A federal judge in Illinois has ordered officers in the Trump administration’s sweeping Chicago operations to wear body-worn cameras, days after they were told to stop firing rubber bullets, tear gas and other chemical munitions at protesters and journalists protesting the president’s mass deportation agenda.
District Judge Sara Ellis said Thursday she was “startled” by images of law enforcement actions after she issued her initial 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,” she said.
She then ordered agents to wear body-worn cameras during the so-called Operation Midway Blitz, “and they are to be [turned] on,” she told the court.
A lawsuit from press associations, protesters and faith leaders accuses federal officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection of “a pattern of extreme brutality,” with agents “indiscriminately” firing on protesters, including an incident captured on video where officers defending an ICE facility struck the head of a Presbyterian minister with pepper bullets that knocked him to the ground.
Last week’s temporary restraining order from Ellis blocks officers from using riot control weapons and other force against clearly identified members of the press as well as protesters and faith leaders who aren’t posing any immediate threat to law enforcement.
She also specifically blocked officers from firing munitions that “strike the head, neck, groin, spine, or female breast, or striking any person with a vehicle,” as well as “pulling or shoving a person to the ground, tackling or body slamming” demonstrators who aren’t harming others.
After Ellis issued her order, viral footage emerged of violent arrests, including a WGN-TV employee who was pinned to the ground and accused of throwing “objects” before she was released from custody without charges.
Federal agents also deployed tear gas against crowds in Chicago at least twice after Ellis gave her order.
Attorneys for the Trump administration appeared skeptical that agents would be able to swiftly comply with the order to wear body cameras.
The parties have been ordered to return to court October 20.
Ellis wants to hear from law enforcement officials “to explain to me why I am seeing images of tear gas being deployed and reading reports that there were no warnings given before it was deployed out in the field.”
The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security.
Donald Trump has surged federal officers to Chicago and other Democratic-led city as protesters continue to demonstrate against sweeping immigration arrests, including outside the Broadview ICE facility in a Chicago suburb, which has emerged as a flashpoint for protest against the president’s agenda.
There, agents “dressed in full combat gear” have “indiscriminately” tossed flash grenades and tear gas and fired guns loaded with chemical irritants and rubber bullets against demonstrators in the Chicago area, according to a lawsuit.
Protesters and reporters have faced “serious injuries” and “some are being randomly singled out for arrest” and detained inside the ICE facility, where they “are detained incommunicado for hours,” according to the complaint.
Trump has deployed hundreds of National Guard troops to the state, which a federal judge has temporarily blocked as a multi-state legal challenge against the administration’s federalized troops plays out.
