Even though the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign in Chicago is expected to ramp down, with U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino leaving town any day, the federal presence here could return four-fold in the spring.
That’s according to three law enforcement sources in contact with the Chicago Sun-Times.
One source said Bovino could be gone as soon as Tuesday. Another source with direct knowledge said the number of Border Patrol agents currently operating in the Chicago area will go from 250 down to 100. But in March, that number could increase to 1,000 agents.
The news appears to signal, for now, a downshift in the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” which brought two months of chaos, fear, tear gas and intense litigation to Chicago.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on social media Tuesday morning, “We aren’t leaving Chicago.”
Still, the Midway Blitz command post is shutting down, the two law enforcement officials told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The news comes as the first signs of winter descended on the Chicago area, including several inches of snowfall over the weekend. On Monday a large group of federal immigration agents, including Bovino, posed for a photo in front of the snow-capped Bean sculpture in Millennium Park. Block Club Chicago reported one agent yelled “Everyone say, ‘Little Village.’
After Gov. JB Pritzker criticized the photo-op as “disgusting” on social media, Bovino replied “Feel free to join us in Little Village tomorrow” in a post on X. He then followed it up on Tuesday with another post saying “CBP and allied law enforcement” would continue operations in Chicago. As of the afternoon, the rarely press-shy commander had not been spotted in Chicago.
The development also comes days after U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis handed down a historic order restricting the feds’ use of force against protesters and journalists. She recently ordered Bovino to use a body-worn camera, as well.
The Trump administration is challenging Ellis’ broader ruling and asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene.
Bovino’s departure from Chicago would be particularly significant, given that he’s the public face of the operation and has drawn particular ire from Ellis, who earlier also handed down a temporary restraining order.
Lawyers accused Bovino last month of tossing tear gas into a crowd in Little Village without justification, and in violation of Ellis’ temporary order. DHS officials insisted Bovino had been confronted by a hostile crowd. Bovino also said he’d been hit in the head by a rock.
The judge forced Bovino into her courtroom, and she insisted that he continue to report to her every weeknight over seven days. She was rebuffed by the appeals court, which found that her regular check-ins with Bovino would infringe on the separation of powers.
Still, the judge made Bovino sit for a five-hour deposition. And when she handed down her latest ruling last week, she told the courtroom Bovino “admitted that he lied about whether a rock hit him before he deployed tear gas in Little Village.”
It’s unclear where Bovino and his team are headed next, but CNN has reported that they’re expected to go to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then New Orleans, though plans are still being finalized.
Bovino also triggered controversy in California, where he led a campaign known as “Operation At Large.” That led to a Supreme Court decision that allowed agents to continue stopping people there based on race, language and other factors.
Then, during an interview with a WBEZ reporter in Chicago, Bovino acknowledged that agents were stopping people here based on “how they look.”