Kildare Avenue, where agents chased a day laborer down the street, prompted a chaotic scene that “ruined what should have been an ordinary Saturday morning,” according to a court filing Monday by the plaintiffs.
The filing stated that as neighbors came out to yell at the officers — including some still in their pajamas and one woman with her wet hair wrapped in a towel — the agents “unleashed violence,” tackling a man who was around 70 years old and two others and then deploying tear gas as they left the scene.
The actions violated Ellis’ restraining order in several ways, the filing alleged, including by deploying chemical munitions without the required verbal warnings. Some of the agents also had no identifying information on their uniforms and used “unnecessary force” in tackling residents who posed no physical threat, the filing stated.
In a statement over the weekend, the agency said Border Patrol agents were “surrounded and boxed in by a group of agitators” and that multiple lawful commands and verbal warnings were ignored.
“During the operation, two U.S. citizens were arrested for assaulting and impeding a federal officer,” the statement read. “To safely clear the area after multiple warnings and the crowd continuing to advance on them, Border Patrol had to deploy crowd control measures.”
No assault charges had been filed against anyone arrested as of Monday. The operation also resulted in the arrest of the day laborer, who DHS said was in the country illegally and has a previous arrest for assault.
After Bovino left the courtroom Tuesday, Ellis had a stern warning about any planned immigration enforcement actions on Halloween night itself, which is Friday, telling lawyers for the Justice Department that agents should not be out tear-gassing anyone “where kids are present.”
“I expect everybody to act reasonably,” the judge said. “I’m not telling the agency how to operate … (but) know that it is a day where people are going to be out minding their own business.”
Chicago Tribune’s Rebecca Johnson contributed.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com