Border Patrol’s Bovino due in court for first check-in on Chicago immigration crackdown

CHICAGO (AP) — A senior Border Patrol official is due in court Wednesday for the first of his daily mandated check-ins about the Chicago area immigration enforcement operation, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.

Greg Bovino, who is leading Border Patrol efforts in Chicago, was ordered Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to brief her every evening. It is an unprecedented bid to impose real-time oversight on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown after weeks of tense encounters and increasingly aggressive tactics by agents in the city.

Ellis’ order followed enforcement actions in which tear gas was used, including in a neighborhood where children had gathered for a Halloween parade on the city’s Northwest Side. Neighbors had joined in the street as someone was arrested.

“Halloween is on Friday,” she said. “I do not want to get violation reports from the plaintiffs that show that agents are out and about on Halloween, where kids are present and tear gas is being deployed.”

In an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News, Bovino defended federal agents’ actions and said he was eager to talk with the judge.

“If she wants to meet with me every day, then she’s going to see, she’s going to have a very good firsthand look at just how bad things really are on the streets of Chicago,” Bovino said. “I look forward to meeting with that judge to show her exactly what’s happening and the extreme amount of violence perpetrated against law enforcement here.”

Among those who face charges is Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic congressional candidate who was indicted last week along with five other people over allegations they blocked a federal immigration enforcement building in the Chicago suburbs.

Abughazaleh on Wednesday said in a social media post that the prosecution was an “attempt to silence dissent.”

The Chicago court actions came as groups and officials across the country have filed lawsuits aimed at restricting federal deployments of National Guard troops.

The administration will remain blocked from deploying troops in the Chicago area until at least the latter half of November, following a U.S. Supreme Court order Wednesday calling on the parties to file additional legal briefs.

The justices indicated they would not act before Nov. 17 on the administration’s emergency appeal to overturn a lower court ruling that has blocked the troop deployments.

A federal trial seeking to block a troop deployment in Portland, Oregon, got underway Wednesday morning with a police commander describing on the witness stand how federal agents at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building repeatedly fired tear gas at nonviolent protesters.

In Chicago, Bovino, who is chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, must sit for a daily 5:45 p.m. briefing to report how his agents are enforcing the law and whether they are staying within constitutional bounds, Ellis said. The check-ins will take place until a Nov. 5 hearing in a lawsuit from news outlets and protesters who say agents have used too much force during demonstrations.

Ellis also demanded that Bovino produce all use-of-force reports since Sept. 2 from agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz.

The judge expressed confidence Tuesday that the check-ins will prevent excessive use of force in Chicago neighborhoods.

Ellis previously ordered agents to wear badges, and she’s banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists. She subsequently required body cameras after the use of tear gas raised concerns that agents were not following her initial order.

Ellis set a Friday deadline for Bovino to get a camera and to complete training.

Lawyers for the government have repeatedly defended the actions of agents, including those from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and told the judge that videos and other portrayals of enforcement actions have been one-sided.

Besides his court appearance, Bovino still must sit for a deposition, an interview in private, with lawyers from both sides.