U.S. Border Patrol agents operating in Chicago have now been equipped with body cameras, a development confirmed on Monday during a court hearing addressing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
This initiative follows a judge’s order amid complaints of increasingly combative tactics and over 1,000 arrests.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis mandated that uniformed agents must activate cameras where they are available during arrests, frisks, building searches and deployments to protests.
Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, informed the judge that every Border Patrol agent involved in Operation Midway Blitz “now has a body-worn camera”.
He added that 201 Border Patrol agents are stationed in the Chicago area, with other federal agencies, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also participating in the operation.
The hearing was the latest test in a lawsuit by news organizations and community groups witnessing protests and arrests in the Chicago area. Ellis said earlier this month that agents must wear badges, and she banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists.
Then last Thursday, she said she was a “little startled” after seeing TV images of street confrontations in which agents used tear gas and other tactics.
Harvick defended the use on tear gas on protesters in a Chicago neighborhood on October 12, saying residents who had gathered “would not allow agents to leave the scene.”
“The longer we loiter on a scene and subjects come, the situation gets more and more dangerous,” Harvick said. “And that’s a safety concern, not just for my brother Border Patrol agents but the detainee and other people who come out to see what’s going on.”
Government attorneys said Shawn Byers, deputy field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would also appear in court.
News media and community groups submitted five pages of proposed topics for the hearing. They covered a variety of subjects, from the number of agents in the Chicago area to questions about training, tactics and justification for widespread immigration strikes. It’s not clear what the judge will allow to be asked.
The government has bristled at any suggestion of wrongdoing.
“The full context is that law enforcement officers in Chicago have been, and continue to be, attacked, injured, and impeded from enforcing federal law,” U.S. Justice Department attorney Samuel Holt said in a court filing Friday.
Separately, President Donald Trump’s administration has been barred from deploying the National Guard to assist immigration officers in Illinois. That order expires Thursday unless extended. The administration also has asked the Supreme Court to allow the deployment.
