A federal judge in Illinois ordered federal agents to use body-worn cameras to record all encounters with immigration protesters in the Chicago area. She issued the order after expressing “serious concerns” over whether federal law enforcement agents in Chicago are following her earlier order to avoid violent clashes with protesters and journalists.
“I’m a little startled frankly, that since Thursday when I entered the [temporary restraining order] last week, I’m getting images and seeing images on the news, in the paper, reading reports, where at least from what I’m seeing, I’m having serious concerns that my order’s being followed,” US District Court Judge Sara Ellis said.
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An attorney for the federal government present at the hearing said “one-sided and selectively edited media reports” were to blame for the images Ellis referenced, according to The Associated Press.
In Thursday’s hearing, Ellis also requested that the field director in charge of the Chicago-area deployment known as Operation Midway Blitz appear in court on Monday to discuss why agents are using tear gas and why they gave no warning before deploying the gas.
Federal deployments in Chicago
The Trump administration initially deployed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to Chicago in September to “target criminal illegal aliens terrorizing Americans in sanctuary Illinois.” At the time, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats, said they received no notice that immigration officials would be coming into the city.
In early October, a group of Chicago-based media outlets, journalists and protesters filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Trump administration. They alleged that ICE agents displayed excessive use of force to block them from protesting at an ICE detention facility.
“Never in modern times has the federal government undermined bedrock constitutional protections on this scale or usurped states’ police power by directing federal agents to carry out an illegal mission against the people for the government’s own benefit,” that lawsuit said.
Around the same time, the state of Illinois sued the Trump administration to block President Donald Trump’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago. A federal judge temporarily blocked that deployment on Oct. 9, but allowed the Illinois National Guard to remain under federal control. That order will remain in effect until Saturday.
